> I don't know where you are getting info about which project is used more or less

Well, that's why we have the State of Haskell survey, right?..

> Which installation methods do you use for your Haskell compiler?

Here are results for options gathered >10%.

Since I'm already writing this, I add my 2c. I've been using HVR's PPA for years, switched to ghcup and never regretted it.

It's strictly better in terms of 1) UI/UX, 2) maintenance (shout out to ghcup's maintenance team: it's just amazing).

I believe haskell.org should refer to the most modern, nice-looking, wide-used (see results above), well-maintained

solutions that deliver reasonably fresh versions of the toolchain. This contradicts with trying to survey most known

solutions (because e.g. some of those will not be maintained or will have outdated versions, etc.).

Alternative methods section requires crowdsourcing, and the best way to handle that imo is a wiki page.

I think the current section for "alternative methods" should be turned into one and referenced from

the Downloads page with the asterisk "for the curious". If only we had a healthy functioning wiki, sigh…

Kind regards,

Artem

On Sat, 2 Apr 2022 at 18:26, Ivan Perez <ivanperezdominguez@gmail.com> wrote:

I think it's perfect as they are and I'd advise against changing it.

I personally discourage the use of stack or ghcup, and would certainly prefer to see more installation methods based on package-management tools that each OS provides. I think there's something to be said in favor of using standard package-management tools that install the compiler in global space.

In particular, the PPA-based installation method for Debian/Ubuntu/Mint that HVR used to maintain was excellent. It's still my preferred method (even though it's not maintained). I don't know where you are getting info about which project is used more or less, and I fear there may be a strong bias.

Leaving them there is more fair, makes more people aware of their existence, and makes it more likely that newcomers will be able to participate in other efforts.

For Haskell to remain a community project, it's good that we keep mentioning less popular projects, even when attention temporarily sways one way or another. If you remove other projects from the web page, you create an effect of compound interest (or compound attention) towards those projects, where they get the most contributions because they are the ones that most people are aware of because they are on the front page because they get the most contributions, and so on and so forth.

Ivan

On Sat, 2 Apr 2022 at 14:51, Tom Ellis <tom-lists-haskell-cafe-2017@jaguarpaw.co.uk> wrote:
The Haskell.org committee is considering removing the "alternative
installation options" section from the [downloads page of
haskell.org](https://www.haskell.org/downloads/) and we seek the
opinion of the community. If you would like to share your opinion we
prefer that you do so [on the haskell.org issue
tracker](https://github.com/haskell-infra/www.haskell.org/issues/170),
but failing that, in this email thread is fine too.

### Background

The [downloads page of
haskell.org](https://www.haskell.org/downloads/) suggests using ghcup
and stack to obtain a toolchain. These two tools are widely used in
the community, actively maintained and kept up-to-date. The page also
provides a number of "alternative installation options" (see below, or
on the page itself, for the list).

The Haskell.org committee does not have the resources to ensure that
these alternative installation options are kept maintained and
confirmed working. We don't even know if anyone uses them. Anyone who
uses them is likely to be an "advanced user" anyway, since they
require more expertise to implement. stack and ghcup presumably work
well on all those platforms, are the most well-maintained installation
options and most suitable for beginners.

### Possibilities

We have a couple of options:

1. Remove all the alternative installation options.
2. Keep (some of) the alternative installation options and find
community volunteers to maintain them. The volunteers will be
responsible for ensuring verifying on a regular basis that their
instructions are still working, submitting timely corrections when
necessary, and responding promptly on the issue tracker to questions
about their installation instructions.

### What we would like from you

* Please share your opinion about removing the alternative
installation options, especially if you are a user of one of them!
* If you are willing to maintain an alternative installation option,
please speak up!

### Current alternative installation options

* Linux Ubuntu (confusing (see
https://github.com/haskell-infra/www.haskell.org/issues/16) and
probably outdated)
* Linux Debian (links to https://downloads.haskell.org/~debian/
which doesn't support Debian 11 Bullseye)
* Linux Fedora
* Linux EPEL for RHEL/CentOS/etc
* Linux Arch
* Linux openSUSE Leap
* Linux openSUSE Tumbleweed
* Linux Gentoo
* Windows Chocolatey

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