[aur-general] [arch-dev-public] GHC 7.8.1 packaging decisions for Arch Linux

[Isaac Dupree]

On 04/09/2014 01:27 AM, Thomas Dziedzic wrote:
> Problem 2: Users are confused whether they should install packages from the
> repos or using cabal-install. This in turn sometimes causes them to install
> some packages from official repos, some from the aur, and some using
> cabal-install
> Explanation: Packages should ideally be installed from one place, either
> using repos/aur or cabal-install. Said that, it is entirely possible to use
> both repos/aur and cabal-install but for simplicity, one source is
> preferred.

Doesn't every language with its own package manager have this problem? 
For example, Python.  Is there a good solution?  Users knowing about 
this issue and making their own decisions is the current solution on 
every distro I'm familiar with.

> Change 2: Make a news item stating that cabal-install is now the
> recommended way to install haskell packages. This wouldn't pollute the
> filesystem since cabal-install installs packages to the ~/.cabal directory
> by default. We might need to include a tip sheet about how you would handle
> ghc updates since it requires extra user steps.

This is the way I do it on my personal computer, FWIW.

If there were any packages in the repo written in Haskell that are used 
by non-Haskellers, then all those packages' deps would have to be in the 
repos too.  (e.g. darcs and pandoc, which are in AUR currently).

Cheers,
-Isaac