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= Issues with Standard Classes =

This page collects issues and proposals for the standard classes.
Many of the proposals involve additional superclasses, which would be less burdensome with [ticket:101 class aliases] or something similar, but such features are not yet implemented.

== References ==

 * [http://www.haskell.org/onlinereport/basic.html#sect6.3 Standard Haskell Classes] of Haskell 98
 * [http://www.haskell.org/onlinereport/standard-prelude.html Standard Prelude] of Haskell 98

== Constructor classes ==

=== The Functor class ===
Proposal:
 * Add instances for `((->) a)`, `((,) a)` and `Either a`.

=== The Monad class ===
Issues:
 * Monads are really functors, but programmers can't always assume that `fmap` is defined for them, and so must use `liftM` instead.
   Similarly, code parameterized by `Functor` cannot be used with monads.
 * The `fail` method was added to the class in Haskell 98 to implement pattern match failure in `do` expressions.
   However the assumption that errors are strings can be problematic (e.g. cf the `Error` class in [http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/6.4-latest/html/libraries/mtl/Control-Monad-Error.html Control.Monad.Error], or for internationalization).

Proposals:
 * Add instance for `((->) a)`.
 * Make `Functor` a superclass of `Monad`.
   This would impose an extra burden on those who just want to define a `Monad`.
 * Make `join` a method of `Monad`, interdefined with `(>>=)`.
 * A more extreme step down this road would be to interpose the new [http://www.haskell.org/ghc/dist/current/docs/libraries/base/Control-Applicative.html Applicative] class between `Functor` and `Monad`, with corresponding renaming of methods.

== Numbers ==

See NumericClasses.

== Other standard classes ==

=== The Read class ===
See ReadClass.

=== The Enum class ===
Issues:
 * `succ` and `pred` are unused.
 * The default definitions of `enum`* would make more sense if `toEnum` and `fromEnum` used `Integer` instead of `Int`.
 * Some doubt that it makes sense to have `Float` and `Double` instances.
 * It is wierd that `[0,3..20]::[Rational]` includes `21`.

=== The Ix class ===
Issues:
 * There is no portable way to report indexing errors accurately.
Proposal:
 * Make `Show` a superclass of `Ix`, so that the offending index and range can be shown in exceptions.
   (All instances of `Ix` in the `base` package are also instances of `Show`.)

=== The Bits class ===
Issues:
 * The `Num` superclass may unduly restrict instances.  The only thing actually needed from `Num` is 0.
 * The `bitSize` method is not defined for all instances, and there is no general way to test whether it can be safely called.

=== The Storable class ===
Issues:
 * Some interfaces require clients to manage the memory for objects, but to treat them abstractly.  In such cases one wants to define `sizeOf` and `alignment` (to use `malloc` or `alloca`), but not `peek` or `poke`.