[Xmonad] [HUMOR] xmonad useless without programming skills ?

[Don Stewart]

sjanssen:
> On Friday 14 September 2007 05:56:34 Xavier Maillard wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Each time I try to update xmonad (from darcs), my Config.hs is broken. This
> > is, for me, the major drawback of xmonad. I do not understand any a line of
> > Haskell and thus I am lost after each upgrade.
> >
> > Although I love xmonad, it is useless since I can't benefit of any upgrade
> > without boring you about my new Config.hs's problems...
> >
> > Am I alone in this situation or not ? How haskell rookies like do ?
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Xmonad mailing list
> > Xmonad at haskell.org
> > http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/xmonad
> 
> Config.hs has been called our Haskell trojan horse -- perhaps it is time to
> learn Haskell? ;)
> 
> I think there are some steps you can take to alleviate your problem.  First,
> you can upgrade less often.  I think running the stable 0.3 release is a good
> idea -- it is robust and has nearly all of the features of the current
> development version.  If you stick to stable releases you shouldn't have to
> update your Config.hs more than once a month.
> 
> Next, I think judicious use of a nice diff/merge tool will help.  I'd use
> 'vimdiff xmonad-0.2/Config.hs xmonad-0.3/Config.hs', where the first is an old
> version with all your customizations, and the second is a pristine Config for
> the new version.  Gradually port your customizations from left to right, and
> compile frequently to catch mistakes early.
> 
> Finally, if you're having trouble with a contrib module, check the usage info
> at the top of that module.  Every module should have a working Config example
> (please report a bug if it does not!).

Should we add an FAQ on this, for how to manage Config.hs ?

Examples include:
    * run the stable brance
    * diff with vimdiff or meld (another visual diff tool)
    * record your changes locally in darcs

-- Don