On 8 November 2011 04:59, Allen S. Rout
But I think it's reasonable to point out that, in effect, xmonad positively repels new converts. As in, aggressively discourages them.
Here's the path I've trod so far:
- install vendor packages. Understand that I'll need to dog-paddle in haskell to function in xmonad. Tinker. Get frustrated
- go learn about cabal, because bluetile suggests that it's a better way to get up-to-date code. On the way to bluetile, get enough xmonad functioning to not need it. Think "Ah, OK. vendor packages out of date, use the CPAN-equivalent for haskell, and all will be good".
- Find that the haskell platform hasn't been updated in 7 months, despite the claim it'd get love in July. Get nervous about the entire haskell community.
I'm not sure why so many people make a fuss about the Haskell Platform not having a release... I can understand not _communicating_ this by updating the website, but is it really that big a deal (especially as there's no reasons for Linux distro packagers to stick solely to Haskell Platform releases)?
- See that cabal xmonad is -2 years!- out of date. Shudder. Understand that I need to learn darcs.
Darcs has arguably the _easiest_ UI out of any DVCS.
So, in order to use your WM, I have to completely bathe in haskell, down to learning the ideosyncratic, haskell-only VC you guys have cooked up.
Whilst darcs has its greatest popularity in the Haskell community, it is used elsewhere (albeit nowhere near as much, and even with Haskell packages a lot of people have switched to Git due to GitHub). But "ideosyncratic"?
But insisting that new users be baptized into your church (or at least attend sunday school for a few months) is really bad for adoption.
I'm not sure I follow that... are you referring to the steps required to get the latest version from the darcs repo (which as others have said requires better documentation) or that your xmonad.hs is written in Haskell? If the latter, how is that any different from having to know Lua, C, or any of the other configuration languages other Tiling WMs use? -- Ivan Lazar Miljenovic Ivan.Miljenovic@gmail.com IvanMiljenovic.wordpress.com