Whilst I have nothing against the change in syntax for recursive do aka http://old.nabble.com/Update-on-GHC-6.12.1-td26103595.html Instead of writing mdo a <- getChar b <- f c c <- g b putChar c return b you would write do a <- getChar rec { b <- f c ; c <- g b } putChar c return b it does spoil the nice layout - it would be nice to just be able to write (which does not parse) do rec a <- getChar b <- f c c <- g b putChar c return b I don't particularly care that the only recursive statements are #2,#3 - I just want my nice neat layout back. I have just spent an inordinate amount of time updating code when if the parser recognised "do rec" as a recursive group it would have been a drop in replacement and taken me one tenth of the time. Why can't we have this?