Proposal: Have :array get its own protocol implementation

[ad...@a-corp.co.uk]

Hello,

Not sure what the go is with protcols, but given that there is an is_array function, would it be possible to have an erlang :array dispatch to its own implementation for protocols?

Right now if you pass an :array to a protocol it treats it as a Tuple (which is reasonable as right now that's what it is implemented as).

Best

Adam

[José Valim]

We supported tuples before but it led to a bunch of false positives on records looking like tuples. I think even the the is_array check does not guarantee it is actually an array. It is only a shallow check.

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[Wiebe-Marten Wijnja]

There are two userspace approaches that see some usage to deal with types like `:array`:

- There are some alternative/more powerful (but therefore also less portable/general/widespread) alternative 'protocol' implementations,
  such as `protocol_ex`. These will help if you have new protocols, but will not help to integrate new types with preexisting 'normal' protocols.

- A couple of libraries out there that wrap `:array` with a struct and implement common protocols for these (as well as, in the case of arrays, possibly the Access behaviour).
  For something like `:array`, this should not be significantly slower even though an extra wrapper is used.
  This technique integrates well with preexisting protocols, but does require you to use the wrapped types in your own code rather than e.g. `:array` directly.

~Marten/Qqwy

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