Hi all, Here are our plans for the next couple of GHC releases. First, we intend to release the next version of GHC from the current stable branch, 6.8.3, around the end of May 2008. This will probably be the last release from this branch. We currently have 90 bugs in either the "6.8.3" or "6.8 branch" milestone, but we do not expect that we will have time to fix them all! So please take a few minutes to take a look through the list, and if there are any that are particularly important to you please: * add a comment to the bug report saying why it is important to you. It is not necessary to also send us a mail, as we get the comments e-mailed to us automatically. * add yourself to the CC list for the bug (we use this to get a count of the number of people interested in a bug). This will help us to make a release that fixes as many problems, for as many people, as possible. The list is here: http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/ghc/query?status=new&status=assigned&status=reopened&milestone=6.8.3&milestone=6.8+branch&order=priority After that, around ICFP (late September 2008) we plan to make the first release, 6.10.1, from the next stable branch, 6.10. There will be more information on what exciting changes this will bring closer to the time. Thanks Ian, on behalf of the GHC team
Hi
First, we intend to release the next version of GHC from the current stable branch, 6.8.3, around the end of May 2008. This will probably be the last release from this branch.
Is it possible to include the cabal-install tool with this release, in the Windows installer? The cabal-install tool provides very useful functionality, and is currently rather tricky to install. If cabal-install was already installed, then installing cabal-install would be trivial (note how cabal-install causes a mental black hole). Thanks Neil
On Sun, 2008-03-09 at 23:32 +0000, Neil Mitchell wrote:
Hi
First, we intend to release the next version of GHC from the current stable branch, 6.8.3, around the end of May 2008. This will probably be the last release from this branch.
Is it possible to include the cabal-install tool with this release, in the Windows installer?
The cabal-install tool provides very useful functionality, and is currently rather tricky to install. If cabal-install was already installed, then installing cabal-install would be trivial (note how cabal-install causes a mental black hole).
Note that cabal-install requires the yet-unreleased Cabal-1.4.x and that GHC-6.8.3 will come with a release from the Cabal-1.2.x branch to preserve API compatibility with the earlier GHC-6.8.x releases. You could still have a cabal-install binary in the Windows installer and not include the Cabal-1.4.x library that you built it against. Alternatively it'd be possible to include Cabal-1.4.x too and have it not exposed by default. That'd enable cabal-install to use it for any packages that use a custom Setup.hs without it being picked up by default by ghc --make or ghci. cabal-install will become easier to install anyway once we make an official release of it and Cabal-1.4. If that's still too tricky for people we could make a single tarball that bundles Cabal-1.4, zlib, HTTP and cabal-install but installs only the cabal-install binary. Duncan
Hi
You could still have a cabal-install binary in the Windows installer and not include the Cabal-1.4.x library that you built it against.
That sounds easiest, and should give all the cabal-install benefits to Windows users.
Alternatively it'd be possible to include Cabal-1.4.x too and have it not exposed by default. That'd enable cabal-install to use it for any packages that use a custom Setup.hs without it being picked up by default by ghc --make or ghci.
Unless the API 100% stable, I'd be wary of supporting a not quite finished release on Cabal in something as major as GHC. Upgrading Cabal is fairly easy, if people want to do it themselves. If Cabal supported darcs links, you could even imagine upgrading cabal with "cabal install cabal --from-darcs" - that would be wonderful! Thanks Neil
On Mon, 2008-03-10 at 08:23 +0000, Neil Mitchell wrote:
Hi
You could still have a cabal-install binary in the Windows installer and not include the Cabal-1.4.x library that you built it against.
That sounds easiest, and should give all the cabal-install benefits to Windows users.
Not quite all. If a package specifies not build type or uses Custom then we have to compile the Setup.hs using the installed Cabal lib. In theory cabal-install can build it against an older version of the Cabal lib, in practise it's not been tested much.
Alternatively it'd be possible to include Cabal-1.4.x too and have it not exposed by default. That'd enable cabal-install to use it for any packages that use a custom Setup.hs without it being picked up by default by ghc --make or ghci.
Unless the API 100% stable, I'd be wary of supporting a not quite finished release on Cabal in something as major as GHC.
If it was a 1.4 release then it would have to be stable. We do follow the package versioning policy.
Upgrading Cabal is fairly easy, if people want to do it themselves.
We can make it just as easy to install cabal-install even if it didn't come with this version of GHC.
If Cabal supported darcs links, you could even imagine upgrading cabal with "cabal install cabal --from-darcs" - that would be wonderful!
It's an often requested feature, see ticket #58. Of course cabal-install can install releases on hackage of Cabal and itself. Duncan
participants (3)
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Duncan Coutts -
Ian Lynagh -
Neil Mitchell