[Haskell-cafe] Cabal install on Windows 7

[Regis Saint-Paul]

I'm not familiar with cabal source code enough to actually assess how much
of a problem it would be but I assumed so because: 

- one would need to identify the exact location in the cabal code where
elevation will be required. That means one would have to check if a folder
where cabal wishes to write is or not protected. For users who install
outside of program files (under msys for instance), failing to do so would
raise unnecessary UAC elevation requests

- this would create a less portable code overall (I do not know the extent
of windows/linux specific code in cabal code base, but it seems to be very
small at this stage). By comparison, the manifest option only requires
modifying the build process, leaving the code unaffected.

On the other hand, this solution is clearly the best if the objective is to
become fully compliant with windows recommendations. To have a nice UAC
warning, it would also take to create a signed certificate, etc...(or we
just get something like "An unidentified program wants to access your
computer" instead of the "windows needs your permission to continue". And
probably other side issues to consider. 

So you are right, "ugly" is not appropriate. It just builds down to more
work and more platform specific code. 

Cheers,
Regis

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Matthijs Kooijman [mailto:matthijs at stdin.nl]
> Sent: Thursday, 10 September 2009 3:25 PM
> To: Regis Saint-Paul
> Cc: haskell-cafe at haskell.org; 'Duncan Coutts'
> Subject: Re: [Haskell-cafe] Cabal install on Windows 7
> 
> Hi Regis,
> 
> > - use windows API for requesting elevation during the process (ugly)
> Why is this ugly? This seems like an elegant solution, to get privileges
> only
> when you actually need them?
> 
> Gr.
> 
> Matthijs