On 03/08/2009 10:44, Malcolm Wallace wrote:
all of these things are hurt by whitespace-sensitive syntax. IMO, we
should think very carefully before introducing any.
Haskell already has plenty of whitespace sensitivity. The layout rule is
a pretty major part of the tradition. Other places:
* (Just.foo) differs from (Just . foo)
* --| differs from -- |
* With NegativeSyntax, (-1) would differ from (- 1)
* In TemplateHaskell, $x differs from $ x
* In TemplateHaskell, [d| differs from [ d |
* With UnboxedTypes, (# differs from ( #
* With UnboxedTypes, 3# differs from 3 #
Yes, I know. There's also numbers: 1.0, 1e3, 0xFF. And strictly
speaking keywords are also in violation: "where by" vs. "whereby",
although I wouldn't go so far as to suggest we change that, of course.
Only the first two items in your list are actually in Haskell,
incedentally, and I argued against the others. The problem is it's hard
to find spare syntax, especially for brackets, without either adding
whitespace-sensitivity or using non-ASCII characters.
The layout rule doesn't count, at least for the kind of
whitespace-sensitivity I'm worried about, which is the presence/absence
of whitespace rather than the quantity or composition of it.
Cheers,
Simon
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