Why does the "Using OPAM to install Coq" instructions set OPAMROOT instead of using switches?

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Source files of the coq.inria.fr website

https://coq.inria.fr/

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Why does the "Using OPAM to install Coq" instructions set OPAMROOT instead of using switches? #95

Closed Lysxia closed 5 years ago

Lysxia commented 5 years ago

Switches strike me as the more principled way of managing distinct opam environments.

Zimmi48 commented 5 years ago

It is most likely dating back from a time when it was difficult to set up different switches with the same OCaml compiler. A PR improving these instructions would be welcome I think (see also coq/opam-coq-archive#595).

Zimmi48 commented 5 years ago

It seems like the conclusion of #96 was that there are good reasons for things as they are.

ejgallego commented 5 years ago

The fact that we recommend the minimum supported compiler is still not satisfactory tho. There are downsides to using and older OCaml version.

Even if the opam repository doesn't test a newer compiler, the CI system does test against the newer versions, (I forgot what switch does pkg:opam select tho)