Proposal for stand-alone deriving declarations?

[Björn Bringert]

John Hughes wrote:
>    What I implemented in GHC is an extension of the proposal below. The
>    proposal just mentions:
> 
>    deriving Class for Type
> 
>    In GHC I also added a form for newtype deriving of multi-parameter
>    type classes:
> 
>    deriving (Class t1 ... tn) for Type
> 
>    I think that it's close to what we ended up with when talking about
>    it at the Hackathon. My intuition about this syntax is that except
>    for the "for Type" part, it looks the same as a normal deriving
>    clause. The "for" part is just there to connect it to a data/newtype
>    declaration. This lets it pretty much use the normal code for
>    deriving declarations.
> 
>    Stand-alone deriving declarations are currently a little bit weaker
>    than normal deriving clauses, since the current implementation does
>    not let you reference the type arguments of a newtype in the
>    arguments of an MPTC. See my response to Bulat on cvs-ghc at haskell.org
>    for more details.
> 
>    /Björn
> 
>>
>>  
>>
> A suggestion re syntax:
> 
> With the newtype-deriving extension, the instances named in a deriving 
> clause are not just class names, but partial applications of class names 
> to all but the last argument. Why all but the last one? Because the last 
> one is the type being defined. Once deriving clauses are separated from 
> type definitions, then there is no type being defined any more--hence 
> the need for "for Type" in your syntax, and the introduction of another 
> keyword. But why single out one class parameter, once deriving clauses 
> are separated from type definitions? Why not simply write the FULL 
> application of the class in the deriving list? Thus:
> 
> deriving (Eq Foo, Ord Foo)
> 
> instead of
> 
> deriving (Eq, Ord) for Foo
> 
> I find the former syntax clearer and more readable, actually.
> 
> John

The exact same thing is currently being discussed on 
cvs-ghc at haskell.org, and we seem to have reached a consensus to adopt 
the same syntax that you are proposing. Well, I was the only one who 
ever like the original syntax, so "reached a consensus" means "everybody 
else convinced me".

I'll implement this syntax instead and then write up a Haskell' proposal.

/Björn