Haskell library infrastructure coordinator

Alastair Reid alastair@reid-consulting-uk.ltd.uk
Thu, 29 May 2003 12:06:11 +0100


Alastair Reid wrote:
> > I think it's a mistake to make it a Haskell script though because that's
> > bound to lead to bootstrapping issues.  I'd use a shell script instead.

On Wednesday 28 May 2003 10:38 pm, David Roundy wrote:
> The shell script would lead to issues on windows, though. [...]

Remember, we're talking about a script for _building_ packages not for 
installing them.  For windows, people will use .msi packages to install.

People who want to build packages generally need to install a bunch of other 
things too.  Obviously, GHC users will have installed cygwin (whcih includes 
shells) but even Hugs users need to install a C compiler if they're using a 
package that uses the foreign function interface (and quite a lot of 
libraries involve the ffi).  

Also, my experience from Hugs is that people do not want to build packages 
from source and, though I think binary packages are a flawed concept, I 
choose to use binary packages for my Linux system even though I could 
theoretically build my entire system from source.

--
Alastair Reid