[Haskell-cafe] Hoogle and Network.Socket

[Thomas DuBuisson]

On Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 1:04 PM, Neil Mitchell <ndmitchell at gmail.com> wrote:
> 1) What packages should Hoogle search by default?

At the very least - all of the Haskell Platform.  If/when it searches
more (+hackage flag?), perhaps the results could be ordered to place
the HP functions first.

> 2) What groups of packages should Hoogle have available? Each package
> individually? All packages which compile on Windows? All packages by a
> certain author? All packages whose minor version number is even?

All of the most recent packages on hackage should be indexed by Hoogle.

> 3) What UI should Hoogle show?

For local installs (command line) basic --help documentation and
flags/switches should do.   Flags such as +windows +nix +osx etc would
be fine by me.  For a web GUI I care less, but feel that even if
check-boxes exist the flags should still work (for using hoogle in the
search bar).

I still prefer showing all platform results sorted into separate
sections with headers, but understand that I am in the minority.

> And the trade offs are:
>
> 1) The packages have to be divided under sensible and clear lines - I
> don't want to (and shouldn't) arbitrate divisions like "good" or
> "popular".

Agreed - and this is why a division between the HP and all of hackage
is good - it seems to be a reasonable and natural division that the
community will already deal with.

> 2) The more packages you search, the less relevant the results will be.

But searches can still be organized - such as my suggestion placing
the HP results first.

> 4) The more UI that is added the more confusing things get.

In this proposal I have advocated or backed:
+windows  +nix +osx
+hackage

Which means there are only five flags I'd care about with hoogle
(counting +network) - I feel that is reasonable.

> 5) My development time for Hoogle derives Bounded, Finite and
> increasingly also derives Small.

Right - and I continue to appreciate the time you do donate.  Going to
add some to that wiki now.

Tom