Am Mo., 11. Mai 2020 um 04:24 Uhr schrieb Anthony Clayden < anthony_clayden@clear.net.nz>:
[...] You don't need to install any extra tools, nor use a command line, nor have a bar of chocolatey.
Actually, you *do* need to install an extra tool to unpack xz files.
[...] I don't know why you're downloading a `.lz`: the `.tar.xz` is a format that Windows Explorer understands [***]; just use Explorer to find [...]
The Windows Explorer understands it only if you have e.g. 7z or WinZip installed.
[***] I agree a `.xz` needs 7-zip to unpack. I don't think I went so far as to obtain that first; I think it came with my Windows (8.1) install. Perhaps later Windows have it better integrated(?)
You probably have remnants of 7z or WinZip on your disk after updating from previous Windows versions. I very much doubt that a fresh Windows 10 installation has the slightest clue what an xz file is.
Let's be honest: Everything which is not an MSI, or a self-installing .exe or a ZIP-file (for position-independent stuff) is a ridiculous, totally non-standard way of installing SW on Windows, scaring away tons of potential users. Small obstacles like this should not be underestimated, there are impressive numbers from e.g. the usability/success of web sites: Every user interaction, like a click or even just scrolling down the page, makes you lose a magnitude of your potential customers. 2 clicks + 1 scrolling? => 0.1% of your customers left... Let's look at a few other programming languages on Windows: * Python: Fat download button, leading quickly to a choice of self-installing .exe, ZIP or a web-based installer. And this was just python.org... * Racket: Again a self-installing .exe, 2 klicks away from the fat download button on the start page. Hey, you even get a decent IDE with that! * Rust: You are only a few clicks away from having rustup on your disk. * Ruby: You are quickly on rubyinstaller.org with a choice of self-installing .exes. * Perl: You can quickly choose between two installers, e.g. http://strawberryperl.com/ with MSI or ZIP * Clang: Only a few clicks away from a self-installing .exe. * Node.js: An MSI is only few clicks away. Does any other language require you to install tools to unpack alien archive formats or even a full-fledged package manager? No... It is totally fine that there are more complicated and more flexible ways to install a language for the power user, but that's optional. What is *not* optional is an easy, native way of installation for the casual user. For my part, I would already be happy if stack would get a more prominent place and be promoted as *the* way to install Haskell. But the stackage releases would need to follow the GHC releases a bit more quickly then (there is still no stackage with GHC 8.10 :-( ).