Wanted: unified annotation syntax, was: Re: strict Haskell dialect

[Johannes Waldmann]

John Meacham wrote:

> module $hat.Foo(..) where ...

Before we invent more ad-hoc notation for annotations
(we already have deriving, {-# .. #-}, {-! .. -!} (DrIFT) )
can we replace all (or most) of this with a unified annotation syntax,
e. g. Java uses "@" notation which is basically allowed
at any declaration, and (important points) programmers can
define their own annotations, and annotations can also have values.
Also, they have a retention policy saying whether they should be visible
at compile time or at run time. Compile time is for tools/preprocessors,
and visibility at run time is helpful for reflection. see e. g. JLS 9.6f
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/third_edition/html/interfaces.html#9.6
some example text is here:
http://dfa.imn.htwk-leipzig.de/~waldmann/draft/meta-haskell/

Best regards,
-- 
-- Johannes Waldmann -- Tel/Fax (0341) 3076 6479/80 --
---- http://www.imn.htwk-leipzig.de/~waldmann/ -------