# Stack and HLS, questions about the present and future

**URL:** <https://discourse.haskell.org/t/stack-and-hls-questions-about-the-present-and-future/10275>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [September 2, 2024, 5:49pm UTC](https://discourse.haskell.org/t/stack-and-hls-questions-about-the-present-and-future/10275 "2024-09-02T17:49:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 21

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**Author:** ![george.fst](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.haskell.org/george.fst/32/4933_2.png) [@george.fst](https://discourse.haskell.org/u/george.fst)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2024, 10:15pm UTC](https://discourse.haskell.org/t/stack-and-hls-questions-about-the-present-and-future/10275/21 "2024-09-03T22:15:20Z")

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Frankly, IMO, Stack is dying. Usage has been dropping dramatically since Cabal added “Nix-style builds” in 2019 (unfortunately [it’s been two years since the last Haskell Survey](http://discourse.haskell.org/t/2023-state-of-haskell-survey/8213) but anecdotally it seems the trend has continued). The original developers of Stack have since disappeared and the project has largely lost its momentum, and I just don’t think the community has the bandwidth to support both tools well (although @mpilgrem has been doing a lot of thankless work to keep the lights on!).

> Hate to ask the question, but I wonder at what point Stack should stop being suggested by default to new users, e.g. on the downloads page…

I think this has to happen eventually, since the current situation is confusing for beginners and Stack now has few benefits and a lot of drawbacks. But it’ll take a few years, since, as @hasufell says, Cabal is yet to fully eclipse Stack in functionality. Plus, there’s _a lot_ of politics and historical baggage surrounding all this and no one wants to reopen those wounds.

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