[Haskell-cafe] 64-bit vs 32-bit haskell platform on Mac: misleading notice on Platform website?

[Eugene Kirpichov]

Hi,

I installed Haskell Platform 32-bit on a fresh 64-bit mac, because the
page http://www.haskell.org/platform/mac.html says: "Pick the 32-bit
vesion, unless you have a specific reason to use the 64-bit version.
The 32-bit one is slightly faster for most programs."

Then, during the installation of a package, the following happeed:

Loading package cairo-0.12.3.1 ... <command line>: can't load .so/.DLL
for: /opt/local/lib/libz.dylib (dlopen(/opt/local/lib/libz.dylib, 9):
no suitable image found.  Did find:
        /opt/local/lib/libz.dylib: mach-o, but wrong architecture)

That libz.dylib is a 64-bit library and it can't be used by 32-bit
Haskell platform.

QUESTION: It seems to me that most people, at least most who care
about "slightly faster" programs, are likely to run into something
like this - using native 64-bit libraries. Compatibility exists only
in the opposite direction. Wouldn't it be appropriate to remove this
notice and ask people to use the 64-bit version unless they have a
specific reason not to?


-- 
Eugene Kirpichov
http://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenekirpichov
We're hiring! http://tinyurl.com/mirantis-openstack-engineer