String != [Char]

[Christian Siefkes]

On 03/26/2012 05:50 PM, Johan Tibell wrote:
> Normalization isn't quite enough unfortunately, as it does solve e.g.
> 
>     upcase = map toUppper
> 
> You need all-at-once functions on strings (which we could add.) I'm
> just pointing out that most (all?) list functions do the wrong thing
> when used on Strings.

Hm, do you have any other examples besides toUpper/toLower?

Also, that example is not really an argument against using list functions on
strings (which, by any reasonable definition, seem to be "sequences of
characters" -- whether that sequence is represented as a list, an array, or
something else, seems more like an implementation detail to me). Rather, it
indicates the fact that Char.toUpper may have to wrong type. If its type was
Char -> String instead of Char -> Char, it could handle things like toUppper
'ß' == "SS" correctly. Then stuff like

	upcase = concatMap toUppper

would work fine.

As it is, the problem seems to be with Char, not with [Char].

Best regards
	Christian

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