[Haskell-cafe] GHC 7, Platform 2011.2 vs OS X 10.5, Ubuntu 11.04

[Brandon Moore]

> From: Jacek Generowicz <jacek.generowicz at cern.ch>

> Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 4:17 AM
>
> [TL;DR: there's a concrete question at the bottom.]
> 
> Once again I find myself in the pleasant situation where the slings and arrows 
> of life in general are slightly less intense, and I manage to find a few spare 
> minutes and some free brain cycles to dedicate to Haskell.
> 
> Why not try GHC 7.0.3? (after all, GHC 7 has been out for a good few months, so 
> the teething troubles should have passed by now), and there's a lovely new 
> Haskell Platform 2011.2.0.1 to go with it, so, maybe this time, I'll 
> actually be able to use some of the libraries that I tried and failed to install 
> during my last period of Haskell study.
> 
> The two computers I have available for playing with Haskell run OS X Leopard 
> (10.5), and Ubuntu Natty (11.04).

I can't say anything about OS X, but I've been using ghc 7.0.3 under Ubuntu.
I just cabal-install what I want - and use apt-get for any required C libraries.

To set up cabal-install, the bootstrap.sh script which should come in
the package is helpful - it automatically downloads the required dependencies.
http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/hackage/wiki/CabalInstall

> Next up: Ubuntu. There's a Linux Link on the Haskell Platform Page. Ooooh, 
> there's an Ubuntu link. Ooooh! there's even a package for Natty, great! 
> Version 2010.1.0.0.1 WTF? Where's the 2011.2 package? There isn't one.

I see there is a 2011.2 package for the next version, but it's probably too much
trouble to fix up the other dependencies.
 
> b) On Ubuntu Natty I installed the generic linux GHC 7.0.3 binary. Downloaded 
> Haskell Platform 2011.2.0.1 source distribution. ./configure worked happily. 
> make fails as follows.
> 
> Building transformers-0.2.2.0
> "/usr/local/haskell-platform-2011.2.0.1/bin/ghc" "--make" 
> "Setup" "-o" "Setup" "-package" 
> "Cabal-1.10.1.0"
> <command line>: cannot satisfy -package Cabal-1.10.1.0:
>     Cabal-1.10.1.0-1fb2094e19492373b1a39284193e7984 is unusable due to missing 
> or recursive dependencies:
>       process-1.0.1.5-55dfaccf3a91c4cb8f6284a0bafef198

That's odd. I think 7.0.3 comes with Cabal-1.10.1.0.
Here's my global package database:

/usr/local/lib/ghc-7.0.3/package.conf.d
   Cabal-1.10.1.0   
   array-0.3.0.2
   base-4.3.1.0
   bin-package-db-0.0.0.0
   bytestring-0.9.1.10
   containers-0.4.0.0
   directory-1.1.0.0
   extensible-exceptions-0.1.1.2
   ffi-1.0
   filepath-1.2.0.0
   ghc-7.0.3
   ghc-binary-0.5.0.2
   ghc-prim-0.2.0.0
   haskell2010-1.0.0.0
   haskell98-1.1.0.1
   hpc-0.5.0.6
   integer-gmp-0.2.0.3
   old-locale-1.0.0.2
   old-time-1.0.0.6
   pretty-1.0.1.2
   process-1.0.1.5
   random-1.0.0.3
   rts-1.0
   template-haskell-2.5.0.0
   time-1.2.0.3
   unix-2.4.2.0