The evolution of GHC

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A alternate name e.g. ghc-2021-08.r0 would make it clear that this is a stable fork (snapshot?), and as bugs are found and removed, only the “release number” .rN would be changed.

If this works, the same could be done for the last of the ghc-9 series (upon the arrival of ghc-10); only then would ghc-2021-08 stop receiving bug fixes - that activity switches to the renamed “end-version” of ghc-9.

All going smoothly (!!!), this gives people the choice of:

  • relative stability with the renamed, maintenance-only end-version of the previous release series (currently ghc-2021-08 a.k.a ghc-8.10.7);
  • or the current release series (ghc-9.2.1 or younger if needed: ghc-HEAD), for adding and testing language and other extensions.

Of course, this presumes there are enough Haskellers left to maintain both versions of GHC. As for having enough resources, someone with previous experience in the upkeep of GHC can let all of us know if any of this is actually possible…

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