[Haskell-cafe] Re: Overloading functions based on arguments?

[John A. De Goes]

On Feb 13, 2009, at 11:23 AM, Jonathan Cast wrote:
> Usually `when no ambiguity can arise', no?  Plenty of mathematical
> practice rests on imprecision and the expectation that the human  
> reader
> will understand what you mean.  Haskell has to be understandable by  
> the
> machine (which is less forgiving, but also more reasonable!) as well.

Yes, and name overloading is decidable for machines as well, as the  
feature exists in numerous languages, and from time to time, we hear  
talk of the feature for Haskell, as well.

> Unless you, say, enjoy having type inference or something.

Name overloading and type inference are not incompatible -- the issue  
has been discussed here before, though I'm too lazy to dig up the  
conversation.

Regards,

John A. De Goes
N-BRAIN, Inc.
The Evolution of Collaboration

http://www.n-brain.net    |    877-376-2724 x 101