Haskell 98: Enum class

[Simon Peyton-Jones]

| Somebody raised the issue why to/fromEnum doesn't use Integer=20
| instead of Int.  This would, it would seem, solve at least=20
| some of the Enum problems that arise from (integral) types=20
| with more than 4G values. So, again, why not?

There was an extended discussion on this point, I believe,=20
during the Haskell 1.4 --> Haskell 98 transition.  I forget the
details, but I expect that efficiency was an issue.

However, regardless of the merits of the case, changing=20
the type of to/fromEnum is not a possibility for the Haskell 98
report, I'm afraid.

Simon