["D. Tweed"
In every case where you've got a new idea which conflicts with practices from the past, you've got to decide whether the benefit derived from using the new idea outweighs the difficulties caused.
please see my previous post... it's a very fine line... :)
You seem to be saying that layout should be banished because there's a set of people (of undetermined size) who would like Haskell were they to encounter it, except for that darned optional layout rule interefering with the ability to choose a personal interpretation for what the ASCII tab character should mean.
please do not discount this argument. the group of people who are, for one reason or another, not members of the haskell community is not a vocal group, nor are they well represented. however, they are the majority. if there is interest in promoting haskell among those who currently don't use it, which there seems to be, some time needs to be spent either soliciting opinions from people outside the haskell community, or guessing what those opinions would be. clearly, it's a tough thing to do well. many of the opinions of people who aren't using haskell now may not be particularly relevant to the future direction of the language. however, it they're completely ignored, the language may never be accepted. this is the dilemma of all software designers, and only those who have no need for actual users can afford to ignore it. m -- matt hellige matt@immute.net http://matt.immute.net