[Haskell-beginners] haskell platform

[Rein Henrichs]

DJ, FWIW:

The policies of the various OS-level package managers tend to make it
difficult for maintainers to update packages frequently. Taking Ubuntu as
an example, packages in ubuntu repos stay at the same version for *the
entire release cycle* of the Ubuntu release that they are on unless a newer
version is backported via the backport repository. In practice, this
generally means that most packages are up to 6 months out of date most of
the time—and packages on older releases can be *years* out of date. (Other
distros such as Arch use a rolling release model that effectively means
that packages tend to get update every few weeks rather than every few
quarters.)

For any software whose rate of change exceeds the rate of change allowed
for by the release cycle or other maintenance practices of your distro,
it's best to seek alternate sources if you intend to use latest
versions. The general strategy for acquiring newer versions of software
through your OS-level package manager is to find alternative repositories.
For Ubuntu, this means the use of PPAs.

However, if you combine the difficulty in installing the latest HP with the
fact that it has more or less fallen into disfavor with the introduction of
Stack, which manages its own installation separately from your OS-level
package manager, the best solution for most people is probably just to use
Stack at this point.

On Wed, Jan 13, 2016 at 12:15 PM DJ <jakep at arqux.com> wrote:

>
>
> On 16-01-11 11:12 PM, amindfv at gmail.com wrote:
>
> "Use stack" is one solution but the Haskell Platform is alive and well
> too. Your distro has an old version of the HP but the current HP has a
> recent GHC.
>
> Tom
>
> Right - thanks for pointing that out. I see that I can download a current
> one from the "generic" link on the HP page. No doubt that is what I should
> use if I stick with HP.
>
> Now I am left to wonder why package maintainers are so far behind on
> Ubuntu and Mint. Which I actually don't care enough about to find the
> answer, since I have two options.
>
> Best,
>
> - DJ -
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