[Haskell-cafe] deriving

[Dan Weston]

Paul,

To answer your second question (which everyone else ignored):

Yes. A different keyword might have been more descriptive, such as 
"automatically_deriving_instances_for".

There is always a struggle between concision [1] and descriptiveness in 
syntax. With short keywords, you pay up front. With longer keywords, 
there's no money down, but you have an endless monthly payment that gets 
really tedious after a while.

Dan

[1] Yes, I know that "conciseness" is the much more common and accepted 
word for this, but if we can say "precision", "decision", and 
"incision", then it seems foolish to not also use "concision". I will 
henceforth take on this quixotic quest to promote the use of "concision".


PR Stanley wrote:
> Hi
> data Bool = False | True
>   deriving (Eq, Or, Show, Read)
> 
> Bool is an instance of Eq, Ord, Show and Read. It is derived form these 
> classes. If that is the meaning of the keyword deriving then wouldn't a 
> different keyword such as from or derivative or even derivation be 
> closer to the semantics of the concept?
> Discuss :-)
> 
> Cheers,
> Paul
> 
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