Original-Via: uk.ac.ic.doc; Thu, 5 Dec 91 11:23:27 GMT

Simon's post about exporting type synonyms rekindled a nagging
question about Haskell.  Why do we have both "type" and "data"
keywords?  It seems like redundant syntactic clutter to me.  Why not
just use "type" for both?  I think "data" is an odd keyword for
defining a type anyway.  It is always obvious which kind of type is
being defined (from whether there is a constructor or not) and the
restriction about no recursive synonyms without an intervening ADT is
easily restated as "recursion must involve a constructor".

Actually, even "type" is redundant since it is always obvious whether
you are defining a type or a value (from the case of the first
letter).

Maybe I'm being a bit too minimalist here :-).

Denis Howe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>     __o    I don't really love computers
H558A Imperial College London   _ \<,_   I just  say that  to get them
+44 (71) 589 5111 x5064/x7531  (_)/ (_)  into bed with me.  T Pratchet

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