How to start with GHC development?

[Daniel Trstenjak]

Hi Jan,

On Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 01:56:13PM +0100, Jan Stolarek wrote:
> That's what I'm trying to figure out right now. GHC build system looks very complicated and it 
> seems I'll be spending weeks on understanding it before I can get to the compiler code itself.

I think it's easier to have a fix point. Look for something you would
like to add to GHC, for a bug you would like to fix.

Starting at this fix point you can spread out and learn all the
necessary things to be able to implement it.

Sure, you will never know if you know enough to implement it in the most
fitting way for GHC. But I would consider this as part of the learning
process and the GHC developers will give you appropriate feedback.

I think that it's quite hard to learn such a big system like GHC in a top to
bottom manner and for myself it's easier to stay motivated if I've
a concrete task, the learning has a concrete reason.


Greetings,
Daniel