[ghc-steering-committee] Please review #669: Initial categorization of language extensions

[Sebastian Graf]

I vote accept as well.

Am Sa., 5. Juli 2025 um 17:11 Uhr schrieb Jakob Brünker via
ghc-steering-committee <ghc-steering-committee at haskell.org>:

> This all seems very reasonable to me. I vote to accept.
>
> Jakob
>
> On Wed, Jul 2, 2025 at 4:59 PM Simon Peyton Jones via
> ghc-steering-committee <ghc-steering-committee at haskell.org> wrote:
>
>> I'm in support of this proposal.
>>
>> There is some discussion around the corners but lets get it done!
>>
>> Simon
>>
>> On Mon, 23 Jun 2025 at 14:12, Malte Ott via ghc-steering-committee <
>> ghc-steering-committee at haskell.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Committee,
>>>
>>> On 2024-10-29 19:45, Adam Gundry wrote:
>>> > Trevis Elser proposes a classification of (some) language extensions
>>> based
>>> > on previous work in proposal #601 establishing categories:
>>> >
>>> > https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/669
>>> >
>>> >
>>> https://github.com/telser/ghc-proposals/blob/initial-extension-categorization/proposals/0000-extension-categorization.md
>>>
>>> (Note that additionally to adding the new proposal the PR also contains
>>> a small diff to the previous proposal #601.)
>>>
>>> This proposal rested for a while, but after some revisions at Zurihac I
>>> am
>>> recommending to accept this proposal. The proposal is the logical next
>>> step after
>>> the acceptance of #601. It’s not pretty to have a categorization but not
>>> use it
>>> and I think the classification is very helpful to guide users and us.
>>>
>>> In the proposal Trevis nominates
>>>
>>> 72 extensions as stable,
>>> 10 extensions as deprecated,
>>>  5 extensions as legacy,
>>>  8 extensions as experimental
>>>
>>> and
>>>
>>> 42 remain unclassified.
>>>
>>> This only affects documentation and our future decisions. Only observable
>>> change in GHC will be that deprecated extensions consistently get a
>>> warning
>>> via -Wdeprecated-flags.
>>>
>>> The intention is to basically just describe the status quo with the
>>> classification and defer all contentious extensions to be classified
>>> later.
>>>
>>> My general tendency is that we should err in the direction of marking
>>> extensions stable because at least for widely used extensions, even
>>> those where
>>> we are not very happy with the design, marking them experimental is like
>>> giving
>>> us a free pass to break our stability principle. Also marking an
>>> extension
>>> stable is not the same as "recommended" as it is perfectly fine for an
>>> extension
>>> to be stable but not part of a GHCXXXX language edition.
>>>
>>> Note that "For an extension to be classified as Stable it must be
>>> considered
>>> Stable when used in combination of all possible, non-mutually exclusive,
>>> extensions that are already Stable." I admit that I cannot judge this
>>> with
>>> certainty for all listed extensions. To be honest I learned e.g. of the
>>> existence of NoTraditionalRecordSyntax from reading the list. While I
>>> have been
>>> told that the categorization has been produced in close collaboration
>>> with GHC
>>> devs I ask everyone to keep this in mind when reviewing the list.
>>>
>>> Please review the overall proposal and the proposed categories. You can
>>> give
>>> your approval conditional on moving some extensions to "unclassified".
>>> Others
>>> and I have already done so, so from my point of view the list is good as
>>> is.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Malte
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> ghc-steering-committee at haskell.org
>>> https://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ghc-steering-committee
>>>
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