Library submissions

As the Haskell community has grown, and emphasis on development has moved from language to libraries, the need for a more formalised process for contributing to libraries has emerged. This page documents our 'best practices' for proposing new library functions.

In essence, we don't want proposals to go unnoticed, but changes to basic interfaces also need thorough consideration.

Under the old ad hoc system, unless a proposal meets with a chorus of approval, the only way to get a decision is from SimonM or unilateral action by some committer. This slowed development.

Submitting a proposal

In order to ensure we have something concrete to discuss:

• Proposed changes should be submitted to libraries@haskell.org, as a darcs patch
• The patch must compile against the head
• It must include haddock documentation
• The haddock documentation must build, too
  • You probably need Haddock 0.8 for this
• Pure code should also come with QuickCheck properties, to apply against the testsuite
• The change should be as portable by default, and should state the portability requirements. Testing on Hugs should be required. [As portable as what?]

To document the change, please add a Trac ticket, and a timescale for consideration (to focus the community's attention):

• active tickets should be publicised
• silence can be taken as consent

Reaching consensus

• At the end of the discussion period, the proposer adds to the ticket a summary of the relevant parts of the discussion, the ticket is archived and, if consensus was achieved, the change is made. (The summary is needed for anyone wondering about the change later: it's not reasonable to point people at a 50-message thread.)

• A deeply held disagreement at the end of the discussion period may require some form of government (voting, dictatorship, etc). This should be a rare event.