[Haskell-cafe] How to determine correct dependency versions for a library?

[Tobias Müller]

Ketil Malde <ketil at malde.org> wrote:
> Aleksey Khudyakov <alexey.skladnoy at gmail.com> writes:
> 
>>> Adding more restrictive constraints does not work, the broken package will
>>> be on hackage forever, while adding a new version with relaxed constraints
>>> works well.
> 
>> That illustrate real problem It's not possible to specify correct
>> version constraints when package is uploaded. So one have to choose
>> between optimistic and conservative approach. Both have disadvantages.
>> In ideal world one need ability to adjust version bounds after package
>> upload.
> 
> +1. Metadata (i.e. the cabal file) chould be editable.  In addition to
> adjusting dependency bounds, Hackage (or third party build servers)
> could add Tested-With, and there could be a deprecated field added when
> problems are discovered.

The last version component (D in A.B.C.D) could be considered the metadata
version. Then cabal could be changed to only take into account the highest
D-values.

Alternatively, if the semantics of D cannot be changed, make it A.B.C.D_M
(M for metadata version). That's the way MacPorts handles the problem.

Tobi