[Haskell-cafe] ping haskell.org timeout

[Ketil Malde]

Jason Dagit <dagitj at gmail.com> writes:

>>> Lots of servers turn off ICMP packet responses these days

>> Because users don't really need error messages, that's privileged
>> information for system administrators.

> Besides, if someone is trying to debug http protocol issues using
> ICMP, they're taking an awfully indirect route.

Yes, first thing would be to check the log files.  Oh, wait, users don't
have read permissions for those...

> I think the reason it gets disabled is typically well intentioned.

And we all know where that road leads - to frustration and low quality
services, that's where.

Sorry for my grumpiness - this is a constant struggle for me. :-)

>> It takes a while to complete with no visual feedback.  Perhaps the
>> network is just slow?  Or perhaps the web pages are cached somewhere
>> along the way?

> All of those are plausible [..]

Perhaps 'cabal update' should provide some visual feedback by default?
There's -v, but there's still a noticable pause (15 seconds on a fairly
beefy computer and a good connection) between "Downloaded to [..]" and
"Reading available packages...".

The index is 3MB, it's probably not big enough that a smarter protocol
(rsync/rdiff?) would improve things?  Except perhaps checking that it
has been updated since the last update - that'd probably save a ton of
bandwidth if/when people do automatic updates.

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