+RTS options should warn on the compiler

[sorear]

<tcr> ghc --make Main.hs +RTS -xc
<tcr> doesn't work, I must be misunderstanding something

is one of the most common misunderstandings on #haskell. Would it be feasable to have GHC generate a warning if passed a +RTS option?

[simonpj]

The problem here is that GHC *is* itself a GHC-compiled Haskell program, and so if you want to (say) change the heap size in which GHC itself runs, then the +RTS thing is the right thing to do. Generating a warning seems odd. And I think it'd be tricky, becuase the +RTS stuff is intercepted by the runtime system before the Haskell program ever gets to see it.

I can see the problem, but I'm not sure how to fix it!

Simon

[igloo]

Like Simon says, there isn't really anything we can do here, I'm afraid.