[Nix-dev] GHC 7.4.1 and Haskell Platform

[Peter Simons]

Hi Andres,

 > Our policy in the past has always been to support the latest Haskell
 > Platform version and treat everything beyond that as experimental.

it's probably worth defining the terms we're using to ensure we're both
talking about the same thing. I'll offer my interpretation of the terms
"supported" and "experimental" to get the discussion started.

When a certain Haskell environment in Nix is supported, it means that
people can expect that environment to install cleanly and function
properly. If that turns out not to be the case, then people can expect
that we remedy those problems quickly once they've been discovered.

When a certain Haskell environment in Nix is dubbed "experimental", then
it may or may not install cleanly and it may or may not work fine. When
problems are discovered, we may or may not try to fix them.

Now, using those meanings, I agree that only the latest Haskell Platform
environment is supported. When someone complains about a bug in an older
version, I may try to fix it if it's simple and straightforward, but if I
have better things to do, then I just won't. If the most recent HP
environment is broken, though, I'll be far more willing to fix it.

In other words, I too consider GHC 7.4.1 to be still experimental using
those meanings.

Nonetheless, I have a vested interest in GHC 7.4.1. Despite its
experimental nature that environment is in pretty good shape, and I'd
prefer not to break it unless there is substantial reason to do so.


 > So, as I said before, I'll make a extra set of defaults for 7.4.1 which
 > is supposed to grow into the platform defaults, and you'll have a
 > choice which of the two to use.

Very nice, that solution allows us to eat our cake and have it too. :-)

Take care,
Peter