On 16 October 2011 01:15, Bas van Dijk
I agree that you shouldn't use ByteStrings or Vectors of Word8s for Unicode strings. However I can imagine that for quick sessions in ghci it can be quite handy if they are shown as strings. For example, currently we have:
import Network.HTTP.Enumerator simpleHttp "http://code.haskell.org/~basvandijk/" Chunk "<html>\n<head><title>Bas van Dijk</title></head>\n<body>\n<h1>Bas van Dijk</h1>\n\n<p>Email: v.dijk.bas@gmail.com</a></p>\n\n<p>Nick on IRC: <tt>basvandijk</tt></p>\n\nhttp://www.haskellers.com/user/basvandijk/\">\n
http://www.haskellers.com/static/badge.png\" \n alt=\"I'm a Haskeller\"\n border=\"0\">\n</a>\n\n<p>See my https://github.com/basvandijk\">GitHub</a> page for a list of projects I work on.</p>\n\n</body>\n</html>\n" Empty
If ByteStrings were not shown as strings this would look like:
Chunk ( fromList [60,104,116,109,108,62,10,60,104,101,97,100,62,60,116,105,116,108,101,62,66,97,115,32,118,97,110,32,68,105,106,107,60,47,116,105,116,108,101,62,60,47,104,101,97,100,62,10,60,98,111,100,121,62,10,60,104,49,62,66,97,115,32,118,97,110,32,68,105,106,107,60,47,104,49,62,10,10,60,112,62,69,109,97,105,108,58,32,60,97,32,104,114,101,102,61,34,109,97,105,108,116,111,58,47,47,118,46,100,105,106,107,46,98,97,115,64,103,109,97,105,108,46,99,111,109,34,62,118,46,100,105,106,107,46,98,97,115,64,103,109,97,105,108,46,99,111,109,60,47,97,62,60,47,112,62,10,10,60,112,62,78,105,99,107,32,111,110,32,73,82,67,58,32,60,116,116,62,98,97,115,118,97,110,100,105,106,107,60,47,116,116,62,60,47,112,62,10,10,60,97,32,104,114,101,102,61,34,104,116,116,112,58,47,47,119,119,119,46,104,97,115,107,101,108,108,101,114,115,46,99,111,109,47,117,115,101,114,47,98,97,115,118,97,110,100,105,106,107,47,34,62,10,32,32,60,105,109,103,32,115,114,99,61,34,104,116,116,112,58,47,47,119,119,119,46,104,97,115,107,101,108,108,101,114,115,46,99,111,109,47,115,116,97,116,105,99,47,98,97,100,103,101,46,112,110,103,34,32,10,32,32,32,32,32,32,32,97,108,116,61,34,73,39,109,32,97,32,72,97,115,107,101,108,108,101,114,34,10,32,32,32,32,32,32,32,98,111,114,100,101,114,61,34,48,34,62,10,60,47,97,62,10,10,60,112,62,83,101,101,32,109,121,32,60,97,32,104,114,101,102,61,34,104,116,116,112,115,58,47,47,103,105,116,104,117,98,46,99,111,109,47,98,97,115,118,97,110,100,105,106,107,34,62,71,105,116,72,117,98,60,47,97,62,32,112,97,103,101,32,102,111,114,32,97,32,108,105,115,116,32,111,102,32,112,114,111,106,101,99,116,115,32,73,32,119,111,114,107,32,111,110,46,60,47,112,62,10,10,60,47,98,111,100,121,62,10,60,47,104,116,109,108,62,10]) Empty
Personally, I don't work in ghci that often so I don't care that much if we have or don't have specialized Show instances for Vectors of Word8s.
So what do other people think about this?
Actually, for my current use case of Bytestrings (binary encoding of graphs using existing encoding schemes), I would prefer this [Word8]-based Show instance as it would help with my debugging, since the output looks along the lines of: Chunk (fromList [3,2,3,0,3,1,3,0,2,2,1,0]). I am the first to admit that my use case is probably different from others though. -- Ivan Lazar Miljenovic Ivan.Miljenovic@gmail.com IvanMiljenovic.wordpress.com