sizeFM type

[S. Alexander Jacobson]

On Mon, 26 Apr 2004, Simon Marlow wrote:
> Probably if the take function were being designed today, there would be
> no question about whether it should take Int or Integer.  Back then, the
> Integer overhead was high enough to worry about, and lots of benchmark
> programs used take/drop.  Nowadays, we can't really change the type of
> take without breaking just about every Haskell program.

Ok, but the whole library hierarchy is pretty new,
right?  There is no reason for
Data.FiniteMap.sizeFM to be Int.  Moreover take
and drop in Data.List could be redefined to take
Integer without breakage etc.

Aside: Is there truly a substantive amount of code
that would break if this was switched?   Doesn't
type inference mean that most code would switch
just fine?

-Alex-

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S. Alexander Jacobson                  mailto:me at alexjacobson.com
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