Get GHC happy with alternate base packages (split base)

[SamB]

There are a lot of things wired into the compiler that would make it hard to create an alternate base package.

See BaseSplit.

[igloo]

Other than splitting up base (#1338), I'm not clear on exactly what you want. Is it more rebindable syntax? For example, the wiki page you point at says you want to replace Read, but I'm not sure exactly what you mean by that. You can make a class called Read, but GHC isn't going to know how to derive instances of it.

If you could give a more concrete list of changes you want then that would be very helpful.

[SamB]

Replying to igloo:

Other than splitting up base (#1338), I'm not clear on exactly what you want. Is it more rebindable syntax? For example, the wiki page you point at says you want to replace Read, but I'm not sure exactly what you mean by that. You can make a class called Read, but GHC isn't going to know how to derive instances of it. If you could give a more concrete list of changes you want then that would be very helpful.

Well, this ghc-prim package I'm seeing in HEAD is a step in the direction I meant ;-).

[igloo]

Can't do more on this without concrete steps that are wanted.