Records in Haskell

Barney Hilken b.hilken at ntlworld.com
Sun Feb 26 15:11:47 CET 2012


> Please remember SPJ's request on the Records wiki to stick
> to the namespace issue. We're trying to make something
> better that H98's name clash. We are not trying to build
> some ideal polymorphic record system.

I must admit that this attitude really gets my hackles up. You are effectively saying that, so long as the one narrow problem you have come across is solved, it doesn't matter how bad the design is in other ways. This is the attitude that gave us the H98 records system with all its problems, and the opposite of the attitude which gave us type classes and all the valuable work that has flowed from them. Haskel is supposed to be a theoretically sound, cleanly designed language, and if we lose sight of this we might as well use C++. Whatever new records system gets chosen for Haskel, we are almost certain to be stuck with it for a long time, so it is important to get it right.

Barney.





More information about the Glasgow-haskell-users mailing list