Re: Implicit type conversion

Hi Tony,

Tony Morris wrote:
> I have found what appears to be an anomaly in implicit type coercion. I
> have attempted to trivialise my example, but it is still 50 or so LOC. I
> have annotated the code with the relevant question in the relevant place
> in the code with comments. The problem is that this code will not
> compile.

Note that implicit defs (which were called 'views' prior to Scala 2) are not applied transitively. 
If the compiler finds a function call with no matching definition, it will then check to see if, by 
applying any of the exact implicit defs within scope to any of the parameters, it can find a 
matching function definition.  If it can't, then it complains.  I believe it complains in the event 
of any ambiguity with overloaded definitions or multiple 'useful' implicit defs within scope.

Implicit definitions should be used with care.  Having many implicit definitions within scope can be 
confusing, and it was a conscious design decision to disallow transitivity.

Cheers,
Jon


--
Jon Pretty | Sygneca Ltd.