[Haskell-cafe] Re: Hackage survey

[Sylvain Le Gall]

Hello,

On 16-07-2010, Ivan Lazar Miljenovic <ivan.miljenovic at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'd like to request some clarification of some of the questions:
>
> 1. By "all projects", are you including one-use only scripts?  How about
>    university assessments (when it isn't Haskell-oriented, just have to
>    write a program to do some simulation or something) and thus it isn't
>    meant to be something used by other people or used after a certain
>    date, etc.?
>

You can use cabal as a standalone build system generator. So you can use
it also for unreleased projects. Using it this way shows that the tool
"cabal" itself is useful.

But you need to draw a line, so if you don't use it for "one-use only
scripts", I think you should still answer "for all projects". But if you
only use it for project that you intend to publish, you should answer
"Only for projects released on Hackage".


> 3. I use cabal-install only in testing my own packages (as it's easier
>    to do "cabal foo" than "runhaskell Setup.hs foo").  I also use
>    cabal-install to test which packages I have installed have newer
>    versions available (cabal update && cabal upgrade --dry-run) so that
>    I can update the Gentoo packages for them.  As such, which option
>    should I choose from the ones offered (as none of them match my
>    case)?  Should the question be clarified and be  made more explicit?
>

Depending if you only use Gentoo Haskell package or not:
- if you use only Gentoo packages:
  "No, I only use packages from my Linux/Mac/Windows distribution"
- if you still have some packages installed from Cabal:
  "I use cabal-install when my Linux/Mac/Windows distribution doesn't
  provide the package"

> 9. I wouldn't classify Hackage as a "tool", but even still, what happens
>    if we think Hackage is very important but still should be replaced?
>    (Playing devil's advocate here: I think it could do with some
>    upgrades but there's no need to completely throw out what's already
>    there).
>

It depends how strong your feeling about Hackage is:
- if you say "damn it misses this or that" each time you use Hackage:
  "Hackage should be replaced by a better tool"
- if you only have minor problems and think it is an important tool:
  "Hackage is a very important tool for the Haskell community"

Regards,
Sylvain Le Gall