[Haskell-cafe] new Library Infrastructure spec.

[Simon Marlow]

On 24 June 2004 13:18, Henning Thielemann wrote:

> 4.1 Package description:
>  "The exact syntax is still undecided."
> 
> What's about using real Haskell code as package description? The
> package file could contain a function that builds a certain data
> structure. This would save you from designing a new syntax and would
> prevent the user from learning a new description language.

One reason for putting the package description into a separate file and
specifying that it is pure data rather than a program, is so that
external tools can read and modify it.  For example, your programming
environment might present the package description as a dialog box into
which you enter the details (this isn't pie-in-the-sky: we plan to do
exactly this in Visual Studio, and there's already a prototype).

Cheers,
	Simon