Simon Marlow: > On 24 March 2006 12:28, Ross Paterson wrote: > > > On Fri, Mar 24, 2006 at 11:30:57AM -0000, Simon Marlow wrote: > >> So I believe the issue is mainly one of perspective. Until I wrote > >> this email I hadn't thought of (4) and my preference was for (2), > >> but now I quite like the idea of (4). We would include concurrency > >> in Haskell', but provide a separate addendum that specifies how > >> imlementations that don't provide concurrency should behave. One > >> advantage of (4) over (3) is that we can unambiguously claim that > >> Haskell' has concurrencey. > > > > And we can unambiguously state that there is only one Haskell' > > implementation (though a second is on the way). > > > > Sure, concurrency is essential to many applications, and should be > > precisely specified. But it is also irrelevant to a lot of uses of > > Haskell (except for ensuring that one's libraries are also usable on > > concurrent implementations, as JohnM said). A specification of the > > language without concurrency would be at least as valuable (having > > more implementations). Perspective, as you say -- most people agree > > we need both -- but I think you're a bit too negative about the > > smaller variant. > > This is just a difference of opinion, and probably won't be easily > resolved. It comes down to whether you think Haskell' should be a > language that is wide enough to include such applications as a web > server, or whether it has to stop short of including concurrency because > it's too hard to implement (and it's not always hard - the YHC guys > managed it in a matter of days, but I do realise it would be hard in > Hugs). > > I think it would be a mistake to relegate concurrency to an addendum; it > is a central feature of the language, and in fact is one area where > Haskell (strictly speaking GHC) is really beginning to demonstrate > significant advantages over other languages. We should make the most of > it.
I 100% agree!! Personally, I think, after the FFI, a good story about concurrency and exceptions is what H98 misses most for applications other than variations on the compiler theme. Manuel _______________________________________________ Haskell-prime mailing list Haskell-prime@haskell.org http://haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-prime
