In an attempt to improve the transparency of GHC’s release process, I have expanded upon the GHC’s Wiki GHC Status page. This page is intended to be the canonical source for information regarding GHC’s release practices, the status of past releases, and the plans for future releases. Do note that specifics regarding individual releases can be found on the release milestones, which are linked to from the status page.
If you have questions or see anything that is unclear or inaccurate, don’t hesitate to ask.
When picking a GHC major version, one of my main questions is: What are the known issues with this branch, and are they likely to get fixed.
Right now, it seems hard to answer this question, since there are a couple of different proxies that I could conceivably use. But some of them are in conflict with each other.
For example, it seems that right now, series 9.8 and series 9.12 are both “Suitable for use”. But I see on gitlab that 9.12 has a backport tag while 9.8 does not. So while the table shows that no further release is planned for 9.12, it seems likely that one would come, otherwise it wouldn’t make sense to have the tag.
I wonder whether I, as a GHC user, should even be looking at this, because I feel like the “Status” column (with the orb) is really the only one I am supposed to look at. Is that correct?
I suppose the recommended tag on GHCup exists exactly such that you just get a single option that you can trust. It’s just that when I read this original announcement of the “GHC status” page, it does seem like it is intended for users to read.