Numeric trait

[olehmisar]

Problem

For some generic functions, it is useful to accept any numeric value(u8, u32, u64, U128 etc). E.g.,

fn add_2<T>(x: T) -> T where T: Numeric {
    let TWO = T::one() + T::one();
    x + TWO
}

A real world use case is nodash::sqrt: https://github.com/olehmisar/nodash/blob/727116ea69261d9e91454d93af36f0851df5c35c/src/math/sqrt.nr#L5-L8

I implemented a Numeric trait inside nodash for that but it would be nice to have this trait in the Noir std lib.

https://github.com/olehmisar/nodash/blob/727116ea69261d9e91454d93af36f0851df5c35c/src/math/numeric.nr

trait Numeric {
    fn zero() -> Self;
    fn one() -> Self;
}

Happy Case

Add Numeric trait to Noir std lib. The name is not final.

Workaround

None

Workaround Description

No response

Additional Context

No response

Project Impact

Nice-to-have

Blocker Context

No response

Would you like to submit a PR for this Issue?

Maybe

Support Needs

No response

[TomAFrench]

Hey Oleh, we're currently looking to reduce the size of the stdlib as mentioned in #1258 so we're probably not going to include this. I think it would be best to have a num-traits crate similar to rust as this can then change without it being a breaking change to the language as a whole.