[ghc-steering-committee] #190: Module qualified syntax, recommendation: accept

[Simon Marlow]

Proposal #190 is about accepting the syntax

  import A.B.C qualified

instead of (or in addition to) the existing syntax

  import qualified A.B.C

I think it's widely accepted that the original syntax was a mistake. I
don't need to rehash the rationale for the change here, iit's described
pretty well in the proposal and elaborated in the discussion.

The question for us is really: is it worth changing? There are costs:
- A new extension flag, which itself has costs (extra documentation, a new
thing that people need to understand)
- new code using the extension doesn't compile with older compilers
- all the existing code in the world uses the old convention
- etc.

Reasonable people can differ here. The discussion on the proposal has
representatives from both sides of the camp.

Personally, the current syntax annoys me almost every day. It's already a
small cost on everyone, and I think we need to move forwards even if there
are costs in migrating. So, I'm going to recommend that we accept this
proposal.

We might want to reconsider the name of the extension:
QualifiedImportsPostpositive
seems like a mouthful. Perhaps ImportQualifiedPost is enough?

Cheers
Simon

On Mon, 4 Mar 2019 at 12:09, Joachim Breitner <mail at joachim-breitner.de>
wrote:

> Dear Committee,
>
> this is your secretary speaking:
>
> Module qualified syntax
> has been proposed by Shayne Fletcher
> https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/190
>
> https://github.com/shayne-fletcher-da/ghc-proposals/blob/module-qualified-syntax/proposals/0000-module-qualified-syntax.rst
>
> Simon Marlow has already volunteered to shepherd.
>
> Please reach consensus as described in
> https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals#committee-process
> I suggest you make a recommendation, in a new e-mail thread with the
> proposal number in the subject, about the decision, maybe point out
> debatable points, and assume that anyone who stays quiet agrees with
> you.
>
> Thanks,
> Joachim
> --
> Joachim Breitner
>   mail at joachim-breitner.de
>   http://www.joachim-breitner.de/
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
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