deriving...

[Andres Loeh]

> | Why not even simply
> | 
> | instance Typeable (T a)
> | 
> | In other words, derivable classes define default
> | implementations for all their methods.
> 
> But that has an existing meaning!  It means "use the default methods for
> all methods of the class".  Which is not the same as "derive all
> methods".

I was thinking about the proposed syntax in the
"Derivable Type Classes" paper, which was just
this.

In classic Haskell, I can see that it is problematic
whenever default methods are specified in terms of each other,
like (==) and (/=) in Eq.

I would then vote for

> It'd have to be
>   instance Typeable (T a) deriving

Perhaps it would be not much harder to allow

instance Show MyChar deriving where
  showList = ...

to partially override derived functions as well.

> The trouble is, as you mention, that instance decls usually have a
> context.  I'd be quite happy to require a context in these derived
> instances too, so you have to write
>   derive instance Typeable a => Typeable (T a)
> Then it looks more like a regular instance decl.

Yes, even though it's more to write, I think it's cleaner
if the context is specified. After all, the old "deriving"
syntax within the "data" declaration will continue to be
available for compatibility.

Cheers,
  Andres