Revamping the numeric classes

Dylan Thurston dpt@math.harvard.edu
Wed, 7 Feb 2001 19:06:54 -0500


On Wed, Feb 07, 2001 at 01:57:41PM -0500, Dylan Thurston wrote:
> ... One point that has not been made: given a class
> setup like
>  <deleted>
> then naive users can continue to use (Num a) in contexts, and the same
> programs will continue to work.

I take that back.  Instance declarations would change, so this isn't
a very conservative change.  (Users would have to make instance
declarations for Additive, Multiplicative, and Num where before they
just made a declaration for Num.  Of course, they don't have to write
any more code.)

Best,
	Dylan Thurston