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POHow to handle feature requests that add new package dependencies
 

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  1. POHow to handle feature requests that add new package dependencies
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    <p>I am the maintainer of a package on hackage, <a href="http://hackage.haskell.org/package/lrucache" rel="nofollow">lrucache</a>. I recently received a feature request for adding instances for <code>Binary</code> and <code>NFData</code>. Both of those are useful things to have, and I have no issue with those instances, in principle.</p> <p>However, both of them introduce new package dependencies, and I want to keep my package's dependency list as minimal as possible. Is there a sane way to handle this? There are probably well over twenty different packages that provide useful type classes the data structures in <code>lrucache</code> could implement, and get some benefit from.</p> <p>Obviously, adding all of them as dependencies is a non-starter. But what else can be done?</p> <p>I can add flags to lrucache.cabal that will enable compiling various instances. That works, in terms of making the dependency list minimal, except when you want it. But it's horrible in the real world, because you can't specify build flags in build-depends sections. So you can depend on a package with a particular flag, but not specify that dependency. This quickly reduces to near-uselessness.</p> <p>I can create a bunch of orphan instance packages. This has the advantage of allowing dependencies on those instances to be specified in a build-depends section. Its main disadvantage is adding a ton of extra packages to hackage, and needing to maintain them as separate packages.</p> <p>What else can I do? What's the right thing to do?</p>
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    1. COThe "orphan instances package" approach seems to be a common strategy, at least. The right thing to do is probably invent better dependency management, but...
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    2. CO@C. A. McCann, I personally dislike it when software uses `./configure --enable-Z`. I like things simple -- having a package marked installed means it's installed, not "it's installed with options X and Y but not Z". Perhaps Hackage could _organize_ orphan instances packages better, but I don't think they're illegitimate in concept.
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    3. CO@gatoatigrado: I agree. Cabal organizing them better would also qualify as "better dependency management" as I mentioned, so feel free to invent it. :] I'm not sure what the obstacles to implementing a system like that would be.
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