Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
ghc is in fedora extras, all you needed to do to install it is ; yum -y install ghc just like you would install most everything on a fedora system. John -- John Meacham - ⑆repetae.net⑆john⑈ ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
5) The gigantic README with it's obscure note is here http://www.haskell.org/ghc/download_ghc_661.html a few lines away from the download link. You can probably read it in the time it takes you to find and click the download link. Much quicker than waiting for a configure script to detect the problem. Also, just in case one doesn't know where to look, doing a web search for 'ghc libreadline.so.4' gives enough hits to solve the problem. The OP insisisted on compiling from the source (which is OK), instead of using the distributions package (which would have been worked). In this case I expect enough know how to understand what the error message means and being able to install libreadline4. If one hasn't got the know how I expect that one asks nicely (what can I do / what does that mean) instead of just venting one's frustration in a rather destructive manner (you bloody program didn't work for me, so I won't use it ever again, there!). Regards -- Markus ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
4) The fix to the bug is simply download and install the libreadline4 shared object. No recompilation or reinstallation necessary. i'm not sure if this has been addressed - but is there a specific reason an older version of the readline library is in use? v5 appears to be stable and has been in use for some time now. ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
brad clawsie [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: 4) The fix to the bug is simply download and install the libreadline4 shared object. No recompilation or reinstallation necessary. i'm not sure if this has been addressed - but is there a specific reason an older version of the readline library is in use? v5 appears to be stable and has been in use for some time now. Actually some sources recommend to just symlink libreadline.so.4 to libreadline.so.5. I haven't tried, but since version 5 is supposed to be upwards compatible to version 4 it's reasonable to expect that it works (to a certain extend). To me (as an outsider) the whole thing certainly looks like a quirk/buglet in the ghc build process (why not just link to the available readline?), but IMO that is no reason for a ghc is not ripe for prime time outcry. Ghc is for programmers and there is a certain extend of ability to help yourself I'd be expecting from programmers. If one doesn't have it, he/she should just use the packages of his/her distro or another distro. Regards -- Markus ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
On Mon, Apr 30, 2007 at 08:26:35PM +0200, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Actually some sources recommend to just symlink libreadline.so.4 to libreadline.so.5. I haven't tried, but since version 5 is supposed to be upwards compatible to version 4 it's reasonable to expect that it works (to a certain extend). there is an even simpler solution, upgrade the linux version on the build box. from a previous email by simon marlow: The tarball is built on an old RedHat 9 system with readline 4 on it rh9 is over four years old, and those four years there have been countless upgrades in many key free software packages used by linux distros. installing a modern linux on this box is a thirty minute exercise. ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
brad clawsie wrote: installing a modern linux on this box is a thirty minute exercise. Ah - a volunteer! :-) ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
On Mon, Apr 30, 2007 at 09:53:06PM +0100, Andrew Coppin wrote: brad clawsie wrote: installing a modern linux on this box is a thirty minute exercise. Ah - a volunteer! :-) absolutely! for the low cost of one round-trip business-class seat from san jose to wherever this box is, and i will happily insert a recent ubuntu cd and click the install icon. ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
On Mon, 2007-30-04 at 18:35 -0700, brad clawsie wrote: On Mon, Apr 30, 2007 at 09:53:06PM +0100, Andrew Coppin wrote: brad clawsie wrote: installing a modern linux on this box is a thirty minute exercise. Ah - a volunteer! :-) absolutely! for the low cost of one round-trip business-class seat from san jose to wherever this box is, and i will happily insert a recent ubuntu cd and click the install icon. You beat me to it. -- Michael T. Richter [EMAIL PROTECTED] (GoogleTalk: [EMAIL PROTECTED]) The most exciting phrase to hear in science - the one that heralds new discoveries - is not Eureka! but That's funny... (Isaac Asimov) signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
On 29/04/07, Derek Elkins [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Much quicker than waiting for a configure script to detect the problem. The fact remains that there is a bug in the build process (configure doesn't check for all the dependencies), and that users have fallen afoul of the bug, so it should be fixed, no matter how well the workaround is documented. -- -David House, [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
