[ghc-steering-committee] Source plugins (#107), Recommendation: accept

[Richard Eisenberg]

This looks like a natural extension of what we currently do. I'm in favor.

Richard

> On Apr 2, 2018, at 10:16 PM, Christopher Allen <cma at bitemyapp.com> wrote:
> 
> Dear Committee,
> 
> Chris Allen here!
> 
> GHC source plugins were proposed by Boldizsár Németh.
> 
> The PR discussing the proposal is here:
> https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/107
> 
> Rendered at:
> https://github.com/nboldi/ghc-proposals/blob/patch-4/proposal-source-plugins.rst
> 
> This proposal suggests the extension of the existing tlugin support in
> GHC with plugins that are able to access and modify the representation
> of the Haskell syntax tree and its environment. This would allow tool
> developers to base their tools on GHC plugins.
> 
> A version of the proposal is already implemented at:
> https://phabricator.haskell.org/D4342
> 
> My present main concern would be the issues with recompilation that
> the current patch introduces but that seems like a problem with an
> implementation rather than the proposal. That's an issue for the GHC
> devs themselves to sort out, as I understand it.
> 
> It's not obvious to me that the unresolved questions could be answered
> with deliberation rather than implementation and exploration. I am far
> from an expert on GHC plugins but from what I've been able to read
> about them I don't see any blockers in this proposal as-written.
> 
> I reached out to a couple of people that have hacked on or around GHC
> in the past and it seemed like they were most keen to find out what
> problems of theirs this proposal would solve. I didn't see any actual
> objections raised.
> 
> I recommend we accept this proposal in the current form or with
> further elaboration at the author's option. However, my recommendation
> here defers to the experience of others on the committee who know more
> about the plugins API and the substance of this proposal.
> 
> -- 
> Chris Allen
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