[Haskell-cafe] GHC maintenance on Arch

Mon Oct 29 16:22:40 CET 2012

To be clear, the project ArchHaskell has little or no relation to my 
original post.  If I understand correctly, ArchHaskell is a set of Arch uses
who attempted to repackage the packages in hackage in the AUR.  This 
addresses issues of package management that are unrelated to my complaint.  
My complaint is that Arch currently does not support having two versions of 
GHC installed and GHC does not support backwards compatibility.  The current
method of always updating GHC to the latest version, discarding the old 
version is useful to the most hard core bleeding edge types. An alternative 
model for those of us that need a consistently usable system is not well 
supported.  Currently updating ghc the "normal way" always breaks your build
system.  Arch has addressed this issue with a number of other packages.  
Perhaps the best comparison would be ghc<https://www.archlinux.org/packages/
extra/x86_64/ghc/> verse linux<https://www.archlinux.org/packages/core/i686/
linux/>.  With linux, we have a "linux" package and a "linux-lts<https://
www.archlinux.org/packages/core/x86_64/linux-lts/>" package.  These are the 
same, but linux-lts gets updated slightly less often and with less 
expedition.  This problem has been had in Arch, it's been solved, and we 
should take the example of these other cases I have provided and make two 
ghc packages, so that there is a standard supported sane way to use ghc on 
arch linux.  This isn't a problem that affects me personally these days. As 
an advanced user I don't really have any trouble working around the issue.  
But I'd like Arch to be inviting to newbies and to have what most of us more
experienced users implement manually by default.

Timothy

---------- Původní zpráva ----------
Od: Malcolm Wallace <malcolm.wallace at me.com>
Datum: 29. 10. 2012
Předmět: Re: [Haskell-cafe] GHC maintenance on Arch
"I think you will find that the Original Poster did not ask about 
ArchHaskell, but rather about Haskell on the Arch platform. He was 
completely unaware of ArchHaskell as a project. This might be a source of 
some confusion, and help to explain divergent attitudes.

Regards,
Malcolm

On 29 Oct 2012, at 14:41, Magnus Therning wrote:

> Please stay on topic, this is *not* a discussion about Haskell
> Platform[1], it's a discussion on ArchHaskell[2]. Please read up on
> the mailing list archives first, and then, if you still feel there's a
> need to discuss HP in ArchHaskell (which isn't the same thing as Arch
> itself) then please start a new thread.
> 
> /M
> 
> [1]: http://www.haskell.org/platform/(http://www.haskell.org/platform/)
> [2]: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ArchHaskell
(https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ArchHaskell)
> 
> On Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 2:53 PM, Brandon Allbery <allbery.b at gmail.com> 
wrote:
>> On Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 5:56 AM, Magnus Therning <magnus at therning.org>
>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Now I'm going to run the risk of upsetting you quite a bit by being
>>> completely blunt.
>> 
>> 
>> Indeed.
>> 
>>> 
>>> You come across in your mail like someone who has thought through your
>>> own situation, but fail to see the larger picture. You do know *your*
>> 
>> 
>> May I ask you a question, then?
>> 
>> Does the Haskell Platform have any reason to exist?
>> 
>> Supposedly, the Haskell community backs the Haskell Platform as the way 
that
>> most users should be using the Platform. Yet we have here a vendor 
platform
>> which does not support it, and newcomers who notice this and question it 
are
>> chastised for not thinking about the needs of other people. This suggests
>> that the Haskell Platform is unimportant and perhaps disruptive to some
>> significant group of people... is this so?
>> 
>> And then, looking at your own message, I must ask: have you considered 
that
>> the Platform is aimed at the great many people who do not have large 
amounts
>> of expertise maintaining their own personal Haskell ecosystem. Or are 
your
>> needs so important that these people must in fact be told to deal?
>> 
>> Or, to phrase in your own words:
>> 
>>> You come across in your mail like someone who has thought through your
>>> own situation, but fail to see the larger picture.
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> brandon s allbery kf8nh sine nomine associates
>> allbery.b at gmail.com ballbery at sinenomine.net
>> unix/linux, openafs, kerberos, infrastructure http://sinenomine.net
(http://sinenomine.net)
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Magnus Therning OpenPGP: 0xAB4DFBA4
> email: magnus at therning.org jabber: magnus at therning.org
> twitter: magthe http://therning.org/magnus(http://therning.org/magnus)
> 
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