[Haskell] Haskell Platform: status update and call for volunteers

[Duncan Coutts]

All,

We'd like to give you an update on the status of the Haskell Platform.

Background
----------
For background on what the Haskell Platform is about see these slides:
http://blog.well-typed.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/haskell-platform.pdf

The wiki page also gives an overview and links to further resources:
http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Haskell_Platform

Current status
--------------
There are no more policy questions to resolve for the first release. It
is a matter of getting things done.

The first platform release will contain:
      * ghc-6.10.2
      * the "extra libs" (exact list on the issue tracker wiki below)
      * haddock, happy and alex
      * the cabal command line tool and it's dependencies.

The plan calls for binary installers for Windows and OSX, a generic
source tarball for Unix, and native packages for distros.

Currently however things are stalled because Don and I have been too
busy to put serious time into the task of building installers. It is not
fair for our time problems to hold everything up.

Call for volunteers
-------------------
We are calling for volunteers for an action group. We need volunteers to
take charge of various platforms and to manage the overall release. We
would like to release a beta at the upcoming Haskell Hackathon in
Utrecht (April 17-19). However this will *only* happen if people
volunteer to help build distributions for different platforms.

In particular we need:
      * Release manager / coordinator
      * Website with downloads and release notes
      * Someone in charge of each platform:
              * Windows installer
              * OSX installer
              * Generic Unix source tarball
              * Distribution packages: debian, fedora, gentoo, arch,
                BSD* etc

Don and I will be able to help coordinate things and point people in the
direction of tasks that need doing.

The person in charge of each platform is responsible for building
appropriate native packages / installer and coordinating the effort to
test that the stuff installs ok and works.

If no one volunteers, we simply won't have an Haskell Platform release
for that platform.

Resources:
      * Meta-package: darcs get http://code.haskell.org/haskell-platform
      * Issue tracker: http://trac.haskell.org/haskell-platform/
      * Mailing list:
        http://projects.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/haskell-platform

Please join the mailing list and volunteer!


In the medium term we want to organise things with two overlapping
groups. A "doers" group and a "talkers" group. The "doers" group deals
with actually building installers and packages and making releases. The
"talkers" group is for making decisions (in consultation with the
community in general) about which packages go into the platform and what
standards to demand of them.

We are looking for volunteers for the action group now. As we mentioned,
for the first release there is nothing for the talkers to do, though
there will be plenty to do for the second major release.

Duncan and Don