Stream: beginners

Topic: Why are numbers not abilities?


view this post on Zulip Derin Eryilmaz (Nov 06 2024 at 23:56):

Why are Num and Frac some weird generic types instead of abilities? Couldn't they be abilities instead, which would also allow people to make their own number types?

view this post on Zulip Richard Feldman (Nov 07 2024 at 00:11):

the short answer is that Num existed before abilities existed, but the longer answer is that there are tradeoffs around allowing operator overloading - we've discussed them in the past, e.g. in #ideas > customizing infix operators


Last updated: Jul 06 2025 at 12:14 UTC