October 2025 - ghc-steering-committee

The role of the shepherd
by Simon Peyton Jones 12 May '26

12 May '26

Friends I have realised, rather belatedly, that we don't actually have any written guidance for shepherds of GHC proposals, so we all have to make it up as we go along. Perhaps it'd be helpful to have some. Here's a start. The shepherd does these things: - Makes a recommendation to the committee for whether to accept, reject, or send back for revision, within a week of being appointed. - Actively guide the committee's discussion. - Maintain a list of votes on this spreadsheet <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1e6GdwHmAjeDEUhTvP-b18MDkpTfH3SMHhFu…> . - Actively facilitate the committee discussion, guiding us towards a decision, within the published time frame of 4-5 weeks. - Summarise the committee's thinking for the author's benefit, and work with the author on next steps -- this may often take the form of revisions to the proposal. - - Remind members (by name, not just general exhortation) who are silent that they are highly encouraged to contribute. - If the discussion does not converge within 4-5 weeks, take action to consult the chair, vice-chair, or secretary to decide what to do. It's much more than "make a recommendation and wait". Being a member of the GHC Steering Committee is a real service to the community. But of course we all have day jobs, and so not everything happens as we hope. Any thoughts? Simon

3 11

Nudger
by Simon Marlow 21 Oct '25

21 Oct '25

While perusing the GHC Steering Committee Bylaws <https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/blob/master/committee.rst> I noticed they mention that one committee member is dedicated the "Nudger". This is a role we introduced back in 2020 as far as I can make out; the nudger at the time was Tom Harding who is no longer a committee member. I don't think we appointed a new nudger when Tom left the committee. We should either 1. Abandon the idea and remove the text about the Nudger from the bylaws, or 2. Appoint a new nudger. I don't feel strongly, but lean towards (1). We tried it, it worked so well that we all forgot about it entirely :) Cheers Simon

2 2

Call for a volunteer to run a new nominations round
by Adam Gundry 15 Oct '25

15 Oct '25

Dear Committee, Arnaud and I are now approaching the end of our current three-year terms on the committee, which means the committee needs to put out a new public call for membership nominations. Our bylaws explain the process in more detail (https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/blob/ master/committee.rst#term-limits-and-committee-selection). In particular, note that: > Expiring members are free to re-nominate themselves. When the > secretary's term is expiring, another (unexpiring) member of the > committee fills in for the secretary to run this process ... It is > expected that the committee favor newcomers in preference to re- > nominated continuing members. Since my term is expiring, I need to ask for a volunteer to run the nomination process (i.e. receive self-nominations from interested parties, distribute them to the other committee members and tally votes). Please speak up ASAP if you're willing to take this on! Thanks, Adam -- Adam Gundry, Haskell Consultant Well-Typed LLP, https://www.well-typed.com/ Registered in England & Wales, OC335890 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX, England

2 1

Qualified *
by Erik de Castro Lopo 14 Oct '25

14 Oct '25

Dear Committee, The original Qualified Literals proposal [1] has been split into 3 separate proposals: * Qualfied Strings [2] * Qualified Numerics [3] * Qualified Lists [4] Since this proposal has already been open for so long and had so much discussion, I have recommened that the committee reaches a decision by Oct 7. I had a few minor reservations about Numerics and Lists, mainly about the fact that there are still options on how they would be implemented but have recommended all 3 are accepted. Thanks, Erik [1] https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/698 [2] https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/723 [3] https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/724 [4] https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/725 -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Erik de Castro Lopo http://www.mega-nerd.com/

10 14