[Haskell-cafe] Cannot update a field in a record with a polymorphic type.

[Ignat Insarov]

Thank you Henning and Viktor. Indeed the update of the field goes
through if its type is specified beforehand. But I am still not at
peace. Consider:

    λ :type (defaultY ∷ ∀ α. Monoid α ⇒ Y α) {y = "c"}
    …Error…
    λ :type (defaultY ∷ Y ( )) {y = "c"}
    (defaultY ∷ Y ( )) {y = "c"} :: Y [Char]

So, polymorphic types are not good enough to update. But see further:

    λ data Z α = Z {z₁, z₂ ∷ α}
    λ defaultZ = Z {z₁ = mempty, z₂ = mempty}
    λ :type (defaultZ ∷ ∀ α. Monoid α ⇒ Z α) {z₁ = "c"}
    (defaultZ ∷ ∀ α. Monoid α ⇒ Z α) {z₁ = "c"} :: Z [Char]

— So when I have two fields it is suddenly fine to update a polymorphic field!

I can infer that there is an invisible stage in the type checking
process where all expressions must receive a final monomorphic type. I
also understand that the surviving field `z₂` serves as a witness of
the type `defaultZ` must have been specialized to: `"c" ∷ String` ⇒
`z₂ ∷ String` ⇒ `z₁ ∷ String`, and so type checking can succeed. But
still, is this behaviour not obviously wrong? If a value of the
transient instantiation of `defaultY` _(that exists only in the moment
before its field is updated)_ is never observed, why does it need to
be monomorphized? Why not be lazy about it?