Haskell Platform Proposal: HLint

[Yitzchak Gale]

Ian Lynagh wrote:
> (Speaking as someone entirely unfamiliar with both packages, so this may
> be a crazy idea), I wonder if it might be better rename haskell-src-exts
> to haskell-src and for this to just be a major version bump. After all,
> nowadays more and more "extensions" are going to be part of the
> language, and who would actually use haskell-src once haskell-src-exts
> is part of the platform?

I am opposed to this proposal as stated.

The generated syntax tree of haskell-src-exts is huge and
unmanageable if all you need is core haskell, or a subset thereof.
I have used haskell-src in situations where haskell-src-exts
would have been so much more work as to be unusable.

Also, it is very worthwhile to have code which describes exactly
the syntax of standard Haskell. In fact, releasing an updated
version of haskell-src should be a required step for each iteration
of the Haskell Prime process.

It may be true that haskell-src-exts is more commonly used
and is more appropriate for inclusion in the platform.
If so, perhaps some renaming is in order. But please, not at the
expense of total elimination of the important haskell-src
package from hackage.

Thanks,
Yitz