base libraries

[Neil Mitchell]

Hi

> > However, for the moment, base (as we know it) is the first two layers
> > of your proposal. As such, both bytestring and filepath belong in the
> > base library.
>
> so, the only reason why you want to include FilePath in Base is to
> make it available for any haskeller? i consider this as one more
> argument for GHC HQ to accept my proposal ;)
>
> > There is also the question of Cabal, your second layer is not
> > guaranteed to be installed on all systems,
>
> reread first line of message, please :)

"on windows, it should be a part of monolithic
installer while on unixes these libs may be a separate packages, but
porters should ensure that they ported all these libs too"

To me that implies that on unixes they will all be available to
install, but not all be installed by default. That means they can't be
used in cabal.

For FilePath there is also the specific issue that its actually
required by base (see System.Directory.Internal), but for fps is you
can guarantee that all implementations provide this package in a
transparent manner, and the user can't tell that its in a separate
module and not base, then to the user they are the same thing.

Thanks

Neil