On 4/29/07, David House [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The fact remains that there is a bug in the build process (configure doesn't check for all the dependencies), and that users have fallen afoul of the bug, so it should be fixed, no matter how well the workaround is documented. -- -David House, [EMAIL PROTECTED] That was my point. Applause. ;) FC -- Dream of the Daily Mail It is the Holy Grail And then the BBC Your life would be complete -Manic Street Preachers, Royal Correspondent ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
Miles Sabin [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Dougal Stanton wrote, I'd guess there should be a way to get the libreadline4 installed from your package manager. Something like sudo yum install libreadline4 maybe? I don't use FC myself, so can't help further. It's even easier than that ... on Fedora Core 6 all he had to do was, yum install ghc Well. I mean, that practically tells me all about poor first impressions and the OPs own level of competence. Regards -- Markus ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
On 4/27/07, Joe Re [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Perhaps you were installing by tarball because you thought Fedora doesn't have a recent version of ghc in their repositories? Exactly. I saw the latest version was very recent, didn't think any FC6 repos woudl have it. As a matter of fact I wasn't even aware that FC6 repos had ANY haskell compiler in there. Minor side note: ghc is just one of many (albeit the dominant) compiler for Haskell. Surely you wouldn't discredit C++ as a language just because your borland compiler broke? :-) Don't worry, I wasn't as mad as I sounded. But I'm latin so I wanted to do a big scene so everyone pays attention and fixes this, either in the documentation, in the web page (by making the notice coloured red and blinkblinking/blink (joke), or in the ./configure script, or somewhere else. Thanks to everyone for their replies and respect. I could as well have earned a flame or two, but you were all very cool and polite, which speaks volumes about the quality of the community you guys have here. FC -- Joseph Re, [EMAIL PROTECTED] SigNet Chair -- Dream of the Daily Mail It is the Holy Grail And then the BBC Your life would be complete -Manic Street Preachers, Royal Correspondent ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
On Sat, Apr 28, 2007 at 12:11:30PM -0300, Fernando Cassia wrote: On 4/27/07, Joe Re [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Perhaps you were installing by tarball because you thought Fedora doesn't have a recent version of ghc in their repositories? Exactly. I saw the latest version was very recent, didn't think any FC6 repos woudl have it. As a matter of fact I wasn't even aware that FC6 repos had ANY haskell compiler in there. Note that the Haskell standard hasn't been updated in almost ten years. The differences between GHC 6.6.1 and 6.2.2 (or whatever FC6 has) are relatively minor and almost only affect programs that are unportable to begin with. Minor side note: ghc is just one of many (albeit the dominant) compiler for Haskell. Surely you wouldn't discredit C++ as a language just because your borland compiler broke? :-) Don't worry, I wasn't as mad as I sounded. But I'm latin so I wanted to do a big scene so everyone pays attention and fixes this, either in the documentation, in the web page (by making the notice coloured red and blinkblinking/blink (joke), or in the ./configure script, or somewhere else. Thanks to everyone for their replies and respect. I could as well have earned a flame or two, but you were all very cool and polite, which speaks volumes about the quality of the community you guys have here. It has been said many times and I will say it again - in the long run, the only good thing haskell has is a community of nice people. Everything else is cloned quickly. Stefan ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
On Fri, 2007-27-04 at 13:09 +0100, Robin Green wrote: But just think about it... is it easier to DOCUMENT the problem or just include a workaround in the make install code? It's easier to document the problem. For the individual developer it is easier to document the problem. For the development community as a whole it is easier if individual developers fix problems or at least make them more easily spotted than obscure notes in gigantic README files. For the individual developer it takes, hypothetically, two minutes to add a note to the effect that an out-of-date version of libreadline is required while it may take ten minutes to add a check to the configure script (and test it!) and even a day to fix the problem to work with the current version of libreadline. So yes, it is easier to document. By far. But now broaden the scope to the community. The compiler is downloaded. The process of building it begins. (It does take a long time to build GHC...) The user waits that long time and ... the build fails. Now s/he has to search through output whose error messages are not exactly the most friendly in the world. Typically, for example, you're about five levels deep into make and the error message that actually tells you what's wrong is in backscroll. So you find that message and slap your forehead. Doh! You download and install your old version of libreadline and try again. Time wasted? Ten minutes at least. More likely half an hour. