Hackage plan

[Björn Bringert]

Simon Marlow wrote:
> Isaac Jones wrote:
>> I think that, as far as Hackage (not cabal-install) is concerned, the
>> main usibility points are:
>>
>> 1) getting more packages into it
>> 2) making sure that all the packages build together, and
>> 3) searching
> 
> Ah yes, there was the idea of freezing a collection of packages that 
> build together too.

One related problem is that .cabal files don't allow you to describe the 
dependencies well enough. For example, many packages currently in 
Hackage have fps as a dependency. This is no good with base 2.0, which 
includes what used to be fps. But removing the fps dep will break 
building with base 1.0 + fps.

Some possible solutions:

- Allow boolean expressions not only of versions, but of packages as 
well. E.g.: Build-depends: base >= 2.0 || (base < 2.0 && fps >= 0.7)

- Have one Hackage repository for each Haskell implementation version, 
where the dependencies make sense together.

- Configurations?

/Björn