[ghc-steering-committee] Do we consider the GHC API in scope?

[Simon Peyton Jones]

|  I am worried about adding too much red tape to GHC development and
|  overloading the committee. How about this as a compromise:
|  
|      Changes to the GHC or Plugin API are not automatically within the
|      scope of the committee, and can be contributed following the usual
|      GHC workflow. Should the GHC maintainers deem a change significant
|      or controversial enough to warrant that, they may, at their
|      discretion, involve the committee and ask the contributor to write
|  a
|      formal proposal.

Yes I agree.  We should also allow that others may propose changes to (including new functions) in the GHC API; essentially feature requests.

Simon

|  -----Original Message-----
|  From: ghc-steering-committee [mailto:ghc-steering-committee-
|  bounces at haskell.org] On Behalf Of Joachim Breitner
|  Sent: 06 February 2018 13:57
|  To: ghc-steering-committee at haskell.org
|  Subject: Re: [ghc-steering-committee] Do we consider the GHC API in
|  scope?
|  
|  Hi,
|  
|  Am Dienstag, den 06.02.2018, 09:27 +0000 schrieb Simon Peyton Jones:
|  > I think we should cover GHC API changes.
|  >
|  > * The committee is meant to cover the "users-eye-view" of GHC.
|  >   The GHC API is a major asset, used by many users.  OK, so they
|  >   are nestling a bit closer to the implementation, but still.
|  >
|  > * There is no other forum to discuss API changes.
|  >
|  > * In principle a user of GHC-as-a-library can call any old internal
|  >   function; we should /not/ cover this.  Only the high-level
|  >   "advertised" API.
|  >
|  > * We don't do a good job of advertising that API; it's basically
|  >   what is exported by module GHC.  But I think it that proposals
|  >   focused on improving it would be quite helpful.
|  
|  just for the reference, that would be this module:
|  https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https:%2F%2Fdownloa
|  ds.haskell.org%2F~ghc%2Flatest%2Fdocs%2Fhtml%2Flibraries%2Fghc-
|  8.2.2%2Fsrc%2FGHC.html&data=02%7C01%7Csimonpj%40microsoft.com%7Cf09432
|  3ae91d486011f008d56d699973%7Cee3303d7fb734b0c8589bcd847f1c277%7C1%7C0%
|  7C636535222689456123&sdata=dNSg4tkhR1JYxqMVHItcFImJtAnTFgklQZKpslI4gus
|  %3D&reserved=0
|  
|  So in particular, every change in HsSyn is no longer an internal
|  change under that view, as is any modification to DynFlags.
|  
|  And I presume you’d include
|  https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https:%2F%2Fdownloa
|  ds.haskell.org%2F~ghc%2Flatest%2Fdocs%2Fhtml%2Flibraries%2Fghc-
|  8.2.2%2FPlugins.html&data=02%7C01%7Csimonpj%40microsoft.com%7Cf094323a
|  e91d486011f008d56d699973%7Cee3303d7fb734b0c8589bcd847f1c277%7C1%7C0%7C
|  636535222689456123&sdata=Ep2gyYuGnaRnmySNCeSqLlPVrNSivvgMIC%2FN85GyOn0
|  %3D&reserved=0
|  and/or
|  https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https:%2F%2Fdownloa
|  ds.haskell.org%2F~ghc%2Flatest%2Fdocs%2Fhtml%2Flibraries%2Fghc-
|  8.2.2%2FGhcPlugins.html&data=02%7C01%7Csimonpj%40microsoft.com%7Cf0943
|  23ae91d486011f008d56d699973%7Cee3303d7fb734b0c8589bcd847f1c277%7C1%7C0
|  %7C636535222689466131&sdata=D2gK4lk%2F5oOXtUhPfbDsHDXWo17juAEioTK8r1mG
|  0d8%3D&reserved=0
|  to be considered part of the API as well, right? But the latter re-
|  exports really many internal modules.
|  
|  Under this rule, a change like
|  https://git.haskell.org/ghc.git/commitdiff/0e022e56b130ab9d277965b794e
|  70d8d3fb29533
|  would have required committee approval?
|  
|  
|  I am worried about adding too much red tape to GHC development and
|  overloading the committee. How about this as a compromise:
|  
|      Changes to the GHC or Plugin API are not automatically within the
|      scope of the committee, and can be contributed following the usual
|      GHC workflow. Should the GHC maintainers deem a change significant
|      or controversial enough to warrant that, they may, at their
|      discretion, involve the committee and ask the contributor to write
|  a
|      formal proposal.
|  
|  Cheers,
|  Joachim
|  
|  
|  
|  --
|  Joachim Breitner
|    mail at joachim-breitner.de
|  
|  https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jo
|  achim-
|  breitner.de%2F&data=02%7C01%7Csimonpj%40microsoft.com%7Cf094323ae91d48
|  6011f008d56d699973%7Cee3303d7fb734b0c8589bcd847f1c277%7C1%7C0%7C636535
|  222689466131&sdata=YQaXg%2F7F9OL01FkHbzkgY9Cy2DVEAlQBUAee65Kt3lk%3D&re
|  served=0