AW: AW: Editor Tab Expansion

[matt hellige]

["D. Tweed" <tweed@cs.bris.ac.uk>]
> In every case where you've got a new idea which conflicts with practices
> from the past, you've got to decide whether the benefit derived from using
> the new idea outweighs the difficulties caused.

please see my previous post... it's a very fine line... :)

> You seem to be saying that layout should
> be banished because there's a set of people (of undetermined size) who
> would like Haskell were they to encounter it, except for that darned
> optional layout rule interefering with the ability to choose a personal
> interpretation for what the ASCII tab character should mean.
> 

please do not discount this argument. the group of people who are, for
one reason or another, not members of the haskell community is not a
vocal group, nor are they well represented. however, they are the
majority. if there is interest in promoting haskell among those who
currently don't use it, which there seems to be, some time needs to be
spent either soliciting opinions from people outside the haskell
community, or guessing what those opinions would be.

clearly, it's a tough thing to do well. many of the opinions of people
who aren't using haskell now may not be particularly relevant to the
future direction of the language. however, it they're completely
ignored, the language may never be accepted. this is the dilemma of
all software designers, and only those who have no need for actual
users can afford to ignore it.

m

-- 
matt hellige                  matt@immute.net
http://matt.immute.net