On Sun, Nov 29, 2015 at 11:37 AM, Peter Simons <simons@cryp.to> wrote:

Omari Norman writes:

> Someone installing an application can just use stack and Stackage.

I wonder how many people would be using XMonad, git-annex, etc. if this
view were common place among application developers.

Maybe zero. If an application developer cares about popularity, he should consider these things. Not all application developers care how many users they have.

I'm pretty sure that a large part of the user base of these tools has no
clue "stack" exists, even, and the only reason why they can install
these programs is because their distributions package manager allows
then to do so without exposing them to any Haskell-specific build tools.

Distribution packagers are savvy enough to use stack. Furthermore, distributions do not install using cabal or from Hackage. Therefore, by your reasoning just as many people would be using XMonad, git-annex, etc. because the distribution packager would get the package, make the necessary alterations, and upload the distribution-specific package to the repository.