Fwd: Syntax extension - adding import support to let/where bindings - Haskell-Cafe

5 Aug 2015

      Arg. Didn't send this to the list.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Mike Meyer 
Date: Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 12:16 PM
Subject: Re: [Haskell-cafe] Syntax extension - adding import support to
let/where bindings
To: Evan Laforge 

On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 11:43 AM Evan Laforge  wrote:
...
And while "you don't have to use it" is
always brought up, it seems to me the more successful the feature is
the more likely you do have to use it.
"You don't have to use it" is a canard, and that argument needs to be
killed whenever and wherever it arises.

Sure, I don't have to use it. But the tools I use have to support it, so
it'll make them bigger and slower, so I'm paying the price for "it" even if
I don't use it. If I'm on a team, I probably have to either waste time
arguing with other people to get them not to use it, or at least explain
why I didn't use it. And that latter will come up every time I share  code
with other people, which we do want to encourage people to do.

And that brings us to the real issue of why "You don't have to use it" is
simply false. Reusing other people's code is a critical part of any
software development environment. If they use, I have to understand it in
order to understand their code. Even more than I have to in order to
explain why I don't use it.

So, no matter what I think of some feature, if it exists, the tools I use
will almost certainly have to support it, and I'll have to understand the
feature well enough to decipher code that uses it, and probably defend my
decision not to use it. I don't see that this is in any way less of a
burden on me than if I chose to use it.

Fwd: Syntax extension - adding import support to let/where bindings

Mike Meyer

Tom Ellis

Oliver Charles

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