[Haskell-cafe] Cleaning up the Debian act (report from the trenches)

[David Roundy]

On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 1:58 AM, Jason Dagit <dagit at codersbase.com> wrote:
>> 2) Compile GHC yourself. You can even compile and install GHC (and most
>> Haskell software) on a dedicated user account. In this way you avoid
>> messing up you Debian installation if something goes wrong.
>
> I find with Debian this is the way to go.  Install your system and use
> Debian's packages for everything, and then install your own copy of
> anything for which you care what version you're running.
>
> Not everyone will like this option, but I find it's a decent balance
> between using what Debian provides and getting the satisfaction of
> using the versions of things I care about.

I've always used the version of ghc that comes with debian.  Part of
creating decent software is making sure that it compiles with a stable
non-bleeding-edge compiler that is readily available to users.  But
that's probably because  I'm lazy, and would rather write software
that just works than play with the latest bells and whistles.

I have had to compile ghc myself on a few occasions to help  the ghc
folks  track down compiler bugs (i.e. to check behavior under a
different compiler), but for normal use, I would say the sane thing is
to stick with the debian version of ghc.

David