[Haskell-cafe] Parsec Vs. src exts

[Roman Cheplyaka]

* Patrick Pelletier <code at funwithsoftware.org> [2013-02-03 10:57:14-0800]
> On 2/3/13 12:27 AM, Stephen Tetley wrote:
> 
> >Haskell-src-exts parses real Haskell - including most (if not all?)
> >GHC extensions. If you were wanting to analyze 'in the wild' Haskell
> >projects you might also want to use CPPHS as many Haskell projects use
> >the CPP preprocessor.
> 
> That was something that surprised me when I first started using
> haskell-src-exts.  Since haskell-src-exts parses language pragmas
> (including the CPP pragma), and since the haskell-src-exts package
> depends on the cpphs package, I'd made the assumption it would run
> the C preprocessor if the source file asked for the CPP language
> extension. So, I was surprised when it didn't; it might be worth
> documenting that it doesn't run CPP for you.  (From reading the
> source, I discovered the reason it depends on the cpphs package is to
> run the unlit preprocessor, but not to run cpp itself.)

The reason is historical confusion about cpphs licensing. Hopefully
it'll be fixed soon.

> Also, just a meta-question: if I encounter bugs or want to suggest
> features for a package like haskell-src-exts, am I better off
> bringing them up on a mailing list such as this one, or should I just
> email the author directly?

It really depends on the project...

> (Since haskell-src-exts, according to its
> Hackage page, doesn't have a bug tracker or real home page, just a
> darcs repository.)

Since recently, its issue tracker lives here:
https://code.google.com/p/haskell-src-exts/issues/list

Roman