Hi, On 13 December 2015 at 21:01, Echo Nolan wrote:

Is it the general rule that Cabal releases are synced with GHC releases, or can Cabal releases be more frequent?

Yes, they can, and we actually want them to. Ideally, a new Cabal/cabal-install version would be released every six months, though in this cycle this didn't happen.

Hi Mikhal Thank you for stepping up to be the Cabal "chair". | Yes, there will be a release of Cabal/cabal-install together with GHC | 8. Can I ask what will be in it? Specifically, I would love to know what you plan concerning the issues in this snip: | As I understand it, the idea is that for the GHC 8.0 release | we will also have a new Haskell Platform. And that new HP will | not suffer from at least some of the flaws that have caused angst | in the past. | | The message from Mark and Michael is attached, but it dates back | to July. Since then Mark has stood down, and Gershom has taken | over (thanks Gershom). So I have a number of questions | • Does the plan (attached) remain the same? | • What development work (if any) , in HP or Cabal or | stack, is needed to achieve that? Is it done, or in | progress, or not started? | • GHC has for some time had the hooks to install multiple | instances of the same library without conflict, but Cabal | does not (or did not). I know Duncan was planning to do | this. Will the Cabal that comes with HP 8.0 have this ability? | | I ask because there is lots of traffic about getting GHC 8.0 | ready for release, but I haven’t seen any about HP or Cabal. | Maybe I’m just not on the right mailing lists. | | Regardless, would it be worth some announcements so that the | Haskell community knows the plan? If I don’t know, probably | many others do not. I enclose three replies to that message, but the discussion never converged to a conclusion. Since then Gershom did send an update about the HP, also attached, but that didn't cover Cabal. Much of this this pre-dates when you became chair, so you won't have seen it before, but you will be very familiar with the issues. I'd love to know in more detail what you plan for Cabal and cabal-install, esp concerning choices (1) and (2) outlined in Edward Yang's message attached. thanks again Simon

Thanks Mikhail When you make the release, do advertise to us non-Cabal-experts about the new no-reinstall ability and how to use it. It's a game-changer. Edward's blog post describes the issue http://blog.ezyang.com/2015/09/is-no-reinstall-cabal-coming-to-ghc-8/ Having another blog post describing the solution would be excellent; with pointers from the Cabal home page. Simon | -----Original Message----- | From: the.dead.shall.rise@gmail.com | [mailto:the.dead.shall.rise@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Mikhail Glushenkov | Sent: 16 December 2015 22:49 | To: Simon Peyton Jones | Cc: Bardur Arantsson ; cabal-devel ; Gershom B | Subject: Re: Release planning? | | Hi Simon, | | On 14 December 2015 at 14:03, Simon Peyton Jones | wrote: | > | Yes, there will be a release of Cabal/cabal-install together with | > | GHC 8. | > | > Can I ask what will be in it? Specifically, I would love to know | what | > you plan concerning the issues in this snip: | | I've just posted a status update to the cabal-dev mailing list: | | https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3a%2f%2farticl | e.gmane.org%2fgmane.comp.lang.haskell.cabal.devel%2f10456&data=01%7c01 | %7csimonpj%40064d.mgd.microsoft.com%7cbf7f44b8e6ba4c9cab0108d3066b1145 | %7c72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7c1&sdata=lGhYz6fKEwLfalgWZXu7jZve | BtnJVBqix8djS1SrIsc%3d | | Cabal/cabal-install 1.24 will include Duncan's no-reinstall work in | some form (likely a "technical preview"). The Cabal library parts have | just been merged. Gershom's minimal HP patch is already in Cabal | master. | | It's possible that cabal-install 1.24 will not be released | simultaneously with Cabal 1.24, so the HP 8 release may also be | delayed a little bit.