[Haskell-cafe] When did it become so hard to install Haskell onWindows?

[Richard O'Keefe]

I note that I have installed several Smalltalk systems under Windows
without once having to touch PowerShell.
I further note that I installed the latest version of R (4.0.0) for Windows:
Just the usual download/run/yes installer may change things/setup clicks.
No PowerShell.
I also installed the latest SageMath.  The first choice for that is a
VirtualBox image,
but a traditional installer is one click away.
Same thing.  Clickety-clickety and no PowerShell in sight.

I tried to like PowerShell.  I really did.  Got a bunch of books, read
'em, played with it.
You'd have to use it a LOT before it started making sense, and I had
other maddened
grizzly bears to stun.

On Sun, 26 Apr 2020 at 13:01, Anthony Clayden
<anthony_clayden at clear.net.nz> wrote:
>
>
> @lonetiger, I take it you've never had to support software installs on shared machines, or students'  machines where you can't be too sure of the config?
>
> The reasons against using powershell and curl (or equiv) I would have thought are pretty obvious:
> you don't know what you're getting/what it might be downloading.
> You might mis-type some command and cause havoc on your machine or on your network.
>
> With Hugs you download the packed-up .exe; you disconnect from the internet and run virus checks; you run the install while your machine is still in quarantine. With Hugs install you (usually) don't need to go into Admin mode.
>
> Just because some long-winded process is "completely standard on Windows", doesn't mean it's fit for use.
> That's a general learning about stuff from Microsoft.
>
> AntC
>
> ➢ Then I have to know what powershell.exe is, use an administrative prompt, and enter scary commands in it.
>
> > Powershell has been the standard shell in Windows for well over the past decade. Every single script from Microsoft or third parties come with powershell for automation.
> It’s understandable that you may not know it since your primary platform isn’t Windows. But it’s been included in every single Windows version for the past 13 years.
>
> > An administrative prompt is nothing different than running sudo or clicking on that installer that you *assumed* not to be scary because you didn’t see the actions it was performing.
> That scary looking command is nothing but a curl command allowing the one time execution of a script from a remote source. As in a script that’s not physically on your machine.
>
> > So what exactly makes this scary? Is it because
>
> > Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))
>
> > Is more verbose than
>
> > curl -sSL https://path.to.some.script/ | sh
>
> > or because the technologies used while completely standard on Windows aren’t known to the casual user?
>
>
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