GHC's error messages are too verbose?

[Bryan O'Sullivan]

I've long wondered why GHC issues such prolix error messages when it 
runs into a problem.  Here's a representative example from some hacking 
I'm currently doing:

src/Network/Hackage/CabalPackage/Setup.hs:68:5:
     Couldn't match expected type `(RpmFlags, [String])'
            against inferred type `()'
       Expected type: IO (RpmFlags, [String])
       Inferred type: IO ()
     In the expression:
           (when (not (null unknown)))
         $ (do hPutStrLn stderr "Unrecognised options:"
               mapM_ (hPutStrLn stderr) unknown
               exitWith (ExitFailure 1))

This might not look like a terribly long error, but that's because I've 
snipped a bunch of context that GHC also prints:

     In the expression:
         do let (os, args', unknown, errs)
                    = getOpt' RequireOrder options args
                opts = foldl (flip ($)) emptyRpmFlags os
              (when (rpmHelp opts))
            $ (do printHelp stdout
                  exitWith ExitSuccess)
              (when (not (null errs)))
            $ (do hPutStrLn stderr "Errors:"
                  mapM_ (hPutStrLn stderr) errs
                  exitWith (ExitFailure 1))
              (when (not (null unknown)))
            $ (do hPutStrLn stderr "Unrecognised options:"
                  mapM_ (hPutStrLn stderr) unknown
                  exitWith (ExitFailure 1))

This length is on the modest side for a block of monadic code.  With a 
longer chunk of code, individual error messages can easily stretch to 
dozens of lines long, due purely to GHC printing context information 
that amounts to repeating my source code back at me.

I don't understand the motivation behind this verbosity.  Clearly, a 
little bit of context is helpful, so I can see which expression GHC is 
objecting to, but why repeat the entire surrounding chunk of code back 
at me, when I already have the file name and line number, and the 
original code that caused the error?

Compilers for other languages seem content with as little as one line of 
output per error (which I am not advocating), or a few lines of source 
with the problem highlighted, but I rarely see more.  Hugs also tends 
towards the terse side, but I've never found this to be a problem.

Cheers,

	<b