[Haskell-cafe] GHC Extension Proposal: ArgumentBlock

[Richard A. O'Keefe]

On 8/09/2015, at 4:57 pm, Manuel Gómez <targen at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> We’re so used to understanding complex semantics and diverse,
> sometimes even obtuse styles of expression (pointfree, anyone?).

Correction.  We are used to TRYING to understand ...

Haskell long ago surpassed the opacity of much-maligned APL.

It's *already* bl---y hard to read some Haskell code and
removing signposts is *not* a good way to help the lost and
bewildered.

> Surely the mental effort of parsing a lambda or a do-block in a new,
> previously invalid syntax is a trivial matter for programmers
> accustomed to running type checking algorithms in our heads.

In the presence of type-level programming, my personal ability to
run a time-checking algorithm in my head turns out to be
embarrassingly limited.  In any case, surely you have heard the
proverb, "it's the last straw that breaks the camel's back"?

As for me, I make enough mistakes that I cherish a syntax which
rejects enough token sequences to catch many of my errors, while
not rejecting so many that constructing a valid program is a puzzle.
I'd be the last to say Haskell syntax is perfect, but it's d--ned good.