bug documentation [was: Re: problem compiling with profiling]

[Malcolm Wallace]

Frederik Eaton <frederik at a5.repetae.net> writes:

> > Template Haskell doesn't work with profiling, I'm afraid
> 
> Writing a large program which relies on some library or some feature
> of ghc that is expected to be stable, or at least to not conflict with
> other features; and then finding out after considerable effort has
> been spent that there is some catch which prevents my program from
> being as useful as anticipated, or even useful at all - this is a
> frustrating experience that I've had several times now.

Well, that is the thing about language extensions.  They are
experimental.  The interaction of one extension with any other
is not always completely known.  After all, ghc seems to manage
to add around two major extensions per year, and at that rate it
is impossible to forsee all of the effects of their combinations.
If you pick a moving platform, it, well, moves.  The only thing you
can really rely on is the standard language - in this case, Haskell'98.

Granted that '98 is rather limited (especially in libraries), the new
Haskell standardisation effort (Haskell'06) will in all likelihood
fix in stone some of the more mature extensions that are reasonably
well understood now, but I would have thought that is unlikely to
include relative newcomers e.g. Template Haskell.

Regards,
    Malcolm