Generally Haskell libraries make a point of making impossible states unrepresentable in the types. But I often see Int used where only a non-negative number makes sense. Why is Word not used in those cases?
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user2141650
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This question, though very interesting, is likely to have just subjective answers. As such, it does not meet the SO requirements. – jakubdaniel Sep 21 '15 at 15:22
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1Previously asked: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12432154/int-vs-word-in-common-use – Michael Benfield Sep 21 '15 at 15:44
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We only just now got Numeric.Natural in base, too.
I think it is just historical accident. Int and Integer were in the haskell 98 prelude, which didn't get bogged down with lots of other fixed-size integer types.
Doug McClean
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