On 03/08/2009 10:44, Malcolm Wallace wrote:
all of these things are hurt by whitespace-sensitive syntax. IMO, we should think very carefully before introducing any.
Haskell already has plenty of whitespace sensitivity. The layout rule is a pretty major part of the tradition. Other places:
* (Just.foo) differs from (Just . foo) * --| differs from -- | * With NegativeSyntax, (-1) would differ from (- 1) * In TemplateHaskell, $x differs from $ x * In TemplateHaskell, [d| differs from [ d | * With UnboxedTypes, (# differs from ( # * With UnboxedTypes, 3# differs from 3 #
Yes, I know. There's also numbers: 1.0, 1e3, 0xFF. And strictly speaking keywords are also in violation: "where by" vs. "whereby", although I wouldn't go so far as to suggest we change that, of course. Only the first two items in your list are actually in Haskell, incedentally, and I argued against the others. The problem is it's hard to find spare syntax, especially for brackets, without either adding whitespace-sensitivity or using non-ASCII characters. The layout rule doesn't count, at least for the kind of whitespace-sensitivity I'm worried about, which is the presence/absence of whitespace rather than the quantity or composition of it. Cheers, Simon