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. (There are probably other dependencies to outdated packages, after all.) OK, let's go the RTFM route. Each and every developer reads each and every README file in each and every project combing it for references to bizarre dependencies. Let's be hyper-generous and say that each developer only spends one minute on the README file; that the README files in question are a paragon of informational organisation (instead of the more usual data dump in no particular order). Let's further suggest that it takes only five minutes to get all the unexpected dependencies worked out, downloaded and compiled/installed. Total time to make up the fix? Six minutes. That one minute to find the information in the README file is far shorter than the time it would take to add the equivalent logic to the configure script. So if you have one to nine end-users, the net time wasted to document instead of modifying the configure script is less. But I think that GHC has quite a few more than nine end-users. The aggregate time wasted in the community (without even factoring in the time required to compile/install the desired version of libreadline) suddenly becomes much higher than the time saved by not writing that configure script modification. Indeed I suspect that the aggregate time wasted would be sufficient to justify the modification of the code to support the latest version of libreadline in the first place once you factor in the time wasted compiling/installing the correct libreadline version. Now what relevance does any of this have to the individual developer? Why would s/he care about the end-user experience? Well, let us not forget that said individual developer is part of that overall community. That said individual developer faces exactly the same wastes of time poring over README files (or, more likely, bizarre build errors) to figure out how to get the tools they use to compile. That said developer, too, would be more productive individually, not to mention the community as a whole, if the majority of the development community's members were to fix problems rather than documenting them. Virtually no other open source project does this, in my experience. So why not be the first? Why not be better than the Other Guystm? -- Michael T. Richter [EMAIL PROTECTED] (GoogleTalk: [EMAIL PROTECTED]) I'm not schooled in the science of human factors, but I suspect surprise is not an element of a robust user interface. (Chip Rosenthal) signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
Michael T. Richter wrote: On Fri, 2007-27-04 at 13:09 +0100, Robin Green wrote: But just think about it... is it easier to DOCUMENT the problem or just include a workaround in the make install code? It's easier to document the problem. For the individual developer it is easier to document the problem. For the development community as a whole it is easier if individual developers fix problems or at least make them more easily spotted than obscure notes in gigantic README files. For the individual developer it takes, hypothetically, two minutes to add a note to the effect that an out-of-date version of libreadline is required while it may take ten minutes to add a check to the configure script (and test it!) and even a day to fix the problem to work with the current version of libreadline. So yes, it is easier to document. By far. But now broaden the scope to the community. The compiler is downloaded. The process of building it begins. (It does take a long time to build GHC...) The user waits that long time and ... the build fails. Now s/he has to search through output whose error messages are not exactly the most friendly in the world. Typically, for example, you're about five levels deep into make and the error message that actually tells you what's wrong is in backscroll. So you find that message and slap your forehead. Doh! You download and install your old version of libreadline and try again. Time wasted? Ten minutes at least. More likely half an hour. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. (There are probably other dependencies to outdated packages, after all.) OK, let's go the RTFM route. Each and every developer reads each and every README file in each and every project combing it for references to bizarre dependencies. Let's be hyper-generous and say that each developer only spends one minute on the README file; that the README files in question are a paragon of informational organisation (instead of the more usual data dump in no particular order). Let's further suggest that it takes only five minutes to get all the unexpected dependencies worked out, downloaded and compiled/installed. Total time to make up the fix? Six minutes. That one minute to find the information in the README file is far shorter than the time it would take to add the equivalent logic to the configure script. So if you have one to nine end-users, the net time wasted to document instead of modifying the configure script is less. But I