Syntax extensions (was: RE: The Future of Haskell discussion at the Haskell Workshop)

[ozone at vergenet.net]

On 11/09/2003, at 9:46 PM, Simon Marlow wrote:

>> I know that some of these problems can be addressed, at least in
>> part, by careful use of Makefiles, {-# custom pragmas #-}, and perhaps
>> by committing to a single tool solution.  But I'd like to propose
>> a new approach that eliminates some of the command line complexities
>> by integrating the selection of language extensions more tightly
>> with the rest of the language.
>
> Initially I liked the idea, but now I'm not so sure (more about that
> later). But first I'll point out that the situation isn't nearly as bad
> as you make out.  In GHC, the approved way to add these flags is by
> using a pragma to the source code, for example:
>
>   {-# OPTIONS -fth -fffi #-}
>   module Foo where
>   ...
>
> this in itself addresses most of your complaints.  Using a
> compiler-independent syntax would address another one.  We're left 
> with:

I'll second Simon on this suggestion.  I'm using {-# OPTIONS ... #-} 
pragmas on all my modules now, and it works great: no extra parameters 
need to be specified on the command-line, and I get only the extensions 
I want.  This seems to be more simple than the hierarchical module 
scheme, too.  (I'm a big fan of KISS.)


-- 
% Andre Pang : trust.in.love.to.save