1 This is the pre-mangled text of the 2.02-specific part of the
4 ======================================================================
5 Release~2.02 is the first release of Glasgow Haskell for Haskell~1.4.
7 The announcement for this release is distributed as \tr{ANNOUNCE-2.02}
8 in the top-level directory. It contains very important caveats about
9 2.02, which we do not repeat here!
11 Information about ``what's ported to which machine'' is in the
12 Installation Guide. Since 2.01, we've added support for Win32
13 (Windows NT and Windows 95).
15 %************************************************************************
17 \subsection[2-02-config]{New configuration things in 2.02}
19 %************************************************************************
21 %************************************************************************
23 \subsection[2-02-user-visible]{User-visible changes in 2.02, including incompatibilities}
25 %************************************************************************
27 GHC~2.02 is a compiler for Haskell~1.4 and, as such, introduces a
28 bunch of user-visible changes. The GHC user's guide has a section to
29 help you upgrade your programs to Haskell~1.4 from 1.2; all
30 user-visible changes are described there (and not repeated here).
32 %************************************************************************
34 \subsection[2-02-options]{New or changed GHC command-line options}
36 %************************************************************************
39 \item GHC now warns of possibly-incomplete patterns in case expressions
40 and function bindings. You can suppress these warnings with @-fno-warn-incomplete-patterns@.
42 GHC also warns of completely overlapped patterns. You can't switch this off.
44 \item GHC can warn of shadowed names, though it does not do so by default.
45 Just occasionally this shows up
46 an otherwise hard-to-find bug. To warn of shadowed names use @-fwarn-name-shadowing@
48 \item You can now generate `make' dependencies via the compiler
49 driver, use the option @-M@ together with the list source files to compute
50 the dependencies for. By default, the dependencies will be appended to
51 the file \tr{Makefile} in the current directory.
53 \item For hackers, the flag @-dshow-rn-trace@ shows what the renamer is up to.
59 %************************************************************************
61 \subsection[2-02-new-in-compiler]{New in the compiler proper}
63 %************************************************************************
67 Completely new ``make-world'' system, properly documented (at last) in the
68 installation guide. No Jmakefiles; but you *need* Gnu make
69 (gmake). The more recent the better (v 3.70+).
72 The ``renamer''---the part of the compiler that implements
73 the Haskell module system---has been completely rewritten, again.
75 The format of interface files has changed significantly. Interface files
76 generated by 2.01 will not work with 2.02.
79 Even less special pleading for the Prelude than in 2.01. If you wanted
80 to write your own Prelude and drop it in, you would have
81 a really good chance now.
85 %************************************************************************
87 \subsection[2-02-new-in-libraries]{In the libraries}
89 %************************************************************************
91 The libraries have been completely reorganised. There's a description in
95 %************************************************************************
97 \subsection[2-02-new-in-syslibs]{In ``hslibs'' libraries}
99 %************************************************************************
102 %************************************************************************
104 \subsection[2-02-new-in-rts]{In the runtime system}
106 %************************************************************************
109 \item @ForeignObjs@ are properly deallocated when execution halts, as well
110 as when the garbage collector spots the @ForeignObj@ as being unreferenced.
111 This is important if you are using a @ForeignObj@ to refer to
112 a @COM@ object or other remote resource. You want that resource to be relased
113 when the program terminates.
115 \item Files handles in the IO prelude are implemented using
116 @ForeignObjs@, and closed when the file handle is unreferenced. This
117 means that if you open zillions of files then just letting go of the
118 file handle is enough to close it.
121 %************************************************************************
123 \subsection[2-02-new-elsewhere]{Other new stuff}
125 %************************************************************************
127 2.02 is released together with Green Card, a foreign-language
128 interface generator for Haskell. More details elsewhere...
131 %************************************************************************
133 \subsection[2-02-troublespots]{Known troublespots}
135 %************************************************************************
137 The 2.02 compiler has the following known deficiencies:
140 \item[native code generator, x86:]
142 The native code generator for x86 platforms is by default switched
143 off, as the code the compiler produces with it enabled was discovered
144 just before releaseing to be wonky. Rather than delay the release
145 further, GHC on x86 platforms rely on \tr{GCC} as their
146 backend for now. Hopefully fixed soon.
148 \item[Simplifier looping:]
150 The simplifier(Glasgow-speak for optimiser) has been observed to get
151 into a loop in one or two cases. If you should observe this, please
152 report it as a bug - the work around is to turn off optimisation.
154 \item[Undefined @*_vap_info@ symbols:]
156 If the linker complains about some undefined @*_vap_info@ symbols when
157 linking 2.02 compiled programs (very unlikely) - fix this by compiling
158 the module where the references are coming from with
159 @-fno-lambda-lifting@.