Integrating editline with ghc

[Christian Maeder]

Yitzchak Gale wrote:
> Christian Maeder wrote:
>> The extended packages "2" could go under extra libs or hackageDB, while
>>    "1" remains a boot package for ghc that can link to editline on macs
>> and readline under linux, but has the same interface and package name!
> 
> I would hope that ghc will link to editline-ext on all platforms.
> That gives ghc the functionality it needs without getting
> into legal trouble with the license. Then those who want the full
> readline interface can install readline-ext, and those who
> want the full editline interface can install editline.

Just to clarify:

ghc will link to "libedit" if it is available on your platform, but the
Haskell package will still have the name "readline" and give ghc all the
functionality it needs (without licence problems).

Only the current readline Haskell package needs "libreadline" and
supplies more functionality than needed by ghc. This extra-functionality
should go into a new Haskell package readline-ext (that will only be
rarely needed).

The haskell package "editline-ext" is just an add-on that _requires_
"libedit" (an is only needed for special future developments).

Also editline-ext should only be used rarely, because some installation
will still only have "libreadline".

The new haskell package "readline" will only contain the common
functionality of libedit and libreadline!

The new haskell package "readline" should not be renamed in order to
achieve best backward compatibility in most cases. Renaming it (i.e. to
"editline") would not change the possibility to either link to libedit
_or_ libreadline (but would require to change all packages that
currently use readline)

Christian