[Haskell-cafe] GHC Extension Proposal: ArgumentBlock

[Anthony Cowley]

On Tuesday, September 8, 2015, Michal Antkiewicz <mantkiew at gsd.uwaterloo.ca>
wrote:

> +1 for the change but not for an extension. Here's why
>
> 2. It seems the change is fully backwards compatible and it does not
> prevent people still using the old style if they wanted. I would make it a
> default, not an extension.
>
> 4. Regarding the other mentioned extensions like multiway if, etc. they
> should become default as well because they are backwards compatible as
> well.
>
> 5. The only reason to guard changes behind LANGUAGE pragmas should be when
> they are causing problems with other extensions.
>
> I too feel that Haskell community is becoming more and more conservative.
> I believe there's still time now to make the language as best it can be at
> the cost of loosing backwards compatibility. The rapid improvements in the
> language is what attracts me to Haskell.
>
> Best,
> Michał
>

I'm +1 on the proposal now, too. I was previously ambivalent because, like
most folks on the list, I'm used to reading $. But looking at the examples,
I think I'm capable of adapting, and they do look fine to me. Lambdas
creating a block is traditional in some notations, and this change just
causes Haskell to lean on white space sensitivity a bit more.

I also agree with Michał. Death by a thousand extensions is a silly lapse
of self-care. We're held hostage by a process that doesn't actually exist,
and would be better served if backwards compatible changes didn't require
undue ceremony to invoke.

Anthony
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