[Haskell-cafe] haskell compiler on NetBSD amd64

[Don Stewart]

kili:
> 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).

The debian port is inspiring in this regard. E.g. xmonad is available
for:

    alpha, amd64, arm, hppa, i386, ia64, mips, mipsel, s390, sparc

http://packages.debian.org/sid/xmonad

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

So in 6.8.2 only those actually required to build ghc should be in the
core.
  
> * 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.

yeah, a tool to spit out Makefile defs from .cabal files to automate the
process of getting the 500 things on hackage into the ports tree would
be ideal.

-- Don