diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/hugs/default.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/hugs/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..1918f8f372b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/hugs/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+args: with args.lib; with args;
+let
+  co = chooseOptionsByFlags {
+    inherit args;
+    flagDescr = {
+      # does without X make sense? We can try
+      mandatory ={ cfgOption = [ "--prefix=\$out" ]; implies = "pthreads"; };
+      pathcanonicalization = { cfgOption = "--enable-path-canonicalization"; }; # enable canonicalization of filenames
+      timer = { cfgOption = "--enable-timer"; };#          enable evaluation timing (for benchmarking Hugs)
+      profiling = { cfgOption = "--enable-profiling"; };#      enable heap profiler
+      stack = { cfgOption = "--enable-stack-dumps"; };#-dumps    enable stack dump on stack overflow
+      large = { cfgOption = "--disable-large-banner"; };#-banner  disable multiline startup banner
+      internal = { cfgOption = "--enable-internal-prims"; };#-prims experimental primitives to access Hugs's innards
+      debug = { cfgOption = "--enable-debug"; };#          include C debugging information (for debugging Hugs)
+      tag = { cfgOption = "--enable-tag-checks"; };#-checks     runtime tag checking (for debugging Hugs)
+      lint = { cfgOption = "--enable-lint"; };#           enable "lint" flags (for debugging Hugs)
+      only98 = { cfgOption = "--enable-only98"; };#         build Hugs to understand Haskell 98 only
+      ffi = { cfgOption = "--enable-ffi"; };#            include modules that use the FFI [default=autodetect]
+      char = { cfgOption = "--enable-char-encoding"; blocks = "utf8"; };
+                                                        #-encoding  encode all character I/O using the byte encoding
+                                                        #determined by the locale in effect at that time. To
+                                                        #require that the UTF-8 encoding is always used, give
+                                                        #the --enable-char-encoding=utf8 option.
+                                                        #[default=autodetect]
+      utf8 = { cfgOption = "--enable-char-encoding=utf8"; blocks="char"; };
+
+
+      #--with-nmake            produce a Makefile compatible with nmake
+      #--with-gui              build Hugs for Windows GUI (Borland C++ only)
+      pthreads = { cfgOption = "--with-pthreads"; }; #   build Hugs using POSIX threads C library
+                                                   # I think we need this as long as not using nptl ?
+
+    };
+    optionals = [];
+    defaultFlags = ["ffi"];
+  };
+
+in args.stdenv.mkDerivation {
+
+  # passing the flags in case a library using this want's to check them (*) .. 
+  inherit (co) /* flags */ buildInputs;
+
+  configurePhase="./configure --prefix=\$out";
+
+  src = fetchurl {
+      url = http://cvs.haskell.org/Hugs/downloads/2006-09/hugs98-Sep2006.tar.gz;
+      sha256 = "3cf4d27673564cffe691bd14032369f646233f14daf2bc37c6c6df9f062b46b6";
+    };
+
+  name="hugs98";
+
+  meta = {
+    license = "as-is"; # gentoo is calling it this way..
+    description = "The HUGS98 Haskell <interpreter";
+    homepage = http://www.haskell.org/hugs;
+  };
+}