[ghc-steering-committee] GHC stability discussions

[Simon Peyton Jones]

Dear GHC Steering Committee

We have several threads about GHC's stability in progress:

   - Proposal 601: GHC extension life cycle
   <https://github.com/david-christiansen/ghc-proposals/blob/extension-lifecycle-proposal/proposals/0000-extension-lifecycle-framework.md>.
   This introduces the notion of a "Stable" and "Experimental" extension.  It
   was written by David C but has stalled now that he has stepped down as ED.

   - GHC Stability Goals
   <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wtbAK6cUhiAmM6eHV5TLh8azEdNtsmGwm47ZulgaZds/edit?usp=sharing>,
   builds on #601 with general rules GR1-3.  This is not a change to GHC
   (hence not a GHC proposal) more a clarification about how the GHC Steering
   Committee works.

   - Proposal 620: Extensions and warnings
   <https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/blob/wip/spj-extensions-and-warnings/proposals/0000-extensions-and-warnings.rst>.
   This proposal keeps moving in the same direction, unifying warnings and
   extensions.

   - Proposal 617: add -experimental flag
   <https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/617>.   This builds
   on #601 by providing an enforcement mechanism.  It is strongly affected by
   #620.

It would be good to get some of this decided.  Too much is in the air at
the moment!  Personally I think:

   - We can agree at least the Stable/Experimental part of #601
   - The Stability Goals seem fairly uncontroversial.  Shall we just make
   it part of the GHC Proposal process documentation
   - #620 is new; your views would be welcome
   - The approach to #617 may depend on the outcome of #620.

Simon
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