Source-Only distribution

To: debian-haskell@lists.debian.org

Subject: Source-Only distribution

From: Joachim Breitner <nomeata@debian.org>

Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:18:22 +0200

Message-id: <[🔎] 1270113502.2465.9.camel@localhost>

Hi, I have recently given some thought into how we should continue to package haskell libraries, and I have come up with the conclusion that shipping pre-built libraries is a dead end. I will upload a new version of haskell-devscripts soon which just copies the haskell sources into the -dev package. -doc and -prof packages are left empty and should be removed with the next upstream version. The ghc6-doc trigger will be enhanced to run haddock on the sources upon installation, this way, the users will have documentation for _any_ installed library, not just those with -doc packages installed! Packages like leksah, who need to do their own indexing, can have similar triggers. The advantages are obvious: * Arch all packages: No more buildd troubles. * No problems with dependencies. * Full hugs support for all (compatible) libraries for free. * Whole program optimization possible, given a sufficiently smart compiler. * Library code available for reference. * Less complexity in haskell-devscripts. * Compilation flags up to the user. By installing all source files in /usr/share/doc/haskell, users can compile any program easily by passing -i/usr/share/doc/haskell to ghc, and will not have to worry about cabal or ghc packages any more. I think this will give Debian a great edge over any other Haskell-shipping distribution out there, including Gentoo, Arch and Slackware. Greetings, Joachim -- Joachim "nomeata" Breitner Debian Developer nomeata@debian.org | ICQ# 74513189 | GPG-Keyid: 4743206C JID: nomeata@joachim-breitner.de | http://people.debian.org/~nomeata