Hashable should provide type synonym for hash-values

[haskell-unordered-containers]

Hashable should provide type synonym for hash-values

[tibbe]

I'm not opposed to the type alias. However, a newtype is quite inconvenient as you typically want to perform bitwise operations on a hash. Also, you better know if the value is signed or not when you operator on it.

[hvr]

fwiw, you could still expose the interesting type-classes by GeneralizedNewtypeDeriving...

(btw, wouldn't an unsigned Word integer be a better fit for hash-values and bit-operations?)

[hvr]

I'd like to revisit this issue:

However, a newtype is quite inconvenient as you typically want to perform bitwise operations on a hash

...wouldn't providing a newtype with a Bits instance address this concern?

[hvr]

just a crazy idea: if Hash was a type, one could define a Monoid over it... where mappend = Data.Hashable.combine... :-))

PS: I just saw Brent Yorgey's haskell symposium talk about monoids...

[bos]

I'm chilly at best on this idea. I just killed combine off from the API as a not-awesome idea. If anything, it's the salt that needs a helpful type synonym, not the hash, but even that seems like it's not worthwhile since the types are just not confusing.

[tibbe]

Lets close this for now.