Export lists in modules

[Malcolm Wallace]

"Simon Marlow" <simonmar at microsoft.com> wrote:

> > However, I would be
> > equally happy to combine type/newtype/data into a single keyword for
> > exports.
> 
> for the record, I am in favour of tagging export specifiers with
> 'class' or 'type' (using 'type' for all type constructors, in light of
> yours and John's points).

For the sake of avoiding confusion, perhaps we should choose a keyword
(or better, a reserved identifier with no meaning outside of the
export/import list) that is none of "type", "data", or "newtype"?  How
about "datatype", "tycon", or the like?  Then it would be clearer that
there is no relationship between the way the type is defined, and how
its namespace is notated in the export list.

> If modules are to contain interfaces, I don't
> think extending the export list is the way to do it.  I'd rather do
> something like:
> --------------------------------------
> modules M exports
> 
> class Eq a where
>   (==) :: a -> a -> Bool
> 
> data T :: * -> *
> f :: T -> Int
> mkT :: Int -> T
> 
> where -- implementation below here
> --------------------------------------

But, apart from adding fuller signatures than I proposed, that is
exactly the same as an export list, modulo some very minor syntactic
differences!

> Not a proposal by any means, and I don't think that Haskell' should
> tackle this, but this seems the right direction to me.

I agree that full interface specs are beyond Haskell'.  JPBernardy's
argument that tools (Haddock, compilers) can already extract the
interface automatically is quite persuasive too.

Regards,
    Malcolm