Proposal #2629: Data.List: Replace nub; add nubOrd, nubInt, nubWith

[apfelmus]

Alexander Dunlap wrote:
> 
> This seems like a good idea but it's kind of strange to have three
> different exposed versions of nub. Would it be possible to hide them,
> hide the StopList typeclass and use {-# RULES #-} pragmas to use the
> faster versions when possible?

I don't think that using RULES pragmas is a good solution to the problem.

Instead, there's an old-fashioned way to use the name  nub  for all
cases: make it a member of the Eq typeclass!

  class Eq a where
    (==) :: a -> a -> Bool
    (/=) :: a -> a -> Bool
    nub  :: [a] -> [a]

    nub = -- default definition

Now,  nub  can be specialized at will.

Changing the default definition of  nub  to use Set if we have an Ord
class is tricky, though. Basically, we would need this proposal:

http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Class_system_extension_proposal#Allowing_superclass_methods_to_be_overridden_in_derived_classes

Does it have a formal definition yet and guarantees that it works? In
any case, consider  nub  to be another example for the usefulness of
this proposal.


Regards,
apfelmus