Type synonyms revisited

Arjan van IJzendoorn arjanij@cs.kun.nl
Mon, 12 Jan 1998 10:41:03 +0100


Hello Erik,

>So far the summary. So say we just do not import StdTuple, and we would
>regard type synonyms as just a syntactical construct, a shorthand for a
>type signature, not a type definition by itself that can differ from the
>type it is a synonym for in the set of functions that are defined for
>it,... the question remains: what do we lose if we do that?

Nothing, but what do we win by doing that? I think it's confusing
that when you make complex numbers instance of a class, that all
two-tuples of integers are instance of that class. If that is
what you want, you have to write that down.

Greetings,
  Arjan