Adding System.FilePath

[Andres Loeh]

Hi there.

> 2) Let programmers type "import System.FilePath" and have it work in
> Cabal Setup.hs files, and in all Cabal built programs without
> requiring the user specify that they are using the filepath package.
> 
> This is what everyone wants.  Within this there are two approaches
> being advocated:
> 
> a) Add to base.
> 
> b) Add as a library which we demand all Haskell compilers ship, and
> tweak Cabal to automatically use this library at all times.
> 
> Option a involves absolutely no additional work for me - the patch has
> been posted to this mailing list. Option b involves Cabal hacking,
> establishing new procedures, coming up with a definition of libraries
> which are always available etc. It is likely that option b will be
> required once (if ever) base is split up. I certainly don't have time
> to do option b.
> 
> So can I propose we add filepath, with this agreement that once
> (someone else) gets around to doing option b, we can split it out
> afterwards?

I think option 2a would be a huge improvement over the situation we have
right now, so I'd be strongly in favor of adding FilePath to base for
the time being.

It's certainly not a perfect solution, I am aware of that, but none of
the arguments given could convince me that it'll actually make things
worse compared to now, so we should not prevent progress by trying to
make everything perfect in a single step.

Cheers,
  Andres