[ghc-steering-committee] please accept "Make Symbol a newtype over String"

[Arnaud Spiwack]

Dear all,

I struggle to have an opinion on these proposals on whether we should unify
Nat/Natural, Symbol/String etc…

But in this particular case, and as I've written in the proposal's thread,
I fail to see how the proposed change addresses its motivations. So I'm
leaning toward rejection right now.

/Arnaud

On Thu, 19 Jan 2023 at 21:36, Adam Gundry <adam at well-typed.com> wrote:

> Thanks for reviving this proposal, Chris. I support acceptance (and am
> happy to set aside the alternative of `type Symbol = String`, which is
> distinctly less compelling than `type Nat = Natural`).
>
> Adam
>
>
> On 19/01/2023 16:07, Chris Dornan wrote:
> > And I have replied -- anybody with views on how we do this should
> > checkout out the discussions at
> >
> https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/562#issuecomment-1397214914
> <
> https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/562#issuecomment-1397214914
> >
> >
> >> On 2023-01-19, at 15:46, Simon Peyton Jones
> >> <simon.peytonjones at gmail.com <mailto:simon.peytonjones at gmail.com>>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> > Oleg has proposed that we do essentially the same trick Richard
> >> proposed to unify Nat and Natural, but with Symbol and String.
> >>
> >> Well... not quite. I have commented on the proposal
> >> https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/562
> >> <https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/562>
> >>
> >> Simon
> >>
> >> On Thu, 19 Jan 2023 at 15:28, Chris Dornan <chris at chrisdornan.com
> >> <mailto:chris at chrisdornan.com>> wrote:
> >>
> >>     While we are at it, here is another proposal that I think should
> >>     be straightforward.
> >>
> >>     Oleg has proposed that we do essentially the same trick Richard
> >>     proposed to unify Nat and Natural, but with Symbol and String.
> >>
> >>     Specifically, he is proposing that we replace @data Symbol@ with
> >>     @newtype Symbol = MkSymbol String at . I won't try and encapsulate
> >>     any further -- the original is concise and clear.
> >>
> >>       * Oleg's "Make Symbol a newtype over String" proposal:
> >>
> https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/blob/symbol-type/proposals/0000-symbol-newtype-string.rst
> <
> https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/blob/symbol-type/proposals/0000-symbol-newtype-string.rst
> >
> >>       * For comparison, Richard's accepted "Unify Nat and Natural"
> >>     proposal:
> >>
> https://github.com/goldfirere/ghc-proposals/blob/natural/proposals/0000-unify-natural.rst
> <
> https://github.com/goldfirere/ghc-proposals/blob/natural/proposals/0000-unify-natural.rst
> >
> >>
> >>     I suggest we allow the usual two weeks to speak or forever hold
> >>     your peace.
> >>
> >>     Chris
>
> --
> Adam Gundry, Haskell Consultant
> Well-Typed LLP, https://www.well-typed.com/
>
> Registered in England & Wales, OC335890
> 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX, England
>
> _______________________________________________
> ghc-steering-committee mailing list
> ghc-steering-committee at haskell.org
> https://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ghc-steering-committee
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.haskell.org/pipermail/ghc-steering-committee/attachments/20230120/10912f05/attachment-0001.html>