I find them prinicipally useful in three situations:

1) When I am writing code for an easy subset of a problem, and wish to
extend it later. This is the least useful case, easiest to replace.

2) When I have different overlapping kinds of data, with a common root
and common parent, and functions that are only defined on certain
branches of the 'type tree.' This would be the hardest to replicate.

3) When I have intermediate labelled data for gathering different
subproblems together. This is the neatest use: I extend my algorithm
to handle a case that might return the top two, and I just add an
additional case to the destructor for `TopTwo instead of `Best or
`SecondBest.

On 1/16/07, Tom <tom.primozic@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a question... I hope it will not be dismissed right away, thou I
> guess most of you will find it stupid (some might however agree with me...
> hopefully).
>
> Cut the crap!
>
> So... why actually are polymorphic variants useful? Why can't they simply be
> implemented as normal, concrete (or how would you call them? ...) variants?
> Doesn't the use of polymorphic variants just mess up the function type?
>
> I'm not orthogonally against polymorphic variants, it's just that I am
> looking for an alternative concept that could be used instead... Maybe
> subtyped records?
>
> - Tom
>
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-- 
Seth Fogarty             sfogarty@[gmail.com|rice.edu|livejournal]
Neep-neep at large    AIM: Sorrath
"Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from
the cup of bitterness and hatred." - Martin Luther King, Jr.