[Haskell-community] Request for comment: New haskell.org download page

[John Wiegley]

>>>>> Michael Snoyman <michael at fpcomplete.com> writes:

> There was a lot of discussion on Twitter about this thread, but almost none
> of those participants wrote into this discussion. When I asked why[1], I got
> (at least[2]) two forms of response:
>
> 1. I don't want to sign up for another mailing list just to vote

I've been there before.

> 2. Previous actions made it seem like the voting would be inconsequential to
> the outcome

This is most unfortunate. The voting certainly matters, since I'm looking for
community feedback to finalize the edits.

> To try and lower the barrier to entry, I created a Google Form with the same
> questions as above:

> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1w2wKSxn5YN4LtSXYHvFT2IFw_BDaT_2cjUkP9pDeqLQ/viewform?usp=send_form

Thanks for this additional data.

I've counted the most votes on the ML for #4. Several of those voting for #4
also voted for #5. The Google Form seems to strongly prefer #3 and #5. So
let's drop this down to the three main choices:

    (A) Stack   Minimal HP
    (B) Minimal HP      Stack
    (C) Minimal Stack   HP

(A) has a very strong showing on the Google Form, but not on the ML. The
arguments I've collected right now for not preferring (A) are:

  - Stack hasn't proven itself over time yet, the way cabal has.
  - Stack doesn't actually download a Haskell compiler.
  - Stack does not make using "ghci" easy.

As for whether HP should be first or not (B or C), I don't have strong
feelings, since we *are* going to merge the two options.

I'd like to open a second round of voting now on these three options, unless
someone wishes to make a case for those that were dropped.

> Given the obvious sentiment around (2) mentioned above, I think it's
> important to pay attention to what people are saying outside of this mailing
> list.

If you know of discussions happening elsewhere (SO, reddit, Google+, etc),
please let me know, since I don't follow those communities. I only happened
upon your Twitter discussion because Gabriel retweeted it.

John