A modest proposal (re the Platform)

[Mark Lentczner]

A few specific points:

1) 2013.4.0.0 isn't really "ready to be pushed" - there were delays, and
then some rolling updates... and some churn. While there is a proposed set
of packages... and it does compile... there is still some work on the Mac
version (it needs to incorporate my patch script for Mavericks).

2) If we roll out 2013.4.0.0 - that will mean a fair bit of work for all
the packagers... and they (and I) won't be up for doing it again for a few
months.

3) For the Mac release, I've really shied away from solutions that have
people install a second C compiler. While some solutions for Mavericks had
people installing gcc from macports or the like, I think we are better
served with a solution that works with the default tool chain for the
platform. I have no experience with FreeBSD, but I would think similar
considerations apply (though at least there, everyone has ports.)

4) Stability in both GHC and the library eco-system seems (perhaps
subjectively) more stable to me now than it did three/four years ago. In
particular, many of the package maintainers for packages in the platform
are already ready for the 7.8 release. Further, several important packages
(text, aseon, cabal) work best with newer versions of core packages (which
will be in 7.8) and are a bit hacky when working with the core shipped with
7.6.

All in all, I'm still seeing this discussion coming down strongly in favor
of delaying for 7.8. Further, I believe everyone involved so far is on
board with the stability aims of the platform.

- Mark
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