<sect1 id="introduction">
<title>Introduction</title>
- <para>This document consistutes part of a proposal for an
- extension to the <ulink
- url="http://www.haskell.org/onlinereport/">Haskell 98</ulink>
- language. The full proposal has several parts: </para>
+ <para>This document consistutes a proposal for an extension to the
+ <ulink url="http://www.haskell.org/onlinereport/">Haskell
+ 98</ulink> language. The proposal has several parts: </para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>A modest language extension to Haskell 98 that adds the
character <quote>.</quote> to the lexical syntax for a module
name, allowing a hierarchical module namespace where a module
- name is a sequence of components separated by periods.</para>
+ name is a sequence of components separated by periods. The
+ extension is described in <xref
+ linkend="language-extension">.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>An allocation of the new module namespace to existing
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
+ <sect1 id="language-extension">
+ <title>The language extension</title>
+
+ <para>The key concept here is to map the module namespace into a
+ hierarchical directory-like structure. We propose using the dot as
+ a separator, analogous to Java's usage for namespaces.</para>
+
+ <para>For most compilers and interpreters, this extended module
+ namespace maps directly to a directory/file structure in which the
+ modules are stored. Storing unrelated modules in separate
+ directories (and related modules in the same directory) is a
+ useful and common practice when engineering large systems.</para>
+
+ <para>(But note that, just as Haskell'98 does not insist that
+ modules live in files of the same name, this proposal does not
+ insist on it either. However, we expect most tools to use the
+ close correspondance to their advantage.)</para>
+
+ <para>There are several issues arising from this proposal
+ proposal here. </para>
+
+ <para>This is a surface change to the module naming convention. It
+ does not introduce nested definition of modules. The syntax we
+ propose (a dot separator) is familiar from other languages such as
+ Java, but could in principle be something else, for instance a
+ prime <literal>'</literal>, underscore <literal>_</literal> or
+ centred dot <literal>ċ</literal> or something different
+ again. Of the choices of separator, dot requires a change to the
+ Haskell'98 lexical syntax, allowing</para>
+
+<programlisting>
+ modid -> qconid
+ qconid -> [modid .] conid
+</programlisting>
+
+ <para>where currently the syntax is</para>
+
+<programlisting>
+ modid -> conid
+ qconid -> [modid .] conid
+</programlisting>
+
+ <para>Note that the new syntax is recursive, a
+ <literal>modid</literal> may contain multiple components separated
+ by dots, where the final component is a <literal>conid</literal>.</para>
+
+ <para>A consequence of using the dot as the module namespace
+ separator is that it steals one extremely rare construction from
+ Haskell'98:</para>
+
+<programlisting>
+ A.B.C.D
+</programlisting>
+
+ <para>in Haskell'98 means the composition of constructor D from
+ module C, with constructor B from module A:</para>
+
+<programlisting>
+ (.) A.B C.D
+</programlisting>
+
+ <para>No-one so far thinks this is any great loss, and if you
+ really want to say the latter, you still can by simply inserting
+ spaces:</para>
+
+<programlisting>
+ A.B . C.D
+</programlisting>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>A possible extension</title>
+
+ <para>The use of qualified imports has become more verbose: for
+ instance</para>
+
+<programlisting>
+ import qualified XmlParse
+ ... XmlParse.element f ...
+</programlisting>
+
+ <para>becomes</para>
+
+<programlisting>
+ import qualified Text.Xml.Parse
+ ... Text.Xml.Parse.element f ...
+</programlisting>
+
+ <para>It is usually more convenient to make use of Haskell's
+ <literal>as</literal> keyword to shorten qualified identifiers:</para>
+
+<programlisting>
+ import qualified Text.Xml.Parse as Parse
+ ... Parse.element f ...
+</programlisting>
+
+ <para>A possible extension to the proposal is to make this use
+ of <literal>as</literal> implicit, unless overridden by the
+ programmer with her own <literal>as</literal> clause. The
+ implicit <literal>as</literal> clause always uses the final
+ subdivision of the module name. So for instance, either the
+ fully-qualified or abbreviated-qualified names</para>
+
+<programlisting>
+ Text.Xml.Parse.element
+ Parse.element
+</programlisting>
+
+ <para>would be accepted and have the same referent, but a
+ partial qualification like</para>
+
+<programlisting>
+ Xml.Parse.element
+</programlisting>
+
+ <para>would not be accepted.</para>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Renaming subtrees</title>
+
+ <para>Various proposals have been made to allow you to rename a
+ whole subtree. This may occasionally be convenient: for example
+ suppose there are several libraries under
+ <literal>Org.Com.Microsoft</literal> that I need to import, it
+ would be easier to rename this subtree to just
+ <literal>Microsoft</literal> for use in future import
+ declarations. For example:</para>
+
+<programlisting>
+ import Org.Com.Microsoft.* as Microsoft.*
+ import Microsoft.Foo
+ import Microsoft.Bar
+ ...
