How to deal with dependency bounds for an application

Hey, I have wrote a little tool and some people had issues installing it with cabal and had to use "--reorder-goals" to be able to install it [1]. Obviously it's because I have very few dependency bounds (actually near none aside base). I don't have to be convince that it's a bad idea, the motivation for adding bounds are pretty clear... but... I'm not sure how to define them? Should I know what is the lowest possible combination of my dependencies who would compile... because if I'm too strict it might be difficult for some user to install? or maybe I should target as lowest what is in current haskell-platform? I'm looking for some advice and feedback from maintainers. Thanks in advance! [1]: https://github.com/aloiscochard/codex/issues/6 -- *A\ois* http://twitter.com/aloiscochard http://github.com/aloiscochard

Hi Alois,
Should I know what is the lowest possible combination of my dependencies who would compile... because if I'm too strict it might be difficult for some user to install? or maybe I should target as lowest what is in current haskell-platform?
Yes, looking at the last two haskell platforms might be a good pragmatical choice. I even like the idea that much that I might add a feature to my own dependency handling tool cabal-bounds[1]: cabal-bounds update --lower --haskel-platform=2012.4.0.0 ... I think that getting the lower dependencies "right" is more an issue for libraries, because in the case of applications a cabal sandbox can avoid most of the possible problems. Greetings, Daniel [1] https://github.com/dan-t/cabal-bounds

Hi Daniel,
Thanks for your feedback!
I'll give it a try to match last two Haskell platforms, that sound
reasonable.
How one should deal with such thing, I suppose having some docker container
template for each platform version would be helpful? (specially when having
to do that for multiple lib)
Cheers
Alois
On 3 July 2014 07:20, Daniel Trstenjak
Hi Alois,
Should I know what is the lowest possible combination of my dependencies who would compile... because if I'm too strict it might be difficult for some user to install? or maybe I should target as lowest what is in current haskell-platform?
Yes, looking at the last two haskell platforms might be a good pragmatical choice.
I even like the idea that much that I might add a feature to my own dependency handling tool cabal-bounds[1]:
cabal-bounds update --lower --haskel-platform=2012.4.0.0 ...
I think that getting the lower dependencies "right" is more an issue for libraries, because in the case of applications a cabal sandbox can avoid most of the possible problems.
Greetings, Daniel
[1] https://github.com/dan-t/cabal-bounds _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
-- *A\ois* http://twitter.com/aloiscochard http://github.com/aloiscochard

Acutally... nevermind.
It looks like I'll be able to do everything I need using your awesome tool
Daniel!
Thanks :-)
On 4 July 2014 14:01, Alois Cochard
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for your feedback!
I'll give it a try to match last two Haskell platforms, that sound reasonable.
How one should deal with such thing, I suppose having some docker container template for each platform version would be helpful? (specially when having to do that for multiple lib)
Cheers
Alois
On 3 July 2014 07:20, Daniel Trstenjak
wrote: Hi Alois,
Should I know what is the lowest possible combination of my dependencies who would compile... because if I'm too strict it might be difficult for some user to install? or maybe I should target as lowest what is in current haskell-platform?
Yes, looking at the last two haskell platforms might be a good pragmatical choice.
I even like the idea that much that I might add a feature to my own dependency handling tool cabal-bounds[1]:
cabal-bounds update --lower --haskel-platform=2012.4.0.0 ...
I think that getting the lower dependencies "right" is more an issue for libraries, because in the case of applications a cabal sandbox can avoid most of the possible problems.
Greetings, Daniel
[1] https://github.com/dan-t/cabal-bounds _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
-- *A\ois* http://twitter.com/aloiscochard http://github.com/aloiscochard
-- *A\ois* http://twitter.com/aloiscochard http://github.com/aloiscochard
participants (2)
-
Alois Cochard
-
Daniel Trstenjak