[Haskell-cafe] Proposal: Shorter Import Syntax

Eric Seidel eric at seidel.io
Wed Jun 3 18:29:46 UTC 2015


I don't have a strong opinion on the choice of syntax, but am a major +1
on combining the two imports into one.

On Wed, Jun 3, 2015, at 10:15, Anthony Cowley wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
> 
> I didn't think this would see any resistance as it doesn't break
> anything, but this is the internet, so, if you haven't already, take a
> look at this GHC feature request
> <https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/10478>
> 
> The idea is that rather than writing,
> 
> import Data.Map (Map)
> import qualified Data.Map as M
> 
> you could instead write,
> 
> import Data.Map (Map) as M
> 
> The Map identifier would imported unqualified, while M would be
> introduced as an alias for the qualified import of Data.Map.
> 
> Note that, currently, following a parenthesized group with the "as"
> keyword is a parse error. So allowing this syntax would not affect any
> currently working programs.
> 
> I've mentioned this proposal before and gotten good response, so I
> finally wrote it up last night after people on IRC responded
> positively to it. As well as IRC and trac, I put the link up on
> Twitter to get it in front of a large audience, and here's what we
> have after a bit over 12 hours (not counting the handful of supporters
> in IRC):
> 
> +20
> -2
> 
> You can see the tweet at
> <https://twitter.com/a_cowley/status/605909841148702720>
> 
> I'll try to summarize the two negative votes: 1) This isn't that big a
> burden, and we should instead focus on controlled export of class
> instances; and 2) We should instead focus on exporting name spaces,
> and that the ordering of parentheses and the "as" keyword is too close
> to the existing "import Foo as F(foo)" syntax.
> 
> Since there are these negative votes, I think it best if as many
> people as possible at least see the proposal so the GHC developers can
> get a better sense for the overall response.
> 
> Anthony
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