[ghc-steering-committee] #330: Decorate exceptions with backtrace information, rec: accept

[Simon Peyton Jones]

I have read the proposal, but I don't feel in a position to offer a
well-informed judgement about it.  It proposes a lot of specific changes to
a part of GHC's ecosystem that I'm not familiar with.

If we turn out to lack sufficient expertise on the steering committee,
maybe we should consult some plausible external experts?  Or maybe we have
enough on the committee. I'm not sure.

TL;DR: I should be considered a "don't know".  But the goal looks plausible
to me.

Other committee members: please express your views.

Simon

On Mon, 6 Mar 2023 at 13:44, Vladislav Zavialov <vlad.z.4096 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dear Committee,
>
> Ben Gamari has proposed #330 "Decorate exceptions with backtrace
> information". Read it here:
>
>
> https://github.com/bgamari/ghc-proposals/blob/stacktraces/proposals/0000-exception-backtraces.rst
>
> The proposal attaches contextual information to thrown exceptions. This
> information includes (but is not limited to) backtraces, making it possible
> to debug uncaught exceptions more effectively.
>
> This is a very nuanced change, since it modifies SomeException, throw,
> catch, and other exception-related definitions whose use is extremely
> widespread. We might end up affecting our users in unexpected ways. Because
> of that, I ask the committee to review the proposal with the appropriate
> amount of care.
>
> I am recommending acceptance because adding observability to our programs
> is an important part of developer ergonomics. From the proposal discussion,
> I have got the impression that there are numerous commercial users who
> would benefit from this.
>
> Please take a look at the proposal text and share your thoughts either
> here or directly on GitHub.
>
> - Vlad
> _______________________________________________
> ghc-steering-committee mailing list
> ghc-steering-committee at haskell.org
> https://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ghc-steering-committee
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.haskell.org/pipermail/ghc-steering-committee/attachments/20230308/d02ca3a1/attachment.html>