Integrating editline with ghc

[Don Stewart]

chak:
> Malcolm Wallace:
> >Christian Maeder <Christian.Maeder at dfki.de> wrote:
> >
> >>1. a _new_ readline package that only contains the interface that can
> >>be implemented using libeditline _or_ libreadline. If this package is
> >>call "readline" (with a new version number) most libraries i.e. like
> >>Shellac would not need modifications.
> >
> >I totally agree.  Backwards compatibility for all the programs out  
> >there
> >that already use the readline package (but really don't care whether  
> >it
> >is actually readline or editline) is vital.  I would hate to see all
> >client code forced to use CPP macros and cabal magic to select the  
> >right
> >package and module imports.  We can avoid such a retrograde step by
> >explicitly making 'readline' the backend-agnostic package, which
> >re-exports functionality from either the real readline or editline,
> >depending on which is available.
> 
> I don't think we should touch the existing readline package.  It's a  
> binding to readline and whether everybody likes its license or not  
> doesn't matter.  Some people just want to use readline, and they  
> should be able to continue to do this by importing the library called  
> System.Console.Readline.

I agree, it makes no sense to hide/obscure readline. Just depend on a
different package.

So as for the regex-compat lib, we can live happily with a readline-compat
that gives a compatible interface to readline, via other means.

-- Don