At 10:19 30/03/04 +0100, Simon Marlow wrote:
Who's in charge of allocating names in the hierarchical modules for publicly released libraries these days?
This page lists (some) allocated names.. http://www.haskell.org/~simonmar/libraries/layout.html
But I can think of a few that aren't listed there. What's the policy? Is there a master reference or register somewhere?
At one stage we thought that having a single global registry for names was the way to go. Now I think that a free-for-all, with good package management tools, is probably better.
Names and hierarchy locations will still be discussed on this list, but anyone is free to publish a library using any names in the hierarchy they please. If there is overlap, then the compiler should prevent you from using two overlapping packages at the same time. In fact, there's one good reason for allowing overlap: versioning of libraries.
Of course, if your library uses names that are consistent with the general policy, then there's a greater chance that your library will be included in future "collections" of libraries, bundled with compilers, and so on. The idea is that community self-organisation replaces strict central registration of library names. I think this is an improvement, but perhaps it's a cop out. What do others think?
I like it. It might be appropriate for designers to document module names they use in the wiki? #g -- PS: the "provisional registry" of "Registration procedures for message header fields" [1] is almost a similar free-for-all. The general idea is to give developers a pretty free hand in choosing names, but provide a common listing for the purposes of coordinating activities. [1] http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-klyne-msghdr-registry-07.txt ------------ Graham Klyne For email: http://www.ninebynine.org/#Contact