[arch-haskell] Re: Can I help to maintain Haskell packages on AUR?

[Xyne]

Don: 
> Peter:
> > this is one brilliant plan you have thought out there. I mean, plenty of
> > AUR packages have been out of date for several months, but surely GHC
> > must be updated to 6.12.3 before we can do anything about that! Makes
> > perfect sense to me, and I also totally agree that scripts to update
> > your homepage are far more desperately needed than the ability to
> > install recent Haskell packages on Arch Linux. Great thinking!
> 
> They're scripts that update the entire set of metadata that ensures AUR
> remains consistent, without conflicting versions pruning large parts of
> the build tree.
>   
> > I'll be holding my breath expecting some actual progress by 2020.


I understand both Don's reasoning and Peter's frustration. The
automation of AUR maintenance is great when it runs smoothly and often,
and maintaining consistency in the AUR is vital. At the same time, some
packages are not updated because of the automation, even though they
would be compatible with the existing versions in the AUR. This is not
in the spirit of Arch's rolling-release model. The upstream maintainer
should never have to fight for months to update his own packages on
Arch if that update does not result in any breakage.


> The most significant bottleneck for us is *not* AUR packages -- as they
> can be updated fully automatically, inside of a day -- it is the GHC
> core packages in binary form. Vegai needs help here.

As an active TU, I would be able to help Vegai with anything in
[community] and, if granted access, I could help with [core] and
[extra] packages too.

I also follow aur-general and could handle specific issues that
arise there with Haskell packages managed by the arch-haskell account.

Consider this my application to join the "official" Arch Haskell team
and get things moving a bit faster.

Regards,
Xyne