The future of Haskell discussion

[Frank Atanassow]

Just a quick remark:

S. Alexander Jacobson wrote (on 13-09-01 12:40 -0400):
> As a general matter, the addendum process strikes me as confusing and
> dangerous.  I don't want to have a conversation like: I am using
> Haskell'98 with Addendum A, C, and E.  I'd rather say, I am using Haskell
> 2001 and know that it is useful for developing web apps.

Eventually, you will be saying that, but about Haskell-2.

In the interim, having extensions described in addendums is probably better
than the situation we have now, in which you are forced to say that "I am
using Haskell with extension X" (but with whose semantics?) or "I am using GHC
Haskell" (but Hugs also supports my extension). At least if an extension is
described in a Haskell Report Addendum one knows where to look for its
semantics, that its semantics are standardized, and that it is reasonably
accepted by the community and not some Bizarro (I love that word :) extension
which will only ever be implemented in some obscure researcher's pet compiler
project.

-- 
Frank Atanassow, Information & Computing Sciences, Utrecht University
Padualaan 14, PO Box 80.089, 3508 TB Utrecht, Netherlands
Tel +31 (030) 253-3261 Fax +31 (030) 251-379