[Haskell-cafe] HughesPJ vs. Wadler-Leijen

[Stephen Tetley]

Hi Ivan

I haven't found any bugs in WL, however I do find the API somewhat
confusing regarding line breaking (I would need to consult the manual
to tell you the difference between linebreak, softline etc.). This is
likely my failing rather than WL as usually I want formatting - "I
know the layout" - rather than pretty printing - "the fit function
finds the best layout".

I think there is room in the design space for a library whose API
"favors" formatting rather than pretty-printing. I.e it has line
printing that cannot be undone by `group`, or the combinators that use
group are given more long-winded makes to make them secondary. I've
bits and bobs on the go to do this, but nothing near a concrete
library.