package mounting

[Duncan Coutts]

On Tue, 2005-06-28 at 21:43 -0700, Frederik Eaton wrote:
> I like your proposal and I think that some form of it should be
> implemented. Here is the section of my original post where I talk
> about it:
> 
> > One further thing, there have been proposals to simplify the importing
> > of collections of modules from a certain point in the namespace, etc.
> > I hope it is realized that they are independent from my proposal. They
> > would not be very useful in implementing my proposal, at least I think
> > any such solution would be far from optimal; and vice-versa. Modules
> > and packages are quite distinct constructs, modules are needed for
> > namespace partitioning and packages are needed to delineate
> > administrative boundaries and sources of change. Both are necessary
> > and both deserve special consideration in the ongoing design of
> > Haskell.
> 
> I still feel this way.
> 
> Obviously there is some overlap in functionality but unless you want
> to either bind what's normally under Graphics.UI.Gtk at the namespace
> root everywhere in the project, or mount the library at some sort of
> short prefix like Gtk and use Gtk.Button.label everywhere - and
> neither of these is really suitable - one can't use package mounting
> to implement your proposed feature.

Yes, this is what we would like do. That is allow the user to import the
whole collection of Gtk modules with either a short prefix "Gtk" or no
prefix so that in their code they can use "Gtk.Button.label" or just
"Button.label" rather than us having to export the ugly "buttonLabel".

Duncan