Add instance IsString ShowS where fromString = showString

[Duncan Coutts]

On Mon, 2009-10-05 at 10:42 +0100, Sittampalam, Ganesh wrote:
> Bas van Dijk wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > It would be really nice to use OverloadedStrings when constructing a
> > ShowS, for example in a definition of showsPrec in an instance for
> > Show.  
> > 
> > The patch attached in the ticket[3544] adds the necessary instance to
> > base/GHC/Show.lhs:
> > 
> > instance IsString ShowS where
> >     fromString = showString
> > 
> > Note that this does require TypeSynonymInstances.
> 
> -1 : I don't think it's appropriate to use a type synonym instance in a
> standard library.

Strictly speaking it's not the type synonym that is worrying, it's the
need for flexible instances which then leads on to needing overlapping
and incoherent instances.

http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/latest/html/users_guide/type-class-extensions.html#instance-rules

> A concrete example of the problems this would cause is that it would
> interfere with any generic function instance for IsString, e.g.
> 
> instance IsString b => IsString (a -> b) where
>     fromString = const . fromString

Right, then uses of fromString would require -XOverlappingInstances and
possibly -XIncoherentInstances.

This needs -XOverlappingInstances

foo :: String -> String
foo = fromString "blah"

This needs -XOverlappingInstances -XIncoherentInstances

foo :: a -> String
foo = fromString "blah"

> I am not suggesting that such an instance is generally useful, but
> people who wanted to use it in their own private code would be
> obstructed from doing so by an instance for (String -> String).

Right. It makes me nervous too. I think what this show us is that ShowS
should have been a newtype.

Duncan