Sven Panne
OK, let's try to summarize what seems to be the current consensus about more or less conservative & settled extensions to Haskell98:
There is a larger point to consider. We should remember that revising the Haskell language is not only about extending it, but also about removing dead/ugly features, and changing features that are wrong or inconsistent. Also, revision does not just concern compilers/interpreters; there is a host of other tools which also process Haskell, e.g. Haddock, Hat, DrIFT, hsc2hs, greencard, to name but a few. Some only require syntax, but others, particularly in the future, might depend on type information too. As examples of language features that should be removed or revised, how about these: (a) n+k patterns (b) the defaulting mechanism (c) the monomorphism restriction and in addition, a new version of the language should probably adopt a much smaller mandatory Prelude, moving existing items into optional libraries.
My main point here is that it would be very handy if we had independent, precise and small descriptions of the extensions currently in use.
Agreed. Regards, Malcolm