[Haskell] The next langauage definition version will be ``Haskell 1.6''

[kahl at cas.mcmaster.ca]

Hi all,

  somebody wrote something which reminds me:


  ********************************************************************
  *                                                                  *
  *  The ``next stable version'' of the Haskell language definition  *
  *              should be called ``Haskell 1.6''.                   *
  *                                                                  *
  ********************************************************************


This follows the numbering scheme used before the current stable version.

Some will still remember that
during the discussion for the name of that version,
a ballot was put out, and ``somehow'' the logical name
``Haskell 1.5'' was missing from that ballot ---
it still received the second-most votes after ``Haskell 98'':
as a free-form fill-in choice!
But ``somehow'' nobody drew the consequence
to do a corrected ballot...


Add to that, that ``Haskell 98'' did of course not come out
at a point of time that had any obvious relation with the number 98.

Choosing ``Haskell 2006'' would therefore be equally unwise.

And choosing something like ``Haskell 06'' would send a message
that is completely wrong for a language
that actually provides arbitrary-precision integers
as its default integer number type.
(It would also make version comparison even harder...)

I therefore encourage everybody
to refer to the current stable version as ``Haskell 1.5'',
and stick with ``Haskell 1.6'' as the name for the next stable version.


Wolfram