[Haskell-cafe] Some thoughts on Type-Directed Name Resolution

[Malcolm Wallace]

On 8/02/2012, at 14:16, Steve Horne <sh006d3592 at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

> 
> I haven't given a lot of thought to updates. 
> 

I very much fail to see the point of replacing prefix function application with postfix dots, merely for field selection.  There are already some imperfect, but adequate, solutions to the problem of global uniqueness of field names.  But you now have mentioned what is really bothering me about this discussion: record updates are simply the most painful and least beautiful part of the Haskell syntax.  Their verbosity is astonishing compared to the careful tenseness of every other language construct.  If we could spend some effort on designing a decent notation for field updates, I think it would be altogether more likely to garner support than fiddling with dots.

Regards,
    Malcolm