[Haskell-cafe] XCode Dependency for HP on Mac

[Tom Murphy]

On 7/27/11, Ivan Lazar Miljenovic <ivan.miljenovic at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Installing the Haskell Platform currently requires XCode developer tools.
>>
>> To get XCode on my 10.6 machine, I...
>
> My understanding is that it's about $5 (though I seem to recall
> hearing that they recently made it free), but I don't use OSX so I
> can't really help you.
>

The choices Apple's given me are OS X 10.7 ($30), or Developer Account
($99/1 year). I don't see XCode available for sale without one of
these two.

>> Is there a way to install HP without XCode? Could there be in the
>> future? [...] it seems like a
>> small function that XCode actually performs in the Haskell development
>> "toolchain."
>
> A C compiler (specifically gcc; not sure if anyone has tried GHC with
> clang yet).  Whilst GHC doesn't need to go via C any more, the Haskell
> Platform does come with some libraries that have a C component; GHC is
> also partly written in C (for the RTS if memory serves) though that
> shouldn't be a factor here as you're getting a binary.
>

If this is the case, couldn't the HP use gcc instead? I'd personally
advocate gcc as standard, not as a workaround, because
a) gcc is FOSS.
b) XCode is 4GB and its functionality is basically orthogonal to the
needs of Haskell developers.

Thanks for your time,
Tom