[xmonad] xmonad development (was: something in particular)

[Ivan Lazar Miljenovic]

On 8 November 2011 04:59, Allen S. Rout <asr at ufl.edu> wrote:
> But I think it's reasonable to point out that, in effect, xmonad positively
> repels new converts.   As in, aggressively discourages them.
>
> Here's the path I've trod so far:
>
> - install vendor packages.  Understand that I'll need to dog-paddle in
> haskell to function in xmonad.  Tinker.  Get frustrated
>
> - go learn about cabal, because bluetile suggests that it's a better way to
> get up-to-date code.  On the way to bluetile, get enough xmonad functioning
> to not need it.  Think "Ah, OK.  vendor packages out of date, use the
> CPAN-equivalent for haskell, and all will be good".
>
> - Find that the haskell platform hasn't been updated in 7 months, despite
> the claim it'd get love in July.   Get nervous about the entire haskell
> community.

I'm not sure why so many people make a fuss about the Haskell Platform
not having a release... I can understand not _communicating_ this by
updating the website, but is it really that big a deal (especially as
there's no reasons for Linux distro packagers to stick solely to
Haskell Platform releases)?

> - See that cabal xmonad is -2 years!- out of date.  Shudder.  Understand
> that I need to learn darcs.

Darcs has arguably the _easiest_ UI out of any DVCS.

> So, in order to use your WM, I have to completely bathe in haskell, down to
> learning the ideosyncratic, haskell-only VC you guys have cooked up.

Whilst darcs has its greatest popularity in the Haskell community, it
is used elsewhere (albeit nowhere near as much, and even with Haskell
packages a lot of people have switched to Git due to GitHub).  But
"ideosyncratic"?

> But insisting that new users be baptized into your church (or at least
> attend sunday school for a few months) is really bad for adoption.

I'm not sure I follow that... are you referring to the steps required
to get the latest version from the darcs repo (which as others have
said requires better documentation) or that your xmonad.hs is written
in Haskell?  If the latter, how is that any different from having to
know Lua, C, or any of the other configuration languages other Tiling
WMs use?

-- 
Ivan Lazar Miljenovic
Ivan.Miljenovic at gmail.com
IvanMiljenovic.wordpress.com