On 3/24/07, Chris Eidhof
Given all these issues, I consider the only reasonable option is to discard the Prelude entirely. There will be no magic modules. Everything will be an ordinary library. HOFs like (.) are available from Control.Function. List ops come from Data.List. Any general abstractions can be added in abstract Sequence, Monad, etc. modules. Haskell will regain the kind of organic evolution whose lack currently causes Haskell to lose its lead over Python et al by the day. I basically agree with a lot of the things you say. The only thing is: it's so convenient to have the Prelude. I can just start writing my haskell programs and don't have to worry about all kinds of imports. And you'll end up being repetitive: you'll import (.) and stuff like that in _every_ file. Yeah, this will definitely be more modular, but if we go for it, it's going to be so much more (tedious) work to create a new program.
The solution is simple: * If there is a "module M where" clause in the beginning of the file, then it's a "proper" module and shouldn't import the Prelude. * If there is no module declaration then it's a "quick'n dirty script" and should have the Prelude implicitly imported. * Interactive interpreters should probably import the Prelude. That should take of most issues. -- Sebastian Sylvan +44(0)7857-300802 UIN: 44640862