[Haskell-cafe] Non-termination due to context

[Emil Axelsson]

Hello all!

Consider the following program:

> {-# LANGUAGE FlexibleInstances, OverlappingInstances, UndecidableInstances #-}
> 
> class B a => A a
> 
> instance A Int
> 
> class Eq a => B a
> 
> instance (A a, Eq a) => B a
> 
> eq :: B a => a -> a -> Bool
> eq = (==)
> 
> test = 1 `eq` (2::Int)

(This is a condensed version of a much larger program that I've been 
debugging.)

It compiles just fine, but `test` doesn't terminate (GHCi 6.10.4). If I 
change the context `B a` to `Eq a` for the function `eq`, it terminates.

Although I don't know all the details of the class system, it seems 
unintuitive that I can make a program non-terminating just by changing 
the context of a function (regardless of UndecidableInstances etc.).

Is this a bug or a feature?

/ Emil