GHC 7.8.4: call for tickets, show stoppers, and timelines - oh my!

[Austin Seipp]

Hi *,

After some discussion with Simon & Mikolaj today, I'd like to direct
you all at this:

https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/Status/GHC-7.8.4

This status page is the basic overview of what we plan on doing for
7.8.4. There are two basic components to this page:

 - Show stopping bugs.
 - Everything else, which is "nice to have".

Show stoppers are listed at the top of the page, in the first
paragraph. Right now, this includes:

 - #9439 - LLVM mangling too vigorously.
 - #8819 - Arithmetic failures for unregistered systems
 - #8690 - SpecConstr blow-up

And that's all. But what's all the other stuff? That's "everything else".

Aside from these tickets listed here - and any future amendments to it
- all other tickets will only be considered nice-to-have. What does
that mean?

 - It's low risk to include.
 - It clearly fixes the problem
 - It doesn't take Austin significant amounts of time to merge.

For example, "Tickets marked merge with no milestone" are all
nice-to-have. Similarly, all the *closed tickets* on this page may be
re-opened and merged again[1], since most didn't make it to 7.8.4.

Ditto with the remaining categories.

OK, so that's the gist. Now I ask of you the following:

 - If you have a show-stopping bug with GHC 7.8.3, **you really,
_positively_ need to file a bug, and get in contact with me ASAP**.
Otherwise you'll be waiting for 7.10 most likely.
 - Again: if you have a show stopper, contact me. Very soon.
 - If there are bugs you *think* are showstoppers, but we didn't
categorize them properly, let me know.

Anything we accept as a show-stopper will delay the release of 7.8.4.
Anything else can (and possibly will) be left behind. Luckily, almost
all of the show stoppers have patches. Only #8819 does not, but I have
asked Sergei to look into it for me if he has time today.

Finally, I would please ask that users/developers do not include their
own personal pet tickets under "show stoppers" without consulting me
first, at least. :) If it's just nice to have, you can still pester
me, of course, and I'll try to make it happen.

I would like to have 7.8.4 out and done with by mid November, before
we freeze the new STABLE branch for 7.10.1. That's not a hard
deadline; just a timeframe I'd like to hit.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments; thanks!

[1] A lot of the closed tickets on this page had an improper milestone
set, which is why they show up. You can mostly ignore them, I
apologize.

-- 
Regards,

Austin Seipp, Haskell Consultant
Well-Typed LLP, http://www.well-typed.com/