[bug#52784] [PATCH 0/5] Update XMonad (and add new dependencies)

[John Kehayias]

Hi Lars,

Thanks for taking a look and testing.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

On Tuesday, December 28th, 2021 at 5:24 AM, Lars-Dominik Braun wrote:

> Hi John,
>
> thanks for your patches. I also upgraded xmonad locally (see
> attached patch), but I didn’t need the version bumps/new packages
> (i.e. xmonad’s test suite builds and runs fine). Are they really
> necessary?
>

I can confirm your patch also builds and checks fine (though didn't look at the 
log in much detail).

Taking a quick look at the new dependency, it is for some testing but seems 
optional: 
https://github.com/xmonad/xmonad/commit/031bbd62306e592ddd0768d4e5b1105bf5e81032
 So maybe that's why it builds/checks fine. Since we can easily add the needed 
packages, I would err on including it, what do you think?

I removed/added dependencies based on a fresh guix import and looking at the 
Hackage info for xmonad. I think some of the dependencies that were removed 
were due to older versions (or to support older GHC?) or I guess libraries that 
aren't needed anymore.

> > Note that this new version has breaking configuration changes, detailed in 
> > their announcement: https://xmonad.org/news/2021/10/27/xmonad-0-17-0.html 
> > Is that worth a news entry for guix pull? It has been a long time since 
> > xmonad released a new version, for those that stay on the stable release.
>
> I was also hesitant to push the new version for this reason. Additionally
> xmonad is part of Stackage, which we use where possible. How about adding
> a xmonad-next package instead and make the switch when Stackage includes
> the new version?
>

We do tend to follow LTS Stackage, but I wasn't sure how something like XMonad 
fits since I imagine most people that use it aren't using Haskell otherwise. 
Also, since it has been a few years since they had a release, I thought it 
would be nice to have it.

Anyway, an xmonad-next could make the transition easier for anyone using the 
previous stable release. I've been using cabal but with an update in Guix would 
look to make my setup more Guix-y.

To summarize, I would opt for the changes in dependencies to follow upstream, 
and making a separate xmonad-next avoids further disruption anyway. Personally, 
I also wanted to submit those new packages as part of a whole lot of Haskell 
packages I will be submitting to get haskell-gi and taffybar in Guix.

Thanks,
John