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

[Carter Schonwald]

Hi Eugene,
To the best of my knowledge there is absolutely no reason to use the 32bit
haskell on OS X (aside from memory usage optimization cases which likely do
not matter to the *typical* user), and the community should probably update
the recommendation to reflect this.

I can certainly attest to having to baby sit new haskellers when installing
and repeatedly say  "yes, do the 64 bit version, please, no, ignore the
recommendation for 32bit, no one knows why its there, but its wrong"

what can we (the community ) do to address the fact that the haskell
platform installer suggestions for os x are sadly completely backwards? (or
am I completely wrong in my personal stance on this matter)

cheers
-Carter

On Tue, Sep 25, 2012 at 7:52 PM, Eugene Kirpichov <ekirpichov at gmail.com>wrote:

> 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
>
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