[Haskell-cafe] downloading GHC

[Ketil Malde]

Brandon S Allbery KF8NH <allbery at ece.cmu.edu> writes:

>> Linux users don't have easy binary installers, usually. What can we do
>> about this bootstrapping problem?

> I thought the answer to that was supposed to be "bug your distribution to
> package the Platform".

In my case, it's more like bug the IT department to get with the times
and drop distributions like RHEL and CentOS.  And I do try, but to my
perpetual chagrin, I'm not always as high on their priority list as I
might wish...

As a developer, I'd like to work with cutting-edge compilers and tools.
As a user, I want to run on the conservatively configured servers in the
basement.  Glibc makes my binaries non-portable between systems, and
somewhat ironically, the same issue that prevents me to compile on my
development system and deploy on the server, also prevents me from
deploying modern development tools on the server and make a compatible
build.

It seems to me that the easiest solution is to have a different libc to
link against for static builds, but given the huge amount of complaints
about this around the net, and the glaring lack of any solution, I guess
it's not that easy.

-k
-- 
If I haven't seen further, it is by standing in the footprints of giants