FFI Definition

[Sven Panne]

Simon Marlow wrote:

> The reason for not putting them in the source is because the names of
> libraries change from system to system but their APIs don't.  It's
> possible to write a portable binding to an API if you don't have to
> include the libraries,  but including the library names requires
> information from the system, which is normally picked up by a configure
> script. [...]

I'd go even one step further: Often even the names of #include files
differ for the same API, or you have to #include some other headers
first, etc., just take a look into GHC's RTS for example. If we specify
#includes in the FFI, we effectively resort to autoconf or something
like that in our hand-made #include files most of the time, I fear.
(or clutter up the Haskell sources with #if #endif :-P ) But most
people on this list think different and you don't have to use this
feature, so I can live with that.

Cheers,
   Sven
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