[redirecting to libraries] Two (mostly) independent proposals:
1) Move bracket and bracket_ from System.IO (or GHC.Exception) to haskell98/IO.hs. These two should now never be used anyway (except in all-H98 programs), and this would save users of the new libraries from having to hide them.
2) Define
type IOError = IOException -- was Exception
(or vice versa), leave the type of Prelude.ioError as IOError -> IO a, but add to Control.Exception
throwIO :: Exception -> IO a
If both are done, the only overlap seen by users of the new libraries is Prelude.catch vs Control.Exception.catch and System.IO.try vs Control.Exception.try. In each case there's a type distinction reflecting the semantic distinction.
Our feeling over here is that this is an unforced change, so in isolation it probably wouldn't be worthwhile. It'll break some code, and the awkward squad paper will have to be updated to comply (although we just noticed it is already wrong about the behaviour of Prelude.catch). However, if there's concensus that folk would prefer the alternate definition of IOError, then we're happy to go along with it. Cheers, Simon