On 05-Feb-2003, Simon Peyton-Jones
| Haskell 98 has never supported separate compilation. That's why we | have hi-boot files (or something similar). | | So, yes, I'd like to know how the language designers intend to support | separate compilation in the next version.
H98 has nothing to say about the separate compilation; it's an issue for the implementation. GHC does separate compilation for Haskell, and always has done. It requires the programmer to supply an auxiliary hi-boot file for one module in each mutually recursive group (and, of course, none if there is no recursion between modules).
In other words, GHC doesn't support separate compilation of
Haskell 98 -- it supports separate compilation of a closely related
but distinct language which we can call "Haskell 98 + GHC hi-boot files".
--
Fergus Henderson