[Haskell] Re: Trying to install binary-0.4

[Udo Stenzel]

Bjorn Bringert wrote:
> The tar package uses System.PosixCompat from the unix-compat package  
> to also work under non-posix systems (read Windows). This dependency  
> is listed in the tar.cabal file (see http://hackage.haskell.org/ 
> packages/archive/tar/0.1/tar.cabal). System.Posix was never renamed.
> [...]
> Why not just install unix-compat? It is listed as a dependency after  
> all.

Actually Windows claims to be a Posix system, too (not that I really
believe it or care much).  Iirc, unix-compat blew up on GHC 6.4, too,
again by picking up the wrong Cabal.  I'll check this again tomorrow
(don't have access to that machine right now).

Anyway, I don't see why something that provides the same functionality
as something else needs a different name.  With the mechanism of
something like apt (Provides, Conflicts, Replaces, ...) I'd have no
problem, but Cabal doesn't do that stuff.

Maybe it should, though.


> I seem to be able to build the tar package against binary-0.3. What  
> exactly is the error that you are getting?

No "instance MonadFix Get" (from memory, I can check this again once I
calm down...)

 
> By the way, I don't think that users of open source software have a  
> right to be pissed off, or at least authors don't have an obligation  
> to care about them being pissed off. What users do have is a right to  
> submit patches.

No sir, I always have a right to be pissed off.  What I don't have is a
right to demand anything from you.  The problem with patches is how do
you patch something as thoroughly messed up as 'base-2.0' vs. 'base-2.1'
vs. 'base-2.1.1'?  If I saw a way to fix it, you'd already have a patch,
but all I have right now is a GHC with an afroengineered package
configuration and a mutilated tar package...

 
> That said, I agree that the constantly changing packages make it hard  
> to keep dependencies up to date.

Moreover, the conical place to find packages is Hackage, right?  Tar is
there, unix-compat is and binary is, too.  But bytestring is missing.
Which means you have to hunt down bytestring separately, and
cabal-get will fail, too.  It also means that some of these packages
cannot work on any released version of GHC.


> I guess that this is price we pay for moving quickly.

Is it impossible to move quickly on GHC 6.4?


-Udo
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