Haskell Platform web page could be more informative

[Don Stewart]

dave:
> Since the Haskell Platform is (or will become) the recommended way to
> install Haskell for inexperienced users, I am concerned about how
> difficult it is to find information about the Platform from its
> primary web page at <http://hackage.haskell.org/platform/>.
> 
> For example, it's not obvious how a non-expert user would find answers
> to these questions:
> 
> 1. Where should I send questions about the Haskell Platform? The only
> contact information provided is the bug tracker.
> 
> 2. When was the last release of the Haskell Platform? A new user,
> seeing the version number 2009.2.0.2, is more likely to think
> "February" than "August".
> 
> 3. When is the next release of the Haskell Platform?
> 
> 4. How often are releases scheduled?
> 
> 5. What is new in the current release?
> 
> 6. What will be included in the next release? If that isn't known yet,
> when will it be known?
> 
> 7. Are there any outstanding issues I should know about? (For example,
> do I need to manually edit /usr/bin/ghc after installation on any
> particular platforms?)
> 
> 
> Note: I am not looking for answers to these questions (except maybe 3
> and 5). My concern is that this information is not readily available.
> 

Answers to many of these things are here,

    http://trac.haskell.org/haskell-platform/

Including release schedules:

    http://trac.haskell.org/haskell-platform/wiki/ReleaseTimetable

We have a new page planned:    

    http://trac.haskell.org/haskell-platform/ticket/20

Suggestions on how best to encorporate more detailed info like this into
a user page would be welcome.

-- Don