Why does the Scala compiler disallow overloaded methods with default arguments?

Question

While there might be valid cases where such method overloadings could become ambiguous, why does the compiler disallow code which is neither ambiguous at compile time nor at

Answer 1

Here is a generalization of @Landei answer:

What you really want:

def pretty(tree: Tree, showFields: Boolean = false): String = // ...
def pretty(tree: List[Tree], showFields: Boolean = false): String = // ...
def pretty(tree: Option[Tree], showFields: Boolean = false): String = // ...

Workarround

def pretty(input: CanPretty, showFields: Boolean = false): String = {
  input match {
    case TreeCanPretty(tree)       => prettyTree(tree, showFields)
    case ListTreeCanPretty(tree)   => prettyList(tree, showFields)
    case OptionTreeCanPretty(tree) => prettyOption(tree, showFields)
  }
}

sealed trait CanPretty
case class TreeCanPretty(tree: Tree) extends CanPretty
case class ListTreeCanPretty(tree: List[Tree]) extends CanPretty
case class OptionTreeCanPretty(tree: Option[Tree]) extends CanPretty

import scala.language.implicitConversions
implicit def treeCanPretty(tree: Tree): CanPretty = TreeCanPretty(tree)
implicit def listTreeCanPretty(tree: List[Tree]): CanPretty = ListTreeCanPretty(tree)
implicit def optionTreeCanPretty(tree: Option[Tree]): CanPretty = OptionTreeCanPretty(tree)

private def prettyTree(tree: Tree, showFields: Boolean): String = "fun ..."
private def prettyList(tree: List[Tree], showFields: Boolean): String = "fun ..."
private def prettyOption(tree: Option[Tree], showFields: Boolean): String = "fun ..."