Tony Morris

I am constantly helping people, especially beginners, who trip over stack, but "not using stack." Cabal at least works. Try nix.

I know you beat this particular horse to death but stack has always worked for me when I need it, and I do use Nix.

Well, the horse is beating itself to death. I don't go out of my way to care about stack, yet there it is, breaking constantly for beginners. You'll see, there'll be one at the next FP course, there always is, "It's not working, why? By the way, I used stack."

The root problem here is that neither Stack nor Cabal had a formal requirements gathering phase like Nix did in Eelco's thesis. As a result, nobody can say for certain whether Stack/Cabal "work" if there is no specification for what it means for them to "work"

I would really like there to be zero, or even just small, practical penalty on me, and students, for the existence of stack. Consistent failure to acknowledge the cause of this ongoing penalty, is quite frustrating. it is *so* predictably consistent. Hence, fuck stack.

I’ve been able to help folks with pretty Much any not a bug cabal issue for like forever. Modern cabal makes it a dream :)

Yeah, but what if a keen beginner has fallen into the trap of using stack? Now they are stuck, because stack. How do you break the news?

I fix it. Or prioritize. Not understanding your deps is like unsafe stuff in a dirty place.