On Sat, Mar 21, 2015 at 10:54:26AM -0700, Mark Lentczner wrote:
I'm wondering how we are all feeling about the platform these days....
Thanks for having written this post Mark.
I notice that in the new Haskell pages, the Platform is definitely not the recommended way to go: The main download pages suggests the compiler and base libraries as the first option - and the text for the Platform (second option) pretty much steers folks away from it. Of the per-OS download pages, only the Windows version even mentions it.
I recall trying haskell some years ago, when I was still a Windows user; the platform was /very/ easy to install, and it served me well in my first functional steps (namely, going through Learn You a Haskell). If we compare it with the old Haskell platform [1], the new downloads section [2] looks more complicated. The pages for the various OSes are even more intimidating (I don't use Ubuntu, but my first question would be "What are those commands doing? Why do I need them?"; same could be said for Win/OSX). [1] https://www.haskell.org/platform/ [2] https://www.haskell.org/downloads
I don't think the status quo for the Platform is now viable - mostly as evidenced by waning interest in maintaining it. I offer several ways we could proceed:
*1) Abandon the Platform.* GHC is release in source and binary form. Other package various installers, with more or less things, for various OSes.
*2) Slim the Platform.* Pare it back to GHC + base + a smaller set of "essential" libs + tools. Keeps a consistent build layout and installation mechanism for Haskell.
*3) Re-conceive the Platform.* Take a very minimal install approach, coupled with close integration with a curated library set that makes it easy to have a rich canonical, stable environment. This was the core idea around my "GPS Haskell" thoughts from last September - but there would be much to work out in this direction.
I am not experienced enough to answer this, but whichever action will be taken, let me say: "think of the children!", i.e. an immediately usable, easily installable system for those who would like to try Haskell out.