changes to library interfaces (was Re: Data.List.join)

[Donald Bruce Stewart]

ross:
> On Sun, Oct 22, 2006 at 12:50:14PM +1000, Donald Bruce Stewart wrote:
> > Getting bogged down in fiddly details will just derail this effort. See
> > here. Perfectionists will not be tolerated! ;)
> >     http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/Protect_the_community
> > [...]
> > So, I propose we start with just, say, 'connect', with some QC
> > properties, and get that into base, before we get dragged out into a big
> > discussion about the entire api design.
> 
> I don't care much about this particular case, but we really need a better
> way of handling interface changes than this.  We don't want proposals to
> rot, but changes to basic interfaces also need thorough consideration.
> At present, unless a proposal meets with a chorus of approval, the
> only way to get a decision is from SimonM or unilateral action by some
> committer.  That needs to change, I think.

Agreed.

At least a method by which proposals get Trac tickets and then due
consideration (though avoiding voting would be nice).

Any suggestions?
  
> BTW, I find that "Protecting the community from poisonous people" stuff
> incongruously negative compared with my experiences on the Haskell
> mailing lists.  There are some positive suggestions in there; let's
> focus on those, rather than the witch hunting.

Oh yes, it's nothing to do with the Haskell community at all!

These were notes from the Subversion community, that I took down at the
Google Summit last week. The Haskell community seems to function a _lot_
better :) There are some useful hints there though.

-- Don