[Haskell-cafe] Re: Versioning

[Brian Hulley]

Neil Mitchell wrote:
> Hi
>
>> In other words, what on earth is good about gluing oneself to
>> Haskell98? Life's moved on...
>
> If you stick to Haskell 98 you can:
>
> * Convert your code to Clean (Hacle)
> * Debug it (Hat)
> * Run it in your browser (ycr2js)
> * Document it (Haddock)
> * Make a cross platform binary (yhc)
> * Get automatic suggestions (Dr Haskell)
> ...
>
> Sometimes you need a type extension, but if you don't, you do get
> benefits.

True, though it would be even better if the "usual" extensions were more 
widely supported, though I suppose identifying what's useful and therefore 
worth supporting is the point of the Haskell Prime process.

As an aside I've often thought it would be better if the various components 
of Haskell compilers/tools would be separated out so that people could 
effectively build their own compiler tailored more specifically for their 
needs. Ie lots of smaller projects each dealing with a particular phase of 
Haskell processing which would be joined together by standard APIs, so that 
someone could use the latest type system extensions with whole program 
optimization while someone else could use those same type extensions with a 
back end designed for graphical debugging etc, and also so that people just 
interested in developing whole program optimization (for example) wouldn't 
have to reinvent the ever-more-difficult wheel of 
lexing/parsing/typechecking/targeting  multiple platforms...

Best regards, Brian.
-- 
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