Proposal: add ByteString support to unix:System.Posix.IO API

[Sterling Clover]

On Mar 3, 2011, at 8:27 PM, Brandon S Allbery KF8NH wrote:

> Isn't this what the Haskell Platform process is for?  Individual libraries,
> yes, but as part of an overarching plan so you don't have e.g. network
> desupporting String while some other library decides to hold onto them as
> default a bit longer.

I think that's a bit stronger onus on the platform process than intended. Certainly the platform discussion should have some strong advisory weight on decisions of maintainers, but package maintainers have the real final say. And in the case of strings/bytestrings, I think the issue is minor anyway, since converting between the two is so simple. What we can and should expect is that individual libraries don't just ax the string functions abruptly, but provide some measured process of deprecation. Which is, I think, precisely what's being posed in this case.

Cheers,
Sterl.