GHC on Windows (extended/broad discussion)

Wed Oct 29 09:59:18 UTC 2014

Hi All,

Sorry for the late reply, I need to adjust my mail filtering rules to let
these mails go to my inbox as well.

I have also taken a few passes through the windows trac and there are a lot
of issues with someone assigned to them but with no activity so a while on
them. I was also wondering the state of these.

> The Win32 package for example, is
dreadfully lacking in maintainership. While we merge patches, it would
be great to see a Windows developer spearhead and clean it up

A while back I was looking at adding some functionality to this package,
but could never figure out which one was actually being used. I think there
are multiple repositories out there.

> Would folks be interested in a Skype/Hangout sometime

I would be interested in this, though timezones may prove to be an issue,
or not.

Regards,
Tamar

On Tue, Oct 28, 2014 at 11:02 PM, Simon Peyton Jones <simonpj at microsoft.com>
wrote:

>   The people problem is tricky. At work, this would be the right time to
> do a video chat and at least see the faces of the other people involved.
> Would folks be interested in a Skype/Hangout sometime? It would be
> interesting to hear what interests / skills / resources / constraints we
> have between us.
>
>
>
> I think that’s a great idea, thanks.  It’s easier to work with people with
> whom you have formed a personal relationship, and a video conf is a good
> way to do that.
>
>
>
> Simon
>
>
>
> *From:* ghc-devs [mailto:ghc-devs-bounces at haskell.org] *On Behalf Of *Gintautas
> Miliauskas
> *Sent:* 28 October 2014 16:08
> *To:* Austin Seipp
> *Cc:* kyra; ghc-devs at haskell.org
> *Subject:* Re: GHC on Windows (extended/broad discussion)
>
>
>
> Hey Austin,
>
>
>
> thanks for pushing this forward. It sure looks like Windows deserves more
> attention than it is getting.
>
>
>
> We definitely need a broader action plan. My thoughts were close to yours:
>
>
>
> 1. Push through the gcc compiler upgrade (D339)
>
> 2. Fix the Windows continuous builds. This is necessary to prevent
> regressions.
>
> 3. Make sure validate.sh results are clean on Windows. Tests that are
> known to be failing are not providing new information, they should be
> disabled and issues filed.
>
> 4. Triage the Windows bug list. I already made a few passes, but most of
> the bugs are far from trivial. I think we'll need to prioritize very
> aggressively to focus the limited resources.
>
>
>
> Are there any broader ideas for architecture-level changes related to GHC
> on Windows?
>
>
>
> The people problem is tricky. At work, this would be the right time to do
> a video chat and at least see the faces of the other people involved. Would
> folks be interested in a Skype/Hangout sometime? It would be interesting to
> hear what interests / skills / resources / constraints we have between us.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Oct 25, 2014 at 2:24 AM, Austin Seipp <austin at well-typed.com>
> wrote:
>
>  Gintautas, Tamar, Roman,
>
> (CC'ing those on
> https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/WindowsTaskForce, and Kyrill,
> who has helped us out much in the past)
>
> Thank you all for all your help with Windows recently. I apologize for
> not responding to some of your concerns sooner in the recent threads
> about tarballs, etc.
>
> First off, all your contributions are extremely welcome - GHC has had
> many talented Windows hackers in days long past, but these days this
> number has dwindled! Anyone who has an interest in GHC on Windows is
> in a place to make a big impact and help us. All the work Gintautas
> has done for example, will dramatically improve the ghc-tarballs
> scenario.
>
> On that note: Gintautas, I will get D339 merged in ASAP, as soon as I
> test it and make a download mirror for you. Haskell.org has an awesome
> new CDN setup, and once I implement https://downloads.haskell.org, it
> will be easy to update tarballs and serve them to mass amounts of
> users.
>
> However, beyond that, we still need more done. First off, if you can
> help, we can help you! We can make lots of Windows build bots for
> people on demand, so if you're in desperate need of disk space or your
> computers are a bit slow, we can help accommodate.
>
> Right now, we have nightly builds with Gabor's[1] build system, and
> soon, we're working on a Phabricator integration, which should be
> great - and hopefully reduce the amount of breakage substantially.
>
> I also notice there is a ticket list of Windows issues[2], and that's
> fantastic. After a quick glance, a lot of these tickets are old,
> duplicates, or could possibly be closed or fixed easily. A good first
> task for any new contributor would be to go through this list, and try
> to replicate some of them! And you can always ask me - I can certainly
> help you navigate GHC a bit to get somewhere.
>
> But there are still other things. The Win32 package for example, is
> dreadfully lacking in maintainership. While we merge patches, it would
> be great to see a Windows developer spearhead and clean it up - we
> could even make some improvements in GHC itself based on this. This
> would be an excellent opportunity to make a good impact in the broader
> ecosystem!
>
> Finally, we desperately need someone to consult with when we're up a
> creek. Are certain patches OK for Windows? What's the best way to fix
> certain bugs, or implement certain features? I feel like often we try
> to think about this, but it's a bit lonely when nobody else is there
> to help! I'm not sure how to fix this, other than encouraging things
> like doing active code reviews and helping grind out some patches. But
> at the very minimum, I'd just like to talk with you about things
> perhaps!
>
> So in summary - the work so far is grand, and we want to help you do
> more! And I'm sure everyone can help - there's always so much to do
> and so little time, we need to encourage it all we can.
>
> As Simon says: Upward and Onward!
>
> [1] http://haskell.inf.elte.hu/builders/
> [2]
> https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/query?status=!closed&os=Windows&desc=1&order=id
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Austin Seipp, Haskell Consultant
> Well-Typed LLP, http://www.well-typed.com/
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Gintautas Miliauskas
>
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>
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