+</programlisting>
+
+ <para>The exact syntax of the renaming declaration is up for
+ debate (as is whether we need it at all), please send
+ suggestions to <email>libraries@haskell.org</email>.</para>
+ </sect2>
+
+ </sect1>
+
<sect1 id="layout">
<title>The hierarchy layout</title>
organisations. Any organisation with a DNS domain name owns
a unique space in the hierarchy formed by reversing the
components of the domain, capitalising the first character
- of each component, and prepending
- <literal>Org.</literal>. <emphasis>ToDo: I don't like this
- very much, any better ideas?</emphasis></para>
+ of each component, and prepending <literal>Org.</literal>.
+ <emphasis>ToDo: the Org name isn't great, especially when
+ the domain name also ends with Org (eg. Org.Org.Haskell?).
+ Contrib has also been suggested.</emphasis></para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<sect2 id="hierarchy-design-guidelines">
<title>Hierarchy design guidelines</title>
- <para></para>
+ <para>Apart from the User, Local and Organisation top-level
+ categories, the rest of the hierarchy is organised with a single
+ principle in mind:</para>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <para>Modules are grouped by
+ <emphasis>functionality</emphasis>, since this is the single
+ property that is most helpful for a user of the library - we
+ want users to be able to find out where to obtain
+ functionality easily, and to easily find all the modules that
+ provide relevant functionality.</para>
+
+ <para>So, if two modules provide similar functionality, or
+ alternative interfaces to the same functionality, then they
+ should be children of the same node in the hierarchy. Modules
+ are never grouped by standards compliance, portability,
+ stability, or any other property.</para>
+ </blockquote>
</sect2>
-
+
<sect2 id="module-naming-convention">
<title>Module Naming Conventions</title>
- <para></para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>A module defining a data type or type class
+ <replaceable>X</replaceable> has the itself the name
+ <replaceable>X</replaceable>, e.g.
+ <literal>StablePtr</literal>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>A module which re-exports the modules in a subtree of
+ the hierarchy has the same name as the root of that subtree,
+ eg. <literal>Foreign</literal> re-exports
+ <literal>Foreign.Ptr</literal>,
+ <literal>Foreign.Marshal.Utils</literal> etc.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>If a subtree of the hierarchy contains several modules
+ which provide similar functionality (eg. there are several
+ pretty-printing libraries under
+ <literal>Text.PrettyPrinter</literal>), then the module at
+ the root of the subtree generally re-exports just
+ <emphasis>one</emphasis> of the modules in the subtree
+ (possibly the most popular or commonly-used
+ alternative).</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>In Haskell you sometimes publish
+ <emphasis>two</emphasis> interfaces to your libraries; one
+ for users, and one for library writers or advanced users who
+ might want to extend things. Typically the advanced users
+ need to be able to see past certain abstractions.</para>
+
+ <para>The current proposal is for a module named
+ <literal>M</literal>, the <quote>advanced</quote> version
+ would be named <literal>M.Internals</literal>. eg.</para>
+
+<programlisting>
+import Text.Html -- The library
+import Text.Html.Internals -- The non-abstract library (for building other libs)
+</programlisting>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Acronyms are fully capitalised in a module name.
+ eg. <literal>HTML</literal>, <literal>URI</literal>,
+ <literal>CGI</literal>, etc. Exceptions may be made for
+ acronyms which have an existing well-established alternative
+ capitalisation, or acronyms which are also valid words, and
+ are more often used as such.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>A module name should be made plural only if the module
+ actually defines multiple entities of a particular kind:
+ eg. <literal>Foreign.C.Types</literal>. Most module names
+ which define a type or class will follow the name of the
+ type or class, so whether to pluralize is not an
+ issue.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="hierarchy">
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term><literal>NHC</literal></term>
+ <term><literal>Nhc</literal></term>
<listitem>
- <para>Libraries specific to the NHC compiler.</para>
+ <para>Libraries specific to the Nhc compiler.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term><firstterm>Portable</firstterm></term>
<listitem>
<para>A portable library may use only Haskell 98 features
- plus approved extensions (see <xref linkend="portability">),
- and may not use any platform-specific features. It may make
- use of other portable libraries only.</para>
+ plus approved extensions, and may not use any
+ platform-specific features. It may make use of other
+ portable libraries only.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Approved Extensions</title>
+
+ <para>Very few of the core libraries can be implemented using
+ pure Haskell 98. For this reason, we decided to raise the
+ baseline for portable libraries to include a few common
+ extensions; the following langauge extensions can be
+ <emphasis>assumed</emphasis> to be present when writing
+ libraries:</para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The <ulink
+ url="http://haskell.org/ghc/docs/latest/set/ffi.html">Foreign
+ Function Interface</ulink>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Mutable variables
+ (<literal>Data.IORef</literal>).</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Unsafe IO monad operations
+ (<literal>System.IO.Unsafe</literal>).</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Packed strings
+ (<literal>Data.PackedString</literal>).</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+
