GHC's build system

[Simon Peyton-Jones]

Friends

There's been quite a bit of discussion about GHC's build system recently, and in particular about the use of Cabal.  Responding to that discussion we now have a new plan, described here:

        http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/Design/BuildSystem

If you've taken an interest in the earlier thread, now would be a good time to look at our plan and help us improve it.

In concrete terms, we propose to develop the changes (which should not be a radical upheaval) on a branch, and merge them into the head *after* the 6.10 code fork.  So the new build system won't be on the 6.10 branch.  It'll take a while to make the new system stabilise, and we want to get 6.10 out!

Some comments and suggestions are best done by email, but please feel free to clarify or amplify wording on the Wiki itself, or add lists of questions and open issues.  The two media are suitable for different things.  But we do want to end up with a *comprehensible* description, with long-term value, of how the new system works, so where things are obscure please help us to clarify it.

All this is somewhat separate to the question of what version control system to use for what.  We're still working on that question!

Simon