1 The Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 4.08
2 ==============================================
4 We are pleased to announce a new release of the Glasgow Haskell
5 Compiler (GHC), version 4.08. The source distribution is freely
6 available via the World-Wide Web and through anon. FTP, under a
7 BSD-style license. See below for download details. Pre-built
8 packages for Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and Win32 are also available.
10 Haskell is "the" standard lazy functional programming language; the
11 current language version is Haskell 98, agreed in December 1998.
13 GHC is a state-of-the-art optimising compiler for Haskell, generating
14 good code for a variety of platforms. The distribution includes space
15 and time profiling facilities, a large collection of libraries, and
16 support for various language extensions, including concurrency, exceptions,
17 and foreign language interfaces (C, C++, whatever).
19 A wide variety of Haskell related resources (tutorials, libraries,
20 specifications, documentation, compilers, interpreters, references,
21 contact information, links to research groups) are available from the
24 http://www.haskell.org/
26 GHC's Web page lives at
28 http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
33 This should be a stable release. There have been many enhancements
34 since 4.06, and shed-loads of bug-fixes (one shed (imperial) ~ one ton
37 There are the following changes
39 - New profiling subsystem, based on cost-centre stacks.
41 - Working x86 native code generator: now it works properly, runs
42 about twice as fast as compiling via C, and is on a par for
43 run-time speed (except in FP-intensive programs).
45 - Implicit parameters (i.e. dynamic scoping without the pain).
47 - DEPRECATED pragma for marking obsolescent interfaces.
49 - In the wake of hslibs, a new package system for
50 libraries. -package should now be used instead of -syslib.
52 - Result type signatures work.
54 - Many tiresome long-standing bugs and problems (e.g. the trace
55 problem) have been fixed.
57 - Many error messages have been made more helpful and/or
60 For full details see the release notes:
62 http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/4.08/users_guide/release-4-08.html
67 We run mailing lists for GHC users and bug reports; to subscribe, send
68 mail to majordomo@haskell.org; the msg body should be:
70 subscribe glasgow-haskell-{users,bugs} Your Name <you@where.soever>
74 subscribe cvs-ghc Your Name <you@where.soever>
76 Please send bug reports about GHC to glasgow-haskell-bugs@haskell.org;
77 GHC users hang out on glasgow-haskell-users@haskell.org. Bleeding
78 edge CVS users party on cvs-ghc@haskell.org.
80 + On-line GHC-related resources
81 ================================
83 Relevant URLs on the World-Wide Web:
85 GHC home page http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
86 Haskell home page http://www.haskell.org/
87 comp.lang.functional FAQ http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~gmh/faq.html
92 The easy way is to go to the WWW page, which should be
95 http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
97 Once you have the distribution, please follow the pointers in the
98 README file to find all of the documentation about this release. NB:
99 preserve modification times when un-tarring the files (no `m' option
102 + System requirements
103 ======================
105 To compile the sources, you need a machine with 32+MB memory, GNU C
106 (`gcc'), `perl' plus a version of GHC installed (3.02 at least). This
107 release is known to work on the following platforms:
109 * i386-unknown-{linux,freebsd,netbsd,cygwin32,mingw32}
111 * hppa1.1-hp-hpux{9,10}
113 Ports to the following platforms should be relatively easy (for a
114 wunderhacker), but haven't been tested due to lack of time/hardware:
116 * i386-unknown-solaris2
119 * {rs6000,powerpc}-ibm-aix
121 The builder's guide included in distribution gives a complete
122 run-down of what ports work; an on-line version can be found at
124 http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/4.08/building/building-guide.html