[arch-haskell] [arch-general] (for Vesa and other Arch Devs on the list) Re: GHC 7.4.1 or HP 2011.4.0.0??

[Magnus Therning]

On Sun, Feb 05, 2012 at 10:18:32PM +0200, Vesa Kaihlavirta wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 4, 2012 at 7:08 PM, Magnus Therning <magnus at therning.org> wrote:
>> This was mainly directed to the Arch Devs on the list, and
>> especially Vesa since he's putting in most of the work on GHC as
>> found in [extra].
>>
>> We've already discussed the question of whether we should keep HP
>> in Arch.  *I* think there was clear what the favoured route ahead
>> was, but in the end it's the Arch Devs who decide.  I don't like
>> the current situation (outdated GHC and outdated HP), so a decision
>> would be much welcome then the work on catching up can begin.
> 
> Yeah, I noticed 7.4.1's release just now.
> 
> The question of HP and Arch was left in a limbo the last time, I
> feel.  The reason I started pondering about dropping HP earlier was
> that there seemed to be no progress on it with regards to 7.2. Then
> it was pointed out that 7.2 was sort of an unstable upstream
> release, so that was the reason for HP not going with it.

Here's how I think:

1. The decision to not go with 7.2 was not bad.  I think upstream
   caused a bit of confusion by giving a stable-release-number to a
   tech preview.
2. I think the correct path forward is to drop HP.  HP is a set of
   libraries, and it blesses certain versions of those libraries.
   Each of those libraries is however released independently as well
   so sticking with HP feels counter to how the Arch Way is
   practised[1].
3. My impression was that there was a majority of people on the
   ArchHaskell mailing list in favour of dropping HP.

> So now I'm not so certain anymore about dropping it. We could again
> wait for a while until HP catches up (it should be relatively fast
> this time, since 7.4 is supposedly a real stable release) or just
> drop it and go to 7.4.1 asap (and probably face some breakage). What
> do you people think?

There's still a bit of work needed to keep up with HP since there's
been a new release with GHC 7.0.4.

/M

[1]: I write it this way since I can't find anything in the Arch Way
saying that it's a goal to always stay with the latest release of
packages.

/M

-- 
Magnus Therning                      OpenPGP: 0xAB4DFBA4 
email: magnus at therning.org   jabber: magnus at therning.org
twitter: magthe               http://therning.org/magnus


Perl is another example of filling a tiny, short-term need, and then
being a real problem in the longer term.
     -- Alan Kay
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