id,summary,reporter,owner,description,type,status,milestone,resolution,keywords,cc,section,state
116,"Read Char instance, for [Char], and ['a', 'b'] syntax",igloo@…,none,"Haskell 98, in section 10.4, states:
{{{
readsPrec will parse any valid representation of the standard types apart
from strings, for which only quoted strings are accepted
}}}
hugs follows this:
{{{
Hugs.Base> read ""['a', 'b']"" :: String
""
Program error: Prelude.read: no parse
}}}
while GHC ignores it:
{{{
Prelude> read ""['a', 'b']"" :: String
""ab""
}}}
The GHC libraries source shows that this is a wilful variation from H98:
{{{
  readListPrec =
    parens
    ( do L.String s <- lexP -- Looks for ""foo""
         return s
     +++
      readListPrecDefault   -- Looks for ['f','o','o']
    )               -- (more generous than H98 spec)
}}}
I do not see the point of this inconsistency, so I believe we should consider changing it for Haskell'.",task,new,,,,,,