ghci-haskeline (was: Re: ANNOUNCE: GHC version 6.10.1 - EditLine / terminal incompatibility?)

[Simon Peyton-Jones]

| > I've actually been experimenting with something similar:
| >
| > darcs get http://code.haskell.org/~judah/ghci-haskeline/
....
| >
| > Current benefits over the readline/editline versions:
| > - Works on Windows
|
| I can attest to that.  Nice going Judah!
|
| $ cabal update
| $ darcs get http://code.haskell.org/~judah/ghci-haskeline/
| $ cd ghci-haskeline
| $ cabal install
|
| and I have a GHCi on Windows that can do completion, history search, and
| exits when I hit ^D.  That's made my day.

If I had £1 for every email I've seen in the last decade about platform-related or license-related problems with readline and now editline, I'd be rich man.  Super rich.

Could we reduce GHC's surface area by just using haskeline and dumping readline/editline support altogether? Yes that might reduce functionality slightly -- readline/editline are complicated for good reasons. But it's increase functionality in other ways (as Judah says), and by giving us one piece of software that we understand, and can distribute with GHC, it might remove a whole class of problems.

Simon