Am Montag, 28. Januar 2008 18:52 schrieb Albert Y. C. Lai:
On GHC version-specific download pages (e.g., http://www.haskell.org/ghc/download_ghc_682.html), under Source Distribution, it would reduce a major confusion of the form "I built GHC from source, now I use it, it says Network.CGI not found" if after the filename ghc-6.8.2-src.tar.bz2 it is also said "compiler and almost no libraries", and after the filename ghc-6.8.2-src-extralibs.tar.bz2 it is also said "most libraries, but it takes hours to build, Hackage has them piecemeal and more". Perhaps it would also be nice to say how to use the latter, e.g., "unpack this over the compiler source before building, before even building the compiler".
Does it need to be said? Seems to be yes according my experience in #haskell. Here is how it can be misunderstood. Given the word "extralibs" and the file sizes, and no other words, what would an outsider think? Between the disproportionate 7MB and 2MB, 7MB must be because all the popular libraries are there, 2MB must be because "extralibs" means fringe, niche libraries. There lies the misunderstanding.
Isn't it already said in the build guide? Yes it is, but the path between the download page and the build guide is not obvious. There is mention of the build guide, but it is put under the precondition "if your platform is not supported". IMO there should be no precondition; absolutely everyone building from source should be tempted to see the build guide.
Perhaps the source section should also be close to the bottom of the download page, not to the top, reflecting what we recommend for most people.
While the situation might be improvable, I want to add that I had no big problems building GHC because, as far as I remember, the README and INSTALL files told me the meaning of extralibs etc. Best wishes, Wolfgang