new Library Infrastructure spec.

[S. Alexander Jacobson]

On Wed, 9 Jun 2004, Malcolm Wallace wrote:
> You are almost certainly Joe, if your ideal world is to download a
> .msi InstallShield binary package and press the button.

I'm not Joe.  According to the proposal:

  Joe User is simply a Haskell user. He does not
  download new packages.

I'm not Bob or Sam either:

  Bob the Builder and Sam Sysadmin both download,
  build, and install new packages. The only
  difference between the two is that Sam has root
  permission, and can install packages in more
  globally-visible places.

I do have "root" permission on my windows laptop
and occasionaly install stuff in more
"globally-visible places" but, since I haven't
bothered to get the cygwin toolchain working
properly to produce DLLs and my C is really really
rusty , I don't really *build* new packages.

Let's have two new roles:  Wally Windows and Peter
Packager.  Wally installs but does not necessarily
build. Peter builds but does not necessarily
install.

The proposal should simply define the file format
that Angela and Peter use to deliver Haskell
packages to Wally.  A Haskell package is
some combiation of:

   * Haskell source
   * binary libs for the target platform,
   * documentation,
   * data,
   * and meta-data

Wally's local Haskell interpreter/compiler should
know how to unpack a Haskell Package and
install/register its component files in the
appropriate places on his system with minimal
fuss.

Angela's local Haskell interpreter/compiler should
make it easy for her to create a Haskell Package
if it doesn't have any binaries (or she already
has the binaries she needs and is targetting a
particular platform).

Marcus and Peter can use Autoconf/Make or whatever
they want to build the packages from C (or
whatever source).  There is no reason that the
packaging system needs to invoke autoconf/make
(especially given that we can't assume Wally
actually has autoconf/make!)

Similarly, if installation involves other sorts of
files (e.g. installing autoconf/make), Peter can
use RPM .msi etc. to do that job, perhaps invoking
the Haskell packaging system from there.  The
packaging system does not need a way to invoke RPM
etc.

This thing should be super-simple; a package file
format together with a meta-data format telling an
installer how to handle package contents.

-Alex-

_________________________________________________________________
S. Alexander Jacobson                  mailto:me at alexjacobson.com
tel:917-770-6565                       http://alexjacobson.com







> "S. Alexander Jacobson" <haskell at alexjacobson.com> writes:
>
> > There are e.g. Win32 installers HDirect and
> > HaskellScript.  Who produced them and who is
> > intended to use them?
>
> Bob the Builder produced them.  Joe User uses them.
>
> But you are right, there is indeed an intermediate role, the person who
> downloads and installs the binary package.  This does not necessarily
> involve any building, but still requires a minor degree of knowledge
> of the packaging scheme.
>
> However, in Cabal, there are many different possible binary packaging
> schemes.  Various people will use RPM, .deb, .msi, apt-get, BSD ports,
> and so on.  Essentially, we assume that the person who downloads and
> installs one of these formats is competent with their chosen mechanism.
> They just use whatever is standard for their platform.  So it seems
> fair to characterise that role as Joe User, since we don't really
> expect any familiarity with Cabal.  Indeed, such a person does not
> (knowingly) use Cabal at all!
>
> However Cabal does address the person who /creates/ an RPM, .msi, etc,
> who needs have a documented protocol for building, installing, and
> registering Haskell code.  Roland, Willie, etc, embed that knowledge
> into the binary package, so the final user, Joe, does not need to
> think about it.
>
> > I run GHC on my Windows box and can't
> > easily/reliably get C code to compile and produce
> > DLLs (both because my C is *very* rusty and
> > because I don't have an up-to-date version of all
> > the cygwin mingwin blah blah packages).  Yet, I do
> > occasionally download and install Haskell
> > libraries?  Am I Bob, Peter, Sam, Joe, or perhaps
> > someone new?
>
> You are almost certainly Joe, if your ideal world is to download a
> .msi InstallShield binary package and press the button.
>
> Regards,
>     Malcolm
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