A a long-time lurker on this list, here are my thoughts.
On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 10:28 AM, Magnus Therning
It's been out for a day now... this would be a good time to decide whether ArchLinux should be bold and move to a haskell-platform-free state, or trudge on with HP and the ache it causes.
Let me put in a vote to cut the HP cord. The approach of the HP is fundamentally at odds with what Arch Linux provides to its users. Quoting https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_Linux#Modernity:
Arch Linux strives to maintain the latest stable version of its software, and is based on a rolling-release system, which allows a one-time installation and continuous seamless upgrades, without ever having to reinstall or perform elaborate system upgrades from one version to the next. By issuing one command, an Arch system is kept up-to-date and on the bleeding edge.
The precise definition of stable matters. There is the Debian definition, and then there's the Arch version which has consistently been interpreted by the rest of the Arch developers as the latest release from the upstream developers. Is the 3.2 kernel stable? Will GCC 4.7 be stable the week of its release? Arch users expect that there will be occasional breakage but that the fast moving nature of our distribution answers these by emphasizing the rapid delivery of upstream bug fixes. The Haskell Platform takes an inherently more conservative approach. It follows the Debian definition of stable. Some advanced users prefer to concentrate on their own code and appreciate the long release cycles of the Platform that doesn't introduce exciting new bugs on a regular basis. New users appreciate that the Platform insulates them from breakage or churn of new features and ideas that are introduced as libraries evolve. I agree that the Haskell Platform serves a purpose, but I don't think that it's one that is of much appeal to the typical person who chooses to run Arch in the first place. I believe this community is less effective than it could be because many people who use Arch and Haskell don't participate or contribute. I freely admit that I don't. I have my own PKGBUILD for GHC 7.2 (I'll get around to 7.4 this weekend) and build my own libraries with cabal-install in HOME. On a fresh install, I use the [extra] ghc package to build my own GHC package and also use [community]'s xmonad until I get around to building it myself. After that I don't come into contact with the rest of the activities of arch-haskell and so my experience as a user of Arch and Haskell doesn't provide anything I can usefully contribute back to the community.
If we're moving to 7.4.1 there's a lot of work with getting ArchHaskell in shape for it, so the longer notice the better :)
I hope that if we drop the Platform we'll attract a few more hands since more of the lurkers on this list will take a more active interest. I'm not too worried about breakage since the people who encounter it are usually Haskell developers and are ready to go to work on a problem that blocks them from working. Let's start breaking things. Matt.