Dear all, I would like to propose deprecating 'Control.Exception.blocked' in favour of 'getMaskingState'. The term "blocked" refers to the old way of dealing with asynchronous exceptions (block/unblock). It can also be a bit confusing to which "blocked" property it refers: blocked asynchronous exceptions, or a blocked thread. Note that 'blocked' is already listed in the section "(deprecated) Asynchronous exception control": http://hackage.haskell.org/packages/archive/base/4.3.0.0/doc/html/Control-Ex... We could add an equivalent function with an unambiguous and more consistent name: masked :: IO Bool masked = fmap (/= Unmasked) getMaskingState However, I don't think it will be used enough to warrant its addition. I believe the proposal is clear enough, so I will make a patch when consensus is reached. Discussion deadline: 2 weeks (19 February). Bas