[Haskell-cafe] Add IsNumeric (similar to IsString and IsList)

[Ivan Lazar Miljenovic]

On 15 June 2015 at 18:05, Chris Wong <lambda.fairy at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 7:04 PM, Michael Baikov <manpacket at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi Cafe!
>>
>> Now that we have OverloadedList and OverloadedStrings extensions it
>> might make sense to add something similar for numerals - right now if
>> you want to be able to specify some items as numbers
>> you have to implement Num instance, unfortunately not everything that
>> can be represented as number can have sensible operations required by
>> Num: negation makes no sense for set  of natural numbers for example,
>> multiplication for some applications of currency values which results
>> in Num instance full of (*) = error "No multipication for Foos", (+) =
>> error "No addition for Foos".
>>
>> I don't have any statistics from hackage or github, but in codebase
>> I'm working with there are 3 such instances.
>>
>> Proposal: add OverloadedNumerals language pragma, IsNumeric typeclass
>> and some methods to make that class useful with behavior similar to
>> Lists and Strings.
>
> As for naming: it should be named IsInteger/fromInteger by analogy
> with IsString/fromString and IsList/fromList.

The problem with calling it "fromInteger" is that it would clobber the
existing fromInteger method in the Num class (thus hiding
tricks/qualification would be needed when defining/using instances)
unless it is split out of Num, but that will probably be more of an
uphill battle.

>
> I don't otherwise have an opinion.
>
> --
> https://lambda.xyz
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-- 
Ivan Lazar Miljenovic
Ivan.Miljenovic at gmail.com
http://IvanMiljenovic.wordpress.com