Cutting down GHC installation to bare minimum
I notice that many of the installed libs aren't required for learning Haskell. What libs are required so I can get the bare minimum version of GHC? Also, is there any automatic way so that I don't have to manually delete the folders and edit package.conf? -- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/Cutting-down-GHC-installation-to-bare-minimum-tp283740... Sent from the Haskell - Glasgow-haskell-users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
leledumbo wrote:
I notice that many of the installed libs aren't required for learning Haskell. What libs are required so I can get the bare minimum version of GHC?
For most people, the recommended approach is to install the Haskell Platform. This is not a minimal setup - it includes packages you would need for most normal use of Haskell. http://hackage.haskell.org/platform/ To get a minimal setup, you need to install GHC and cabal-install. That will allow you to install just the packages you need as you need them. This is not recommended for most people - there are prerequisites, and there may be some complexities depending on your platform. Anyway, the instructions are here: http://www.haskell.org/ghc/download_ghc_6_12_2.html http://www.haskell.org/cabal/download.html
Also, is there any automatic way so that I don't have to manually delete the folders and edit package.conf?
There isn't a smooth way to uninstall packages at the moment. You don't need to edit package.conf, though, and you shouldn't. Use "ghc-pkg unregister {pkg-id}". You do need to delete the folders manually, unfortunately. Regards, Yitz
I agree with the answer that Yitz gave, but let me frame it in a bit of context: Many people's idea of a programming language is Python, and within 12 minutes of settling in to a new language they're going to wonder how to match a regular expression to a string, or download a web page, and they'll get very antsy if this isn't obvious and provided. The nuts and bolts of if/then/else statements? Aren't all languages the same? It's the library quality that makes a language. On the other hand, some of us could amuse ourselves on a long desert island stint with just a core Lisp interpreter. That is, till we see Haskell. As a "from scratch" mathematical environment, GHC Haskell is fantastic. The only downside is that Haskell will ruin you for working in other environments (e.g. LaTeX). GHC Haskell is released with exactly the libraries it needs to compile itself. So one could just install GHC Haskell itself. That's plenty for anyone playing in isolation with Haskell as a mathematical environment. If you don't want to reinvent every wheel, and have a project in mind that interacts in any way with the world, you'll need some other library within 12 minutes. In which case the Haskell Platform is the painless way to go. On Apr 27, 2010, at 8:55 AM, Yitzchak Gale wrote:
leledumbo wrote:
I notice that many of the installed libs aren't required for learning Haskell. What libs are required so I can get the bare minimum version of GHC?
For most people, the recommended approach is to install the Haskell Platform. This is not a minimal setup - it includes packages you would need for most normal use of Haskell.
Yes, I agree with both of you. But that is if I want to use Haskell as a development tool. The target in learning by reinventing the wheel is the ability to think declaratively when solving problems and to improve an already found solution. For instance, Data.List module provides permutations function that can easily be used. Well, problem's solved but I don't know how it works and I don't know whether it performs well or hwo to improve it. -- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/Cutting-down-GHC-installation-to-bare-minimum-tp283740... Sent from the Haskell - Glasgow-haskell-users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
This is a fascinating argument for the Haskell platform vs. a port-directed
installation system.
Consider if you wanted to customize GHC or another Haskell environment to an
embedded system (e.g., prototype embedded flight software for a space
vehicle)? What would the "bare minimum" core be? How would one go about
achieving that with the current GHC build system? What does an embedded
Haskell environment look like and how does one reliably package it?
Actually, the question isn't so far fetched. NASA was flying variants of
Lisp in the early 90s.
-scooter
On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 6:45 AM, Dave Bayer
I agree with the answer that Yitz gave, but let me frame it in a bit of context:
Many people's idea of a programming language is Python, and within 12 minutes of settling in to a new language they're going to wonder how to match a regular expression to a string, or download a web page, and they'll get very antsy if this isn't obvious and provided. The nuts and bolts of if/then/else statements? Aren't all languages the same? It's the library quality that makes a language.
On the other hand, some of us could amuse ourselves on a long desert island stint with just a core Lisp interpreter. That is, till we see Haskell. As a "from scratch" mathematical environment, GHC Haskell is fantastic. The only downside is that Haskell will ruin you for working in other environments (e.g. LaTeX).
GHC Haskell is released with exactly the libraries it needs to compile itself. So one could just install GHC Haskell itself. That's plenty for anyone playing in isolation with Haskell as a mathematical environment. If you don't want to reinvent every wheel, and have a project in mind that interacts in any way with the world, you'll need some other library within 12 minutes. In which case the Haskell Platform is the painless way to go.
On Apr 27, 2010, at 8:55 AM, Yitzchak Gale wrote:
leledumbo wrote:
I notice that many of the installed libs aren't required for learning Haskell. What libs are required so I can get the bare minimum version of GHC?
For most people, the recommended approach is to install the Haskell Platform. This is not a minimal setup - it includes packages you would need for most normal use of Haskell.
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participants (4)
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Dave Bayer -
leledumbo -
Scott Michel -
Yitzchak Gale