[Haskell-cafe] Why is toRational a method of Real?

[David Virebayre]

On Thu, Aug 5, 2010 at 1:11 PM, John Meacham <john at repetae.net> wrote:

> use. This isn't to say ghc is doing the wrong thing, I don't think there
> really is a right thing to do here given the broken class specifications
> in the report.

I often read that the numerical classes are problematic.
At the same time, there are many programs and packages that rely on
Haskell being that way.

What would it take to redesign the numeric class so that the new
design eventually becomes the new Haskell standard ? ( not just an
alternative prelude )
Is it doable at all ?
Would a first step be trying to compile all of hackage with the
numeric prelude and see what breaks ?
If it's doable, how many years would it take to make it happen ?

Just curious.