Non-H98 crusade, contd.

[Malcolm Wallace]

Sven Panne <Sven.Panne at aedion.de> writes:

> OK, let's try to summarize what seems to be the current consensus about
> more or less conservative & settled extensions to Haskell98:

There is a larger point to consider.  We should remember that revising
the Haskell language is not only about extending it, but also about
removing dead/ugly features, and changing features that are wrong
or inconsistent.

Also, revision does not just concern compilers/interpreters; there
is a host of other tools which also process Haskell, e.g. Haddock,
Hat, DrIFT, hsc2hs, greencard, to name but a few.  Some only require
syntax, but others, particularly in the future, might depend on type
information too.

As examples of language features that should be removed or revised,
how about these:
  (a) n+k patterns
  (b) the defaulting mechanism
  (c) the monomorphism restriction
and in addition, a new version of the language should probably adopt
a much smaller mandatory Prelude, moving existing items into optional
libraries.

> My main point here is that it would be very handy if we had independent,
> precise and small descriptions of the extensions currently in use.

Agreed.

Regards,
    Malcolm