I like the way Mathieu sets things out here. Facts, and the factual consequences of choices, are very helpful. If they are clearly stated, order should be nigh irrelevant.
Simon
| -----Original Message-----
| From: Haskell-community [mailto:haskell-community-bounces@haskell.org] On
| Behalf Of Boespflug, Mathieu
| Sent: 24 September 2015 20:23
| To: John Wiegley
| Cc: haskell-community@haskell.org
| Subject: Re: [Haskell-community] Request for comment: New haskell.org
| download page
|
| Hi John,
|
| this is a nice summary of all options. May I suggest the following
| refinements to the summaries:
|
| "
| There are three widely used ways to install the Haskell toolchain on
| supported platforms. Currently these are:
|
| * Minimal installers: install just GHC (the compiler) in a global
| location on your system, using your system's package manager. (On
| Windows and OS X, also installs build tools.)
| * Stack: nothing is installed globally, except the stack command.
| Stack is a project-centric build tool that will automatically download
| and manage compiler and library versions locally on a project by
| project basis.
| * Haskell Platform: installs all of GHC (the compiler), cabal-install
| (a build tool), misc tools and a starter set of libraries in a global
| location on your system.
|
| If you opt for the minimal installer option for your platform, you'll
| likely still need to install one or more build tools (cabal-install or
| stack) separately.
| "
|
| The important point is that these options only differ in what gets
| installed globally, as opposed to (semantically speaking)
| locally-within-your-project (stack, cabal-install+sandboxes) or
| locally-within-your-homedir (cabal-install sans sandboxes). There
| ought be a paragraph somewhere near the top discussing upfront the
| tradeoffs, which include:
|
| * globally installed resources are conveniently and straightforwardly
| available to all users, and need only be downloaded once for all
| users. But,
| * globally installed resources are inflexible: it's hard to have
| multiple versions installed simultaneously, _because conflicts tend to
| arise_. This is particularly bad in the case of globally installed
| libraries.
|
| I think this paragraph should specifically mention the problems
| related to HP as it stands today. That paragraph can be removed once
| the HP no longer installs libraries globally.
|
| In my mind, it doesn't really matter what order things are in, from
| the moment that the main differentiators of each option are crisply
| and clearly defined. That said, the rationale behind the order above
| is:
|
| * minimal first, because that's what people normally expect (get the
| compiler, no bells and whistles).
| * HP last, because unless you're a student and the instructor
| specifically told you to download the HP, chances are you're going to
| run into trouble with this option (will change in the future, at which
| point we'll just have HP + minimal anyways).
|
| Any other order should work just as well.
|
|
|
| On 24 September 2015 at 07:20, John Wiegley