Cabal/cabal-install 1.24 release status

[Mikhail Glushenkov]

Hi *,

As some of you know, I've recently been elected as Cabal "chair"/release
coordinator. GHC 8/Cabal 1.24 release date is fast approaching, so I'll try to
summarise my current plans regarding the next release.


Release schedule:

* I'll create the 1.24 branch in about two weeks' time (Dec. 30 let's say).

* GHC 8 RC1 will be using Cabal HEAD/1.23.

* If there will be a GHC 8 RC2 (Herbert tells me it's very likely), it'll use
  the Cabal 1.24 pre-release (1.24 branch).

* Cabal 1.24 final will be released simultaneously with GHC 8 (maybe a bit
  earlier).

* cabal-install 1.24 will be released either simultaneously with Cabal 1.24, or
  soon after. I don't want to delay it by much.


Cabal patches I'd like to see in 1.24:

* Library support for Duncan's nix-local-build branch. This has just went
  in (#2948).

* Kristen's improved 'Setup configure' (#2925). Needs a review.

* Edsko's foreign library patches (#2540). Mostly ready to go in, but needs
  rebasing and some additional review.

* **/* globbing (#2522). I want to rework it a bit.

* (Possibly) #2829 - Thomas's reconfigure work, though he seems to have
  abandoned it.


cabal-install patches I'd like to see in 1.24:

* hackage-security. Duncan tells me that Edsko is working on it right at
  the moment, and some preliminary patches have already been merged. We may
  delay cabal-install's release a bit to get this in.

* Duncan's nix-local-build work in some form. This release will probably be a
  "technical preview".

* Andres's solver patches (#2731). Needs tests.

* Kristen's solver improvements (#2917, #2916, #2914). Would be nice if Andres
  could do a review.

* 'gen-bounds' (#2774).

* 'user-config init' (either #2640 or #2604).


Comments welcome!


Some other TODO items on my list:

* Gershom/Haskell.org are willing to allocate some build bot time to us for
  producing cabal-install binaries (Windows/OS X/Linux) and possibly
  nightlies. This will need a patch to ghc-builder [2], but should in principle
  be not that hard to set up. GitHub Releases can be used for hosting downloads.

* Revamp the web site [3]. I'd like to set up a news feed/blog and start posting
  monthly news updates akin to what haskell-mode devs have been doing [4].

* Reorganise the user guide. We need to put more focus on the 'cabal' tool and
  less on the 'Setup.hs' interface.


If someone is willing to help me with these three last ones, it'd be
appreciated!


[1] http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.cabal.devel/10408
[2] https://github.com/haskell/ghc-builder
[3] https://www.haskell.org/cabal/
[4] https://github.com/haskell/haskell-mode/wiki/Month-in-Haskell-Mode-July-2015