So some (at least nhc, ghc and jhc) support linking to arbitrary .o files. So is this a feature that should be exposed through cabal do you think?
Ultimately, if a Haskell implementation supports the FFI, it must be able to link arbitrary object files. Although as Stefan points out, the actual format might vary between .a, .o, .so, and .dll. The formal FFI specification allows for individual foreign imports to specify the name of the appropriate object file in a platform-independent manner. So yes, I imagine Cabal should support it somehow.
Not that Cabal actually supports nhc98 yet... We'll gladly accept patches :-)
Patches would require someone who understands both the internals of Cabal, and the structural layout of nhc98. Guess which is the more complex. :-)
-n --nhc compile with NHC If cabal doesn't support NHC, why does it advertise support?
$ grep NHC Distribution/Simple/Install.hs NHC -> die ("installing with nhc98 is not yet implemented") Regards, Malcolm