1) How much effort does it take for a user to install a dynamically-linked ghc executable on Tier 1 platforms? Just download the source and set DYNAMIC_GHC_PROGRAMS=YES?

  2) Are the major GHC distributors planning on distributing dynamically-linked ghc by default? GHC HQ, Haskell Platform, http://www.haskell.org/ghc/distribution_packages?

Bonus question:

  3) How many platforms support Core plugins but not a dynamically linked ghc?

I'm hoping the answer is "zero". The availability of a dynamically-linked ghc looks good, according to the wiki pages I found. It's not so clear to me regarding support on Windows.

Thank you for your time.

P.S. — Here's the wiki pages I read. Their up-to-dateness is not clear to me. Please let me know if you see that I missed something.

=== Core plugins

  http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/NewPlugins — nub is 2 years old

=== building and using shared libraries (aka "dynamic libraries")

  http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/Platforms — very much alive and useful

  http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/Status/May13#Dynamiclinking — summarizes GHCI behavior

  http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/SharedLibraries/PlatformSupport — 4 years old

  http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/5620 — good info in comments; 1.5 years old

  especially http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/DynamicByDefault#Windows