We need to add role annotations for 7.8

[Greg Weber]

It was suggested on reddit and seemed to be thought a good idea that it
would be better for the syntax to be a comment like {-# INLINE -#}, etc.
That allows backward compatibility with older versions without CPP, and
also doesn't use up syntax.

I think the problem is that we are on the doorstep of a release now and the
existing syntax has already been under use.


On Mon, Mar 24, 2014 at 8:36 AM, Mark Lentczner <mark.lentczner at gmail.com>wrote:

> Again, sorry for the 11:59 meddling....
>
> The syntax of role annotations is very heavy weight, and requires lots of
> CPP where there wasn't need before.  Two thoughts:
>
> 1) Couldn't we do something like use "cue" type constraints? For example,
> assuming the default is representational, and that phantom can just be
> inferred, all we need is a way to indicate nominal:
>
> data (Nominal k) => Map k v = ...
>
>
> This could then probably be easily made to compile in other compilers with
> some null library implementation of Nominal
>
> 2) An alternative to the above. We generally frown on constraints in a
> data / newtype declaration, but perhaps this is exactly the case for them,
> whereby we can now do away with the type role syntax: We can infer nominal
> if there are *any* constraints on a type parameter, *representational* if
> there are none, and *phantom *if there are no mentions in the right hand
> side:
>
> data (Eq k) => Map k v = ...
>
>
> This seems even nicer and just works with all compilers... but perhaps I'm
> missing something. (Yes, I imagine there are type constraints that
> shouldn't force nominal, but perhaps not worth worrying about?)
>
>
> Mind you, this all just about syntax... the issue of what is the
> implication for libraries of the default being representational is still at
> hand.
>
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