Text in Haskell: A PROPOSAL

[Ken Shan]

--RnlQjJ0d97Da+TV1
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

On 2002-08-07T18:26:49+0100, Axel Simon wrote:
> Although other compilers might not, GHC does indeed support Unicode 32 bi=
t=20
> characters directly.

Let me clarify my understanding of this point a bit further.  On the one
hand, GHC uses Char to mean a 32-bit value like a Unicode code point.
On the other hand, GHC uses Char to mean what files store and sockets
transmit and foreign functions process under the C type "char".  These
two uses are inconsistent, and must be separated.

In an earlier message, I suggested that Char mean "C char", and that a
new type CodePoint be created to mean "Unicode code point".  I would be
perfectly happy -- in fact, happier personally -- if Char were to mean
"Unicode code point" and a new type CChar were created to mean "C char".
Either way, the (function types in the) libraries must be cleaned up to
maintain the distinction between "C char" and "Unicode code point".
Furthermore, Haskell programs must be able to access both notions.

--=20
Edit this signature at http://www.digitas.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/ken/sig
When there was no meat, we ate fowl. When there was no fowl, we ate
crawdads. When there was no crawdads to be found, we ate sand.

--RnlQjJ0d97Da+TV1
Content-Type: application/pgp-signature
Content-Disposition: inline

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.7 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQE9UWFUzjAc4f+uuBURAogaAJ42+nk2ilXPw879T8k5F0gq4yqfAQCfRPsz
fnsjpnbmpiK3Vij83dFcZS8=
=RcLJ
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--RnlQjJ0d97Da+TV1--