think that GHC has quite a few more than nine end-users. The aggregate time wasted in the community (without even factoring in the time required to compile/install the desired version of libreadline) suddenly becomes much higher than the time saved by not writing that configure script modification. Indeed I suspect that the aggregate time wasted would be sufficient to justify the modification of the code to support the latest version of libreadline in the first place once you factor in the time wasted compiling/installing the correct libreadline version. Now what relevance does any of this have to the individual developer? Why would s/he care about the end-user experience? Well, let us not forget that said individual developer is part of that overall community. That said individual developer faces exactly the same wastes of time poring over README files (or, more likely, bizarre build errors) to figure out how to get the tools they use to compile. That said developer, too, would be more productive individually, not to mention the community as a whole, if the majority of the development community's members were to fix problems rather than documenting them. All these would be a very good points except they do not match the actual situation at all. 1) The compiler was not built from source. 2) The compiler built successfully. 3) [EMAIL PROTECTED] ghc-6.6.1]# ghc /usr/local/lib/ghc-6.6.1/ghc-6.6.1: error while loading shared libraries: libreadline.so.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory Finding one line in one line of output... quite a bit of rooting around. 4) The fix to the bug is simply download and install the libreadline4 shared object. No recompilation or reinstallation necessary. 5) The gigantic README with it's obscure note is here http://www.haskell.org/ghc/download_ghc_661.html a few lines away from the download link. You can probably read it in the time it takes you to find and click the download link. Much quicker than waiting for a configure script to detect the problem. ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
On 27/04/07, Fernando Cassia [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ghc-6.6.1]# ghc /usr/local/lib/ghc-6.6.1/ghc-6.6.1: error while loading shared libraries: libreadline.so.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory # So, I conclude that Haskell is not ready for prime time, if it cannot install itself correclty including shared libs in a standard Fedora Core 6 system. Don't back out yet, the water's lovely! :-) GHC uses libreadline 4 (as mentioned in the error message), whereas most systems seem to come only with version 5. The place where you downloaded the GHC tarball (presumably haskell.org/ghc ?) also has a compatibility version that includes the older libreadline. If you install v4 now then GHC will work just fine. I'd guess there should be a way to get the libreadline4 installed from your package manager. Something like sudo yum install libreadline4 maybe? I don't use FC myself, so can't help further. Cheers, D. ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
http://www.google.com/search?hl=enq=fedora+haskell+libreadline.so.4btnG=Searchmeta= gives: http://www.nabble.com/-Haskell--Re:-kernel-2.6.11-and-readline.so-t577156.html as the first result, which appears to give a solution and, in fact, if I look at: http://haskell.org/ghc/download_ghc_661.html which is where I presume you got the rpm from it states that: Note: You need the libreadline.so.4 and libncurses.so.5 libraries to use this. Newer Linux distributions come with libreadline.so.5 only (e.g. SuSE 9.2), so we have provided a readline4 compatiblity RPM for this case. I've got a sneaking suspicion that the 'readline4 compatibility RPM' linked to would solve your problem. Or maybe the fedora package manager chases dependencies? ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
Hi Fernando, [EMAIL PROTECTED] ghc-6.6.1]# ghc /usr/local/lib/ghc-6.6.1/ghc-6.6.1: error while loading shared libraries: libreadline.so.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory # So, I conclude that Haskell is not ready for prime time, if it cannot install itself correclty including shared libs in a standard Fedora Core 6 system. Goodbye Haskell, I just wanted to compile a MP3 player, and perhaps if the compiler installed OK with no issues, I'd have taken a look at the language. But as of right now, I don't have time to waste with broken compiler installers. Wow! Such a bitter response! All you need to do is install readline, found here: http://tiswww.case.edu/php/chet/readline/rltop.html I think it's unfair to blame GHC for not having readline; the website does indeed tell you about readline: http://www.haskell.org/ghc/download_ghc_661.html Check out the paragraph under Linux (x86). Kind regards, Chris. ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
Dougal Stanton wrote, I'd guess there should be a way to get the libreadline4 installed from your package manager. Something like sudo yum install libreadline4 maybe? I don't use FC myself, so can't help further. It's even easier than that ... on Fedora Core 6 all he had to do was, yum install ghc Cheers, Miles ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
