About cabal and compatibility

[Robert Dockins]

> What I would like to do is to stabalize an interface one of these
> days.  The problem is that, IMO, we need experience with what users
> want & need in order to stabalize the interface.  When writing layered
> tools like cabal-get, Lemmih had to modify cabal's interface, and when
> writing cabal-install, I had to modify the interface.
>
> But I'll definitely look at the Eternal Compatibility thing!

That's good to hear.  I think it is a good fit for this situation.

> > import Data.Version
> > import Control.Exception
> > import System.Cmd
> > import System.IO
> > import System.Exit
> > import System.Directory
> > import Distribution.Setup
> > import Distribution.Simple
> > import Distribution.Simple.Utils
> > import Distribution.Simple.LocalBuildInfo
> > import Distribution.PackageDescription
>
> It would be nice if you used qualified imports so I could see exactly
> what it is that you need from cabal.  Also you'll get better error
> messages if things disappear.

I'm not sure what you mean here.  Do you mean with explicit import lists?  
Qualified means something very specific in this context and I don't see how 
it would help.

> >        perlRE = "s/^#\\s+(\\d+)\\s+(\\\"[^\\\"]*\\\")/{-# LINE \\1 \\2
> > #-}/g;s/\\$$(Id:.*)\\$$/\\1/g"
> >
> > 	   rawSystem "perl" ["-pi.hspp","-e",perlRE,file]
>
> aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!
>
> /me runs away ;)

Just so you don't think I'm responsable for that perl RE mess, its taken 
directly from the Makefile ;)  Yeah, expecting perl on the path is a little 
ugly but *shrug* its a pretty safe assumption (also made in the Makefile 
BTW).

> But seriously folks, you should check out the new (experimental!)
> "Program" interface in the CVS / darcs HEAD.  The nice thing about it
> is you can add perl as a Program and configure will find it, and users
> can say: ./setup configure --with-perl=/my/special/perl.

That sounds nice; I'll have to take a look.

Rob Dockins