OK, I'm from the school of thought that prefers everything to have a
precise meaning, even if it means "multiplying entities". The fact is, in
Haskell 98 the 'Enum' class does extensive multiple duty.
--
data Type a = Type
class Enum a where
predMaybe,succMaybe :: a -> Maybe a
class (Enum a) => BoundedStartEnum a where
nthValueFromStart :: Integer -> a
valueNthFromStart :: a -> Integer
class (Enum a) => BoundedEndEnum a where
nthValueFromEnd :: Integer -> a
valueNthFromEnd :: a -> Integer
class (BoundedStartEnum a,BoundedEndEnum a) => FiniteEnum a where
predWrap,succWrap :: a -> a
nValues :: Type a -> Integer
class (Enum a) => UnboundedStartEnum a where
pred :: a -> a
class (Enum a) => UnboundedEndEnum a where
succ :: a -> a
--
Of course, Float, Double and Rational would not be instances of any of
these classes. If you need 'add one', 'subtract one' functions, those go
with numeric classes, which many Enum types would not be instances of.
For instance, the letter 'q' is the successor of the letter 'p', but that
does not mean that "'q' = 'p' + 1" is meaningful.
--
Ashley Yakeley, Seattle WA
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