Follow the presentation
+
A group of
+
A group of
licenses (see OSI)
+
Linux kernel
+
Firefox
+
VSCode
+
Blender
GHC
+
GHC
(The Haskell compiler)
EAPI=8
+EAPI=8
DESCRIPTION="A dummy package"
HOMEPAGE="https://dummy.org"
@@ -312,8 +317,8 @@ class="sourceCode bash">
-Packaging challenges (pt 2.)
+
+
-
-GHCup
+
-
-Demo
-
+
+Demo
+
State of 2019 (Haskell Installers)
@@ -374,19 +393,18 @@ kernel, …)
- Posix shell
-
only
+
only
supported linux and mac
inspired by
+
inspired by
rustupsupport from haskell.org
GHCup today
-
What is GHCup really?
-
installer (portable)
distribution channel
feedback channel
+
installer (portable)
distribution channel
feedback channel
testing/QA gateway
+
provider of sane defaults (e.g. “recommended” GHC version)
glue for holistic toolchain experience
+
glue for holistic toolchain experience
- VSCode, stack, cabal-install integration
CI provisioning (e.g. github actions)
-
-
-The difference to Gentoo
-
-- one-man project (mostly)
-- much tighter coupling between upstream (e.g. GHC developers) and
-downstream (GHCup developers)
-
-- heavier on relationship issues
-
-- much more responsibility
-- position of authority
+
CI provisioning (e.g. github actions)
-
-Relationships in detail
+
+Relationships in detail (pt. 2)
Dependents:
--
+
-
Haskell developers
- beginners, advanced, students, companies
-
end users (e.g. compiling pandoc from source)- GitHub CI
+
end users (e.g. compiling pandoc from source)- GitHub CI
- GitHub images, Haskell repos
@@ -481,73 +479,267 @@ height="32" /> GitHub CI
🧰 tools
-
-Other
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Questions/Arguments?
+
+
diff --git a/nus.md b/nus.md
index 9f9cd68..7e37d38 100644
--- a/nus.md
+++ b/nus.md
@@ -1,6 +1,24 @@
-% Two decades of Open Source
-% Julian Ospald
-% Sep 20, 2024
+---
+output:
+ slidy_presentation:
+ duration: 45
+title: Two decades of Open Source
+author: Julian Ospald
+date: Sep 20, 2024
+---
+
+## Follow the presentation {.centered}
+
+{#id .class height=500px}
+
+## Structure of this talk
+
+1. Introduction (about me and my career)
+2. Open Source (what it is and its value)
+3. First chapter: Gentoo and package management
+4. Second chapter: GHCup
+5. Third chapter: Haskell Core Libraries
+6. Lessons learned
# Introduction
@@ -80,7 +98,7 @@
* will stop maintenance at some point
* don't care much about their users
-# Gentoo and package management
+# First chapter: Gentoo and package management
## What is Gentoo
@@ -146,7 +164,7 @@ src_install() {
- shipping a "chain" instead of a single artifact
* high impact on small mistakes (e.g. assuming a specific shell)
-## Packaging challenges (pt 2.)
+## Packaging challenges (pt. 2)
* communication between teams/maintainers
* execution of large changes
@@ -166,18 +184,19 @@ src_install() {
* combining components to a coherent system (init system, coreutils, kernel, ...)
* a choice of **defaults**
-## Why Gentoo made me a better programmer
+## Programming lessons
* primary packaging skill: being meticulous
* small mistakes -> big impact
+ * being as precise as possible about what you want to achieve
* long term maintenance of small code pieces
* intense review culture
* strict policies and workflow guidelines
* how to learn complex system
-# GHCup
+# Second chapter: GHCup
-## Demo
+## Demo {.centered}
{#id .class height=500px}
@@ -232,14 +251,6 @@ curl -s -L \
- VSCode, stack, cabal-install integration
* {#id .class width=32 height=32px} CI provisioning (e.g. github actions)
-## The difference to Gentoo
-
-* one-man project (mostly)
-* much tighter coupling between upstream (e.g. GHC developers) and downstream (GHCup developers)
- * heavier on relationship issues
-* much more responsibility
-* position of authority
-
## Relationships in detail
Dependencies:
@@ -255,7 +266,7 @@ Dependencies:
- platform support
- binary distributions (the `.tar.gz`/`.zip`)
-## Relationships in detail
+## Relationships in detail (pt. 2)
Dependents:
@@ -269,3 +280,179 @@ Dependents:
- 🧰 tools
- [vscode-haskell](https://github.com/haskell/vscode-haskell), [Haskell playground](https://play.haskell.org/), [nvim-lsp-installer](https://github.com/williamboman/nvim-lsp-installer)
+## Programming lessons
+
+* writing a small single-purpose program from scratch
+* how to design command line interfaces
+* high impact of decisions (not just mistakes)
+ - bugs now affect GitHub CI and companies
+ - can make "Haskell" look bad
+* no one to review
+ - => review your own code
+* constantly thinking about ways to improve reliability
+ - can't rely on anyone else to catch bugs
+
+## The difference to Gentoo
+
+Both deal with installation, but...
