[Proposal] Renaming (:=:) to (==)

Roman Cheplyaka roma at ro-che.info
Sun Sep 29 12:33:18 UTC 2013


I agree with Richard here — this overloading of == doesn't seem
intuitive to me. Using it for type-level boolean equality would be much
more natural.

That said, :=: could probably benefit from the relaxed rules for type
operators; I just don't think == is a good choice.

Roman

* Richard Eisenberg <eir at cis.upenn.edu> [2013-09-29 00:10:46-0400]
> -1 from me.
> 
> Shachaf stated my argument correctly -- I think that the (:=:) operator means something quite different from the term-level (==) operator, and the name should reflect this. I do like thinking about a better name, though, and I'm happy enough if I'm outvoted here.
> 
> Richard
> 
> On Sep 28, 2013, at 10:08 PM, Shachaf Ben-Kiki wrote:
> 
> > On Sat, Sep 28, 2013 at 6:57 PM, Edward Kmett <ekmett at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> As part of the discussion about Typeable, GHC 7.8 is going to include a
> >> Data.Type.Equality module that provides a polykinded type equality data
> >> type.
> >> 
> >> I'd like to propose that we rename this type to (==) rather than the (:=:)
> >> it was developed under.
> >> 
> >> We are already using (+), (-), (*), etc. at the type level in type-nats, so
> >> it would seem to fit the surrounding convention.
> >> 
> >> I've done the work of preparing a patch, visible here:
> >> 
> >> https://github.com/ekmett/packages-base/commit/fb47f8368ad3d40fdd79bdeec334c0554fb17110
> >> 
> >> Thoughts?
> >> 
> >> Normally, I'd let this run the usual 2 week course, but we're getting down
> >> to the wire for 7.8's release. Once 7.8 ships, we'd basically be stuck with
> >> the current name forever.
> >> 
> >> Discussion Period: 1 week
> >> 
> >> -Edward Kmett
> >> 
> > 
> > +1. For what it's worth, I suggested that name before, and Richard
> > Eisenberg suggested that == should be for type-level Boolean equality:
> > <http://markmail.org/message/3yifytgt2k3cfwws>. I'm not convinced,
> > though -- this seems fundamental enough to deserve the simplest name
> > possible.
> > 
> > (I'm using that link because the haskell.org mailing list archive
> > seems to be gone... Hopefully that comes back, eventually.)
> > 
> >    Shachaf
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> 
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