Haskell library infrastructure coordinator

[Alastair Reid]

On Wednesday 28 May 2003 1:13 pm, Ketil Z. Malde wrote:

> I think it makes sense to have the source around -- preferably a CVS
> checkout -- for all but the most basic and fundamental of functions,
> that way we can browse, learn, improve and enhance, and submit the
> modifications easily.  (Do builds get so complex that compiling from
> source is unfeasible?)

There's advantages in working with a CVS checkout (bugs fixed quickly, etc.) 
but there's also disadvantages:

- relies on all library maintainers being able to fix problems promptly
  or large chunks of the tree can get wedged.

  For example, greencard, libraries/x11 and libraries/win32 are (near the
  end of) undergoing large changes.  I haven't made a public release of
  code with those changes in it but there are already bug reports which reveal
  that things broken in one subtree have made it impossible to build and
  install the entire fptools tree.

- if you don't have official releases, you don't have version numbers
  which means you can't write dependencies like:

   requires ghc >= 5.04
   requires greencard < 3.00

- everybody has slightly different source trees so it can be hard to
  reproduce a problem exactly.

- doesn't fit at all well with any existing packaging mechanisms
  (like linux, *bsd, windows, etc. use)

- we shouldn't force people onto the bleeding edge unless there's
  a good reason to.

So, sure, let's have people build their own systems from cvs checkouts if they 
want but let's not make this the standard way of doing things.  Let's make 
version numbered releases the standard.

--
Alastair Reid