#9252: Generalize hs-boot files to be more like module signatures ------------------------------------+------------------------------------- Reporter: ezyang | Owner: ezyang Type: feature request | Status: new Priority: normal | Milestone: Component: Compiler | Version: 7.8.2 Keywords: backpack | Operating System: Unknown/Multiple Architecture: Unknown/Multiple | Type of failure: None/Unknown Difficulty: Unknown | Test Case: Blocked By: | Blocking: Related Tickets: | ------------------------------------+------------------------------------- Right now, `hs-boot` is used solely to support mutually recursive modules. However, as [wiki:Backpack Backpack] has shown, signatures are an essential part of separate modular development, and since hs-boot files are essentially module signatures, it would be good to move away from "hs- boot as a technical mechanism to make mutual recursion to work" to "hsig as a module signature useful for separate modular development and mutual recursion." Here are some of the things that this would entail: 1. Introduce hsig as a valid alternate file suffix to hs-boot (similarly have hisig for hi-boot; the plan being to eventually deprecate the hs-boot prefix) 2. Given an hsig file corresponding to a module in the current package database (but not from the currently being compiled package), check if the corresponding module implements the signature (this is the reverse of the current check we do for hs-boot files, which occurs when we typecheck the module, as opposed to the hs-boot file.) -- Ticket URL: http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/9252 GHC http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ The Glasgow Haskell Compiler