[Haskell-cafe] Re: ANNOUNCE: Utrecht Haskell Compiler (UHC) -- first release

[Edward Middleton]

Richard O'Keefe wrote:
> On 20 Apr 2009, at 10:27 pm, Jules Bean wrote:
>> However, the point here is surely that the de-facto default for all
>> other downloaded programs - standard makefile setups, automake,
>> autoconf, perl package, python packages, graphic installers like
>> firefox - is do to what cabal calls a 'global' install by default.
>
> The assumption here seems to be that everyone owns their own machine
> or has a system adminstrator with large amounts of free time on their
> hands.  Just because a lot of other people are doing something crazy
> doesn't mean we have to copy them.

The assumption is that you are running a multipurpose computer, i.e.
your Haskell compiler isn't the only application you care about and you
don't want it or other applications to interact badly together.   The
best way to do this is to have a package maintained by the distribution,
and not have users or even sysadmins directly install it from source. 
Using non-standard installation methods makes it harder for package
maintainers to package the application and suggests you haven't taken
any care / don't care about making global installation safe.

Edward