Re: Text.ParserCombinators.Parsec requires -package text.

SimonM:
> > So you're proposing that -package options should *always* be required?

Why is it necessary to provide -package options at all?

ghc-pkg knows about all the packages in your system so it could just 
implicitly add -package $x for every package when compiling or linking.

When would you ever want to omit a package that you have installed on your 
system?  I can only think of two cases:

1) You want to check that your program can be compiled on a system with just 
packages x, y and z installed.

2) You are the developer of package x and are developing/testing a new 
version.

It seems like these could be handled by providing flags to change the default 
behaviour:

-no-std-packages
  Clear the list of packages - you must specify them all explicitly.
-without-package x
  Omit x from the list of packages

--
Alastair Reid