On Fri, 2007-04-27 at 06:28 -0300, Fernando Cassia wrote: So I follow the directions Which directions are those? If they somehow tell users of Fedora to download tarballs, they should be rectified to instruct users to 'yum install ghc' instead. So, I conclude that Haskell is not ready for prime time, if it cannot install itself correclty including shared libs in a standard Fedora Core 6 system Well - readline 4 *is* available on FC6, while presumably there exist other distributions that haven't upgraded to readline 5 yet. Since FC6 and most other updated distributions ship ghc as a native package, I'm not convinced this is an unreasonable default. -k ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
On 4/27/07, C.M.Brown [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Wow! Such a bitter response! All you need to do is install readline, found
here:
http://tiswww.case.edu/php/chet/readline/rltop.html
I think it's unfair to blame GHC for not having readline; the website does
indeed tell you about readline:
http://www.haskell.org/ghc/download_ghc_661.html
Thanks to all for the helpful responses. I was just operating in automated
mode so I didn't read all the text in the download page, just clicked to
start the download and moved on...
But just think about it... is it easier to DOCUMENT the problem or just
include a workaround in the make install code?
IF {library not available} then
echo you need to get asdfzxcv lib. before the compiler will work. please
use yum or apt-get
Is that too much to ask for?. The fingers of both hands are not enough to
count situations like this where developers spend more time documenting the
problem rather than fixing it with some user-friendlyness in the install
script.
Again, thanks for the help.
FC
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Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 06:28:48 -0300 Fernando Cassia [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I admit in shame never having heard about Haskell before. I know about PHP, Python, IBM' s REXX, TCL, TCL/TK, perl... but Haskell, never. So, here's how I landed in Haskell-land: I was looking for a simple ncurses-based text mode mp3 player with some sort of basic GUI and found HMP3 written in, you guessed it, Haskell. So I follow the directions and download the huge 30MB+ ghc-6.6.1-i386-unknown-linux.tar.bz2. Bunzip2 it. tar xvf it. ./configure and make install. So far, so good. and I get the following message, supposedly telling me that the haskell compiler was installed OK... === Installation of ghc-6.6.1 was successful. To use, add /usr/local/bin to your PATH. For documentation, see /usr/local/share/ghc-6.6.1/html/index.html === (/usr/local/bin is already in my path) So I decide to call the ghc compiler with no arguments to see if it was indeed installed, and I get this: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ghc-6.6.1]# ghc /usr/local/lib/ghc-6.6.1/ghc-6.6.1: error while loading shared libraries: libreadline.so.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory # Yes, that is a bit annoying. The readline issues are mentioned on the download page though -- you were warned ;). GHC 6.6.1 is only a day old, so there aren't very many binary builds available. On the other hand, GHC 6.6 has RPMs for FC5: http://www.haskell.org/ghc/download_ghc_66.html#x86linux So, I conclude that Haskell is not ready for prime time, if it cannot install itself correclty including shared libs in a standard Fedora Core 6 system. Please don't make generalizations from a single experience with a compiler version that is less than a day old. Goodbye Haskell, I just wanted to compile a MP3 player, and perhaps if the compiler installed OK with no issues, I'd have taken a look at the language. But as of right now, I don't have time to waste with broken compiler installers. Byebye FC Cheers, Spencer Janssen ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
Of course I meant friendliness. Consider English is not my native language. ;) FC On 4/27/07, Fernando Cassia [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: situations like this where developers spend more time documenting the problem rather than fixing it with some user-friendlyness in the install script. Again, thanks for the help. FC ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
Hallo, On 4/27/07, Fernando Cassia [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Goodbye Haskell, I just wanted to compile a MP3 player, and perhaps if the compiler installed OK with no issues, I'd have taken a look at the language. But as of right now, I don't have time to waste with broken compiler installers. Byebye Haskell waves back, yelling 'good bye!' while the distance between them increases. As a last thought, feeling sorry for the poor boy, it raises a sign that reads: 'Newer Linux distributions come with libreadline.so.5 only (e.g. SuSE 9.2), so we have provided a readline4 compatiblity RPM for this case.' Cheers, -- -alex http://www.ventonegro.org/ ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 07:00:26 -0300
Fernando Cassia [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
But just think about it... is it easier to DOCUMENT the problem or
just include a workaround in the make install code?
