On Sun, Oct 25, 2009 at 12:13:03 +0200, Reinier Lamers wrote:
> Shouldn't we also add a note to the download page, stating that the safest
> way to get a working darcs on OS X is MacPorts? And then say that the
> binaries we provide are for those who need the latest & greatest, but are
> probably not as well-tested? When I go to darcs.net, trying to get an OS X
> version, I am directed to the binaries section without any mention of the
> alternatives.

The downloads page should probably mention MacPorts.

I'll note that the MacPorts seems to be a common cause of irritation
among Mac users needing to install darcs.  The complaint is simply that
compiling GHC takes forever (MacPorts believes in being self-contained
and therefore predictable, which seems sensible, but results in Mac
users drumming their fingers for interminable GHC installations).  Maybe
this just goes away as computers get faster and faster :-)

I've also been thinking that maybe...

- We could do away with the 'Hard Way' installation instructions and
  just require cabal-install outright (although keeping the bits that
  specify, eg.  how to build sans curl).  Or maybe just add a footnote
  saying that if you really do not want to use cabal-install, see the
  darcs.cabal file for a list of dependencies.  I imagine this is
  either controversial, or has been discussed before, though, so I
  won't press the issue.

- The manual could recommend the Haskell Platform as an easy
  way to get both GHC and cabal-install

So this is aiming towards the problem that people often either do not
read (just skimming with eyes glazed over; I'm guilty of this) or
misread... sort of a tough problem to copy with.

-- 
Eric Kow <http://www.nltg.brighton.ac.uk/home/Eric.Kow>
PGP Key ID: 08AC04F9

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