[Haskell-cafe] haskell compiler on NetBSD amd64

[Matthias Kilian]

On Sat, May 10, 2008 at 03:03:39PM -0700, Don Stewart wrote:
> > I've to admit that the ghc port for OpenBSD is a little bit weird ;-)
> > 
> > (but not as weird as my current work on ghc-6.8 for OpenBSD)
> 
> What's your plan for the OpenBSD port, Kili?

* Proper bootstrapping from .hc files.

* Think about a better way to build the libraries; I understand why the
  GHC developers do it using the makefiles generated by Cabal, but I'd
  really prefer something less intrusive (i.e. let Cabal generate only
  some makefile snippets with dependencies, special flags etc. and
  include those snippets from a "classical" Makefile that fits better
  into the good old fptools framework).

* Port it to more archs (arm, powerpc, maybe alpha and vax, and, if I'll
  ever be at that point, to everything else, at least unregisterised).

* Omit as many core libraries as possible from the build, and make
  separate ports for them.

* Improve ghc.port.mk to make ports of "standard" stuff on hackage
  more simple. Currently all GHC-depending ports are a real mess, for
  example xmonad:
  http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/ports/x11/xmonad/
  With the new ghc.port.mk, all the do-something targets will vanish,
  and the xmonad Makefile will just contain a line like

	MODGHC_BUILD=           cabal hackage haddock register

  which means: use Cabal (Setup.hs or Setup.lhs), fetch sources
  from hackage, use haddock to build the documentation, create
  register/unregister scripts that update package.conf on
  installation/deinstallation.


Ciao,
	Kili