| I'm disturbed by the idea of adding explicit type application | and the like to Haskell. Haskell language extensions are | rapidly becoming a riotous array of confusing syntax and | twisty semantic corners. From an experimenter's standpoint, | this isn't so bad. However, many of these extensions are | incredibly useful, and there's a lot of code relying upon | them. This creates pressure (from both users and | implementors) to immortalize the existing, grubby | implementations. The result? An incomprehensible, byzantine language. Yes, that's a danger. My own hope is that the practial experience of using and programming with these various features will lead us slowly to a realisation of some underlying unifying approaches or principles. That is what the rest of you message is reaching for -- which is great. But it easier to identify the problem than to come up with a satisfactory solution, and I for one do not have one. But I think it would be great to find one. Simon