Can't compile GHC

[Duncan Coutts]

On Mon, 2005-05-09 at 09:54 -0400, Daniel Carrera wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I've been trying to learn Haskell.
> 
> Some software isn't user friendly. But I think that a compiler requiring 
> itself to compile is actively user hostile. I've spent over a week 
> trying to get GHC to work on my Solaris workstation and I've concluded 
> that it just isn't going to happen.

We use Solaris on our student workstations at my university. We've got
version of ghc going back as far as ghc 0.29! We currently use 6.2.2.

> I tried to compile GHC but it said taht it needed GHC to compile.
> 
> I read the README trying to find out what people without ghc are 
> supposed to do to install ghc. But no instructions are found.
> 
> I check the website, hoping to find a binary. I find an old binary, but 
> it just won't work. Something about libgcc_s.so.1.

This route is going to be your best bet. Find any binary version of ghc
that works on your Solaris and then from there you've broken the
GHC<->GHC dep cycle.

So once you've got any binary version of GHC installed (going back as
far as 4.08.x) then you can build the version you want from source. As
other peole have said, you want version 6.2.2 since this is a very
stable/bug-free version and it works just fine on Solaris.

Another quick way to get something to teach Haskell is to just use Hugs.
We've used Hugs for years for teaching students. It's only now that
we're finally switching to ghc/ghci.

If you do still find that you're completely stuck in getting a binary
version working I'm sure you/we could persuade the IT people in my
department to send you a binary snapshot (so long as it is for some
educational purpose/institution).

Duncan