runhaskell Setup install Setup error - haskell

Question

I am trying to install packages from haskell's Hackage using Cabal.
In particular, I am trying to download the gloss package:
cabal install gloss
Comes up with this error:
binary-0.7.1.0 failed during the building phase.
The exception was:
ExitFailure 1
bmp-1.2.5.2 depends on binary-0.7.1.0 which failed to install.
gloss-1.8.1.1 depends on binary-0.7.1.0 which failed to install.
I also tried binary-0.6.0.0. Because cabal install is not working, I am trying:
runhaskell Setup configure
runhaskell Setup build
runhaskell Setup install
...in the directory of the package, and I get the same error for every package:
Setup: Error: Could not find module: Data.Binary with any suffix: ["hi"] in
the search path: ["dist/build"]
I am also having trouble installing the newest version of Cabal.
cabal-install version 1.16.0.2
using version 1.16.0 of the Cabal library
The Glorious Glasgow Haskell Compilation System, version 7.6.3
Mac OSX 10.8 on MacBook Pro Retina

Answer 1

The binary package fails to install on latest versions of osx because osx uses clang instead of gcc, and 'gcc' is usually just a symlink to clang. gcc is used in the pre-processor stage (haskell supports c-like macros) but clang does not support all the features for the pre-processor stage that gcc supports.
To know if this is your problem, type 'gcc' in the terminal. If it says 'clang' somewhere, then this is the issue.
The solution is to get gcc, and replace the symlink to gcc with real gcc. Using 'runhaskell' will still have the same issue. For the most part, you should never try to install packages without cabal, it is by far the easiest way.

Answer 2

This is not an answer.
If you have downloaded package binary-0.7.1.0, you can untar it first, and go into that folder, and run
cabal configure
cabal build
cabal install
There must be more error message, such as line number, but I didn't see it.