Hello Chris, Thursday, November 23, 2006, 1:20:51 PM, you wrote:
example, it includes 2 of 4 regexp libs? at last end, we can learn that this is the list of libs required to build ghc itself!
Some of the other regex-* libraries are interfaces to c-library backends (pcre and tre) and it is not GHC's place to come with copies of those libraries. But GHC used regex internally, so it must come with at least a single backend.
what means "used internally"? you mean compiler sources? i don't see reasons why each copy of ghc should be able to compile ghc itself
The regex-* modules that are installed with GHC are not in the "base" package. They are in "regex-base" and "regex-posix" and "regex-compat" because I took excellent design advice and finely split the modules. I see no reason one could not by able to upgrade these on top of the GHC versions.
of course. i say here about base libraries, i.e. those strange set shipped with ghc 6.6. i argue to including here not only regex-* which is excellent work, but other widely used libs too
You are correct: as far as I can see the only module that is in "base" which might need to be split out is Data.ByteString. The same may or may not apply to Data.Sequence.
ByteString is most offending example, but not alone. what is the base library now? is it about data structures, I/O, concurrency or monads? there is no answer - this lib contains everything developed by peoples having accounts at darcs.haskell.org. why it's impossible to use Applicative class with ghc 6.4? because Ross Paterson was so kind to include this in a base lib. why peoples get a problems with their mutable arrays in 6.6? because arrays interface was changed and there is no way to use old lib in 6.6. why ForeignPtrs in 6.4 are slow? because it's a part of base lib and it's impossible to use faster ForeignPtr implementation without upgrading entire compiler. and so on, so on inflation of base library and inability to upgrade it have cumulative effect. i think that our ultimate goal is a set of ghc-independent concrete libs: arrays, control, files, concurrency... and any step in this direction will simplify upgrading to next ghc version -- Best regards, Bulat mailto:Bulat.Ziganshin@gmail.com