It's easier to document the problem.
IF {library not available} then
echo you need to get asdfzxcv lib. before the compiler will work.
please use yum or apt-get
Virtually no other open source project does this, in my experience.
It's better just to use yum in the first place, and only if that
doesn't work, try the tarballs.
--
Robin
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Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
I think it's unfair to blame GHC for not having readline; the website does indeed tell you about readline: http://www.haskell.org/ghc/download_ghc_661.html Check out the paragraph under Linux (x86). shouldn't library dependency checking be done in the ./configure script? ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
Re: [Haskell-cafe] Poor first impression
On 4/27/07, Fernando Cassia [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I admit in shame never having heard about Haskell before. I know about PHP, Python, IBM' s REXX, TCL, TCL/TK, perl... but Haskell, never. So, here's how I landed in Haskell-land: I was looking for a simple ncurses-based text mode mp3 player with some sort of basic GUI and found HMP3 written in, you guessed it, Haskell. So I follow the directions and download the huge 30MB+ ghc-6.6.1-i386-unknown-linux.tar.bz2. Bunzip2 it. tar xvf it. ./configure and make install. So far, so good. and I get the following message, supposedly telling me that the haskell compiler was installed OK... === Installation of ghc-6.6.1 was successful. To use, add /usr/local/bin to your PATH. For documentation, see /usr/local/share/ghc-6.6.1/html/index.html === (/usr/local/bin is already in my path) So I decide to call the ghc compiler with no arguments to see if it was indeed installed, and I get this: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ghc-6.6.1]# ghc /usr/local/lib/ghc-6.6.1/ghc-6.6.1: error while loading shared libraries: libreadline.so.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory # So, I conclude that Haskell is not ready for prime time, if it cannot install itself correclty including shared libs in a standard Fedora Core 6 system. Goodbye Haskell, I just wanted to compile a MP3 player, and perhaps if the compiler installed OK with no issues, I'd have taken a look at the language. But as of right now, I don't have time to waste with broken compiler installers. Byebye FC ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe This doesn't seem to be a Haskell problem, so much as a package management system problem. As nice as it would be to have code compile without a hitch on every distro of *nix, many packages don't. For the most part, people just (and rightly should) use the package management provided by their distro, which should automagically take care of dependencies and version mismatches for you. I've yet to have so much as a fuss on any of the many debian and gentoo systems I've installed ghc on through apt/portage, and while I have a disliking for rpms, I'm sure Fedora's yum system must have ghc in their repository now. Perhaps you were installing by tarball because you thought Fedora doesn't have a recent version of ghc in their repositories? Minor side note: ghc is just one of many (albeit the dominant) compiler for Haskell. Surely you wouldn't discredit C++ as a language just because your borland compiler broke? :-) -- Joseph Re, [EMAIL PROTECTED] SigNet Chair ___ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
