On Wed, 12 Dec 2012, Janek S. wrote:
In the recent months there was a lot of dicussion about cabal, dependency hell and alike. After reading some of these discussions there is a question I just have to ask:
Why not create a package manager (like rpm or apt) for Haskell software?
I've been using Linux for years. Software for Linux is mostly written in C and C++. There are thousands of libraries with lots of dependencies and yet: a) Linux distributions manage to have package repositories that are kept in a consistent state b) Linux package managers can avoid dependency hell, automatically update to new packages, etc. Linux people did it! Is there any technical issue that prevents Haskell people from doing exactly the same thing? Or are we just having non-technical problems like lack of money or developers?
Linux package managers are so "good" at avoiding dependency hell because they don't have to - they fetch only from repositories that are carefully maintained and tested by humans, in a centralized fashion. The problem of handling dependencies in a purely automated fashion, with no concerted human effort, isn't solved by any of the major linux distros AFAIK. Which isn't to say that I think it can't be solved; just that I don't know of any shining star we can use as an example. (Incidentally, many linux distros package cabal packages with the same centralized-testing methodology under their own package repos, and it avoids dependency hell quite nicely. But I think there ought to be a better solution.)
Janek
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