Question of HP updates that depend on new packages

[Duncan Coutts]

All,

A requirement of packages in the platform is that all dependencies of
packages also be in the platform (excluding C libs).

When an updated version of an existing platform package includes
dependencies on packages that are currently outside the platform we must
decide if those packages are to be added to the platform (or if we must
stick with the older version of the package).

Sometimes this will be trivial, such as if a package splits in two but
keeps essentially the same API and module namespace. Sometimes it would
means pulling in new packages. Normally new packages should go through
the standard process for adding packages 

[Note: currently, the HP steering committee is nearly ready to present a
draft of the procedure for adding new packages.]

The case of the OpenGL 2.2.x -> 2.3 update covers both cases above. That
is it includes straightforward package splits and also new packages.

The last HP release included OpenGL-2.2.1.1. The latest version on
hackage is OpenGL-2.3.0.0.

OpenGL-2.2.x depends on the base package.

OpenGL-2.3.0.0 depends on these extra packages:
  OpenGLRaw
  GLURaw
  ObjectName
  StateVar
  Tensor

The first two are relatively straightforward. The OpenGL package has
modules in the namespace Graphics.Rendering.OpenGL. The OpenGLRaw and
GLURaw add modules in the namespaces Graphics.Rendering.OpenGL.Raw and
Graphics.Rendering.GLU.Raw. One can easily class these new packages as
merely split from the OpenGL package and this does not need much review.

The other three packages are:

package: ObjectName
modules: Data.ObjectName

package: StateVar
modules: Data.StateVar

package: Tensor
modules: Data.Tensor

These add new modules in the common Data.* namespace, indicating that
they are intended for re-use more widely by other packages.

The release team should not make a decision on these three packages on
its own. We wish to refer these packages to the libraries list for a
decision.

In particular the libraries list should decide if these new packages
should be rubber stamped because they are new dependencies of a package
already in the platform, or if the new packages should go through the
standard review process for adding packages.

Duncan,
on behalf of the HP release team