+
+* more code to maintain (not just packaging) for me
+* one-man project (mostly)
+* much tighter coupling between upstream (e.g. GHC developers) and downstream (GHCup developers)
+ * heavier on relationship issues
+* less dependencies, but much more responsibility
+* position of authority
+ - what to consider?
+* most of my work today is support
+
+# Third Chapter: Haskell Core Libraries
+
+## What are Haskell Core Libraries?
+
+* bundled with the compiler
+* fundamental building blocks (primitives)
+* base library
+ - available to all programs by default
+ - contains the "Prelude" (standard library)
+
+## Core libraries I maintain
+
+* filepath
+* unix
+* os-string
+* file-io
+
+## Challenges
+
+* changes are extremly expensive
+* writing good primitives is hard (non-specific APIs)
+* lots of odd knowledge
+ - e.g. Windows filepaths
+ - `C:foo`
+ - `/bar`
+ - `\\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\Harddisk0\Partition2\foo\bar`
+ - Posix standard
+* portability
+
+## Core Libraries Committee
+
+* 7 members
+* manages API changes of `base` only
+ * requires a proposal
+ * requires impact assessment for breaking changes
+ * requires an up-front implementation of the change
+* ensures other core libraries have active maintainers
+ * does not interfere with maintenance
+
+## Driving changes across core libraries (case study)
+
+Abstract FilePath Proposal:
+
+- Haskell String type: `type String = [Char]`
+ - `Char` is a unicode code point
+ - not bytes
+ - is interpreted (decoded)
+ - depends on locale
+- affects most core libraries
+- implement as a breaking change (base), or...
+ - in "user-space"
+- lack of higher authority
+ - building consensus
+ - convincing multiple maintainers
+ - patching many libraries
+- open source politics
+
+## Programming lessons
+
+* how to design good primitives
+ - as opposed to abstractions
+* considering every impact of API changes
+* doing history research on past design choices
+ - important design decisions may not be documented
+ - may look innocent
+ - chaning them might be devastating
+
+# Lessons Learned
+
+## Collaboration
+
+::: incremental
+
+* main currency in Open Source is energy
+* treat contributors like kings
+* be mindful about boundaries (tricky balance)
+* respect other projects workflows
+* driving large changes requires
+ - consensus
+ - support
+ - a good value proposition
+ - a good execution plan (risk, breakage, ...)
+* Haskell Foundation
+
+:::
+
+## Project maintenance
+
+::: incremental
+
+* dicatorships work, but are not sustainable
+* plan for your departure
+* bus factor is your constant enemy
+* good decision making processes
+ - lightweight when risk is low
+ - elaborate when risk is high
+* actively think about the contribution experience
+ - comment early
+* how to maintain the project vision?
+
+:::
+
+## User Experience
+
+::: incremental
+
+* UX is harder than CS
+ * yet often an afterthought
+* toolchains often lack a holistic UX vision
+* UX vision gets easily lost in "maintenance mode"
+ * feature creep
+ * maintainer turnover
+ * collective decisions
+* UX is a fascinating problem (e.g. OS)
+ - plug & play (intuition... about interfaces)
+ - happy path (control)
+ - defaults (expectations... about behavior)
+
+:::
+
+## Stability vs Progress
+
+* 🤼 conflicting goals
+* ⚔️ breaking API can have large rippling effects
+ - experience report of a facebook engineer on GHC upgrades
+* 🗼 small breakages add up
+ - large projects have hundreds of dependencies
+* 🗣️ many discussions in the Haskell community
+ - upgrade cost
+ - language changes (Haskell report)
+ - academic background of Haskell (academia vs industry?)
+ - the role of committees
+* ⚖️ how to strike a balance?
+ - SemVer does not solve it (why?)
+
+## Composition
+
+* I love small programs
+* categories of composition
+ - functions
+ - libraries
+ - programs
+* unix philosophy
+ - 🛠️ do one thing and do it well
+ - ⚗️ pipes, compose stdout and stdin (re-usable)
+* how to make your project composable?
+ - https://clig.dev/
+
+## Questions/Arguments? {.centered}
+
+{#id .class height=500px}
