[Haskell-cafe] RE: [Haskell] GHC 6.10 and OpenGL

[Simon Peyton-Jones]

| It's sad to see the OpenGL binding being dropped from GHC binary
| installers starting from 6.10. Though this issue has been brought up
| and discussed before, I'm sure a lot of people who based their work on
| OpenGL would share the same sympathy.

The plan (which we have perhaps not articulated as clearly as we should) is this:

- We are trying to make the GHC release contain as few libraries as possible
- Instead, you get the "batteries" for GHC (ie the libraries) from the Haskell Platform
        http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Haskell_Platform

This lets GHC HQ get out of the library business, and makes it easier to upgrade libraries independently from GHC.  But it does mean that GHC without the batteries is a feeble thing.  You really want to wait until the HP comes out.

The HP will be released in source form, to be installed by cabal-install, of course. But I believe that the intention is that there should be a Windows installer for it too.

Things I am less clear about
 - When will the first HP release compatible with GHC 6.10 appear?
 - How do users get cabal-install in the first place?  Is there
        a windows installer for it?
 - Where can one find an up-to-date list of what packages are in HP?
 - Is there anyone who is actually planning to do the work of making
        a windows installer for the HP?  The HP home page lists only
        Duncan and Don.

I think it'd be good if it was easy to answer these questions from the HP home page.

Simon