[cvs-nhc98] *.hi files

[Malcolm Wallace]

Sven Panne <Sven.Panne at aedion.de> writes:

> Malcolm Wallace wrote:
> > [...] Think of them as being like ghc's .hi-boot files. [...]
> 
> Well, this concept would be OK if we reached a fixed point after nhc98
> itself has been built, but doing mysterious things by hand is, well, a
> kind of sub-optimal... :-(

Unfortunately, a true fixpoint is probably impossible.  When a module
is permitted to redefine entities from the stdlibs, as indeed the
stdlibs must allow when bootstrapping, nhc98 appears to re-order
the entities recorded in the .hi file.  So, it would be possible to
end up simply juggling the order endlessly.  Given that these files
must reside in CVS, I don't fancy the confusion that might result
from continual auto-regeneration of versions that differ only in a
surface way.

But I take the general point that this makes life somewhat tricky
for the novice nhc98-developer...  And perhaps using a separate file
nomenclature like .hi-boot would be a good solution.

Regards,
    Malcolm