On Jan 17, 2008 1:19 AM, Christian Maeder
Judah Jacobson wrote:
- System.Console.Editline.Readline contains the readline APIs provided by the editline library (mostly a cut/paste of System.Console.Readline).
I would like to see a restructuring of the old readline package:
1. a _new_ readline package that only contains the interface that can be implemented using libeditline _or_ libreadline. If this package is call "readline" (with a new version number) most libraries i.e. like Shellac would not need modifications.
2. Two further packages for extension of editline and those functions of readline that are not part of "1". Maybe call these packages editline-ext and readline-ext
A problem with the above proposal: the readline-ext package would depend not just on the readline package, but on an instance of the readline package that was built against libreadline specifically. I don't think that we can enforce that constraint; and even if we could, on a machine with both editline and readline installed it would get confusing pretty quickly. I think it will be much simpler if we keep the readline and editline packages as they are now, and possibly add a third readline-compat package which can use either one as a dependency. Then any project (including GHC) can choose which of those packages to use, based on API requirements and/or license issues. Best, -Judah