[Haskell-cafe] Building examples with Cabal

[Sven Panne]

2013/10/16 adam vogt <vogt.adam at gmail.com>:
> Maybe your examples can be imported into a single module that cabal
> can build/run with cabal test? I mean something like: [...]

Nice idea. :-) I think this might work if one really only need to
check if compilation succeeds, but this is not enough for my use case.
I was a bit unclear about that in my previous description, so let's
try to describe my usual workflow:

   * Decide to work on OpenGL feature X.

   * Make the relevant changes in the OpenGLRaw and/or OpenGL packages.

   * If there are any API changes, see how they affect the >90
examples in the GLUT package.

   * Fix the examples if needed.

   * Run a few examples by hand which are related to feature X.

Incrementally rebuilding OpenGLRaw/OpenGL/GLUT works nicely, and it
would work even better when/if Cabal uses GHC's new -j flag. (How?
When? :-) The only missing part is some way to build tons of
executables in parallel without writing a .cabal file of roughly the
same size as "The Lord of the Rings" or a typical Stephen King
novel...

Currently I am seriously considering generating the .cabal file
somehow automatically, but I think this is only a workaround for a
missing feature.