+ <para>Extensions which we'd like to be standard, but aren't
+ currently implemented by one or more of the our target
+ compilers:</para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Bit operations (<literal>Data.Bits</literal>).</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Exceptions (synchronous only), defined by the
+ <literal>Control.Exception</literal> interface.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The ST monad, defined by
+ <literal>Control.Monad.ST</literal>, and the associated
+ <literal>Data.Array.ST</literal> and
+ <literal>Data.STRef</literal> libraries. ST requires a
+ small typechecker extension for the <literal>runST</literal>
+ function.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Concurrent Haskell (pre-emptive multitasking
+ optional). Hugs implements this, but Nhc currently does
+ not.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+
+ <para>The following extensions are not likely to become part of
+ the baseline, but are nevertheless used by one or more libraries
+ in the core set:</para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Multi-parameter type classes.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Local unversal and existential quantification.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Concurrent Haskell with pre-emptive multitasking.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Asynchronous exceptions.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Stable Names.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Weak Pointers.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+
+ <para>Other extensions are supported by a single compiler only,
+ and can be accessed by libraries under the top level hierarchy
+ for that compiler,
+ eg. <literal>GHC.UnboxedTypes</literal>.</para>
+ </sect2>
</sect1>
-
+
<sect1 id="maintainership">
<title>Library Maintainers</title>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Malcolm Wallace
- <email>Malcolm.Wallace@cs.york.ac.uk</email> (NHC representative)</para>
+ <email>Malcolm.Wallace@cs.york.ac.uk</email> (Nhc representative)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Andy Gill
-- Stability : experimental | provisional | stable
-- Portability : portable | non-portable (<replaceable>reason(s)</replaceable>)
--
--- $Id: libraries.sgml,v 1.3 2001/07/03 09:21:46 simonmar Exp $
+-- $Id: libraries.sgml,v 1.4 2001/07/05 13:52:49 simonmar Exp $
--
-- <replaceable>Description</replaceable>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
- <term><literal>$Id: libraries.sgml,v 1.3 2001/07/03 09:21:46 simonmar Exp $</literal></term>
+ <term><literal>$Id: libraries.sgml,v 1.4 2001/07/05 13:52:49 simonmar Exp $</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>is optional, but usually included if the module is
under CVS or RCS control.</para>
for some Monad <Literal>m</Literal> are called
<emphasis>actions</emphasis>.</para>
- <sect3 id="sec-library-module-names">
- <title>Module names</title>
- <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>A module defining a data type or type class
- <replaceable>X</replaceable> has the itself the name
- <replaceable>X</replaceable>, e.g.
- <literal>StablePtr</literal>.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>A module which re-exports the modules in a subtree
- of the hierarchy has the same name as the root of that
- subtree, eg. <literal>Foreign</literal> re-exports
- <literal>Foreign.Ptr</literal>,
- <literal>Foreign.Marshal.Utils</literal> etc.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>If a subtree of the hierarchy contains several
- modules which provide similar functionality (eg. there are
- several pretty-printing libraries under
- <literal>Text.PrettyPrinter</literal>), then the module at
- the root of the subtree generally re-exports just
- <emphasis>one</emphasis> of the modules in the subtree
- (possibly the most popular or commonly-used
- alternative).</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>In Haskell you sometimes publish
- <emphasis>two</emphasis> interfaces to your libraries; one
- for users, and one for library writers or advanced users
- who might want to extend things. Typically the advanced
- users need to be able to see past certain
- abstractions.</para>
-
- <para>The current proposal is for a module named
- <literal>M</literal>, the <quote>advanced</quote> version
- would be named <literal>M.Internals</literal>. eg.</para>
-
-<programlisting>
-import Text.Html -- The library
-import Text.Html.Internals -- The non-abstract library (for building other libs)
-</programlisting>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>Acronyms are fully capitalised in a module name.
- eg. <literal>HTML</literal>, <literal>URI</literal>,
- <literal>CGI</literal>, etc. Exceptions may be made for
- acronyms which have an existing well-established
- alternative capitalisation, or acronyms which are also
- valid words, and are more often used as such.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>A module name should be made plural only if the
- module actually defines multiple entities of a particular
- kind: eg. <literal>Foreign.C.Types</literal>. Most module
- names which define a type or class will follow the name of
- the type or class, so whether to pluralize is not an
- issue.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- </itemizedlist>
- </sect3>
-
<sect3 id="sec-library-constructor-names">
<title>Constructor names</title>
<indexterm><primary>Constructor names</primary></indexterm>
List -> Data.List
exports [](..)
- Numeric -> ????
- not placed in hierarchy yet
+ Numeric -> Numeric
+ added showHex, showOct, showBin & showIntAtBase from NumExts,
+ but left out floatToDouble & doubleToFloat (realToFrac is more general).
System -> System.Exit, System.Environment, System.Cmd
split into three modules
</sect1>
</article>
-
-
projects / ghc-base.git / commitdiff