[Haskell-cafe] Re: Announcement: Data.ISO3166_CountryCodes version 0.1

[Jon Fairbairn]

John Millikin <jmillikin at gmail.com> writes:

> Thanks for the library! I'm sure it will be very useful for people
> dealing with internationalized applications / libraries. I have a few
> suggestions, which might make your library easier to use and maintain.
>
> First, it's very common to include generated files in the
> tarball.

Ah. That would solve the problem of the spurious empty .hsc file.

> This allows users to install the package, without installing 3rd-party
> utilities, or downloading (possibly varying) versions from external
> websites. As your library is currently written, two users who install
> it might end up with dramatically different modules, depending on the
> contents of < http://www.iso.org/iso/iso3166_en_code_lists.txt >.

It would take a major global political ructions to make them
/dramatically/ different, but I'm aware of the issue...

> Second, since the module is based on an external data set, a
> date-based version might more appropriate. "Version 0.1" means
> nothing, but "version 2010.4.24" indicates when the given version was
> generated. Alternatively, you can use a hybrid system to indicate both
> stability and the date -- such as 0.1.20100424.

Something like this is already on my TODO list, but the date
that I want to appear in the version number would be the
last-modified-date of the downloaded code-list. How do I get
that (which the build already puts into a file¹) into the .cabal
file?

> Third, if you'd like your module to be widely used in the Haskell
> community, the BSD3 or MIT license would be more appropriate. For
> technical reasons, the GPL and LGPL are essentially equivalent for
> Haskell packages. For political reasons, choosing the GPL will reduce
> your user market to free-software users. This isn't *necessarily* bad
> -- all of my large projects are GPL'd -- but be aware that your choice
> will heavily limit how many people use your library.

Something close GPL is what I want -- if I'm doing this for
openly and for nothing, I don't see why anyone should build
something on the back of it and make it proprietary without me
having a say. I'd be happy to put a notice somewhere to the
effect that I'm willing to negotiate terms for a separate
license for inclusion in proprietary code, though I'd like to
know the proper way of doing that.

> Fourth, consider storing your code in a version control system (like
> Darcs[1]),

it already is.  

> and publishing it on a website like Patch-Tag[2].

I was waiting for it to be uploaded overnight. If my rsync
system isn't configured to delete it next time, 

   darcs get --lazy http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~jf15/ISO3166_CountryCodes/

should get a copy.

[
 trying that without the "--lazy" just now netted me this:
    darcs: bug in darcs!
    Another possible bug in URL.waitNextUrl:  curl_multi_perform() - no running handles at src/URL.hs:243 compiled Sep 12 2009 12:18:27
    I'm unable to check http://darcs.net/maintenance to see if this version is supported.
    If it is supported, please report this to bugs at darcs.net
    If possible include the output of 'darcs --exact-version'.

 which isn't encouraging.
]

> This enables people to contribute patches more easily. I've
> already checked it in as a branch[3]

That was a bit premature!

> -- either branch mine, or create your own trunk.

No! :-P

> Finally, instead of using a Makefile to build the library or
> documentation, consider using the cabal-install utility[4]. It's much
> more common for a library to use "cabal build" or "cabal haddock" than
> custom make commands, and external tools (such as Hackage) will work
> better.

I'd be grateful for a patch (against my repo) that did that.
I've used make for thirty years, so learning something else
doesn't hold great appeal.


[1] I was going to do something more sophisticated with the
last-modified-date, but in ghc 6.10.4 date and time handling
seems to be a bit of a mess, so I abandoned it.

-- 
Jón Fairbairn                                 Jon.Fairbairn at cl.cam.ac.uk
http://www.chaos.org.uk/~jf/Stuff-I-dont-want.html  (updated 2009-01-31)