2 The (Interactive) Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 5.02
3 ============================================================
5 We are pleased to announce a new major release of the Glasgow Haskell
6 Compiler (GHC), version 5.02. The source distribution is freely
7 available via the World-Wide Web, under a BSD-style license. See
8 below for download details. Pre-built packages for Linux, FreeBSD,
9 Solaris and Win32 are also available.
11 Haskell is a standard lazy functional programming language; the
12 current language version is Haskell 98, agreed in December 1998.
14 GHC is a state-of-the-art programming suite for Haskell. Included is
15 an optimising compiler generating good code for a variety of
16 platforms, together with an interactive system for convenient, quick
17 development. The distribution includes space and time profiling
18 facilities, a large collection of libraries, and support for various
19 language extensions, including concurrency, exceptions, and foreign
20 language interfaces (C, C++, whatever).
22 A wide variety of Haskell related resources (tutorials, libraries,
23 specifications, documentation, compilers, interpreters, references,
24 contact information, links to research groups) are available from the
27 http://www.haskell.org/
29 GHC's Web page lives at
31 http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
38 5.02 incorporates many small refinements and bug fixes over the previous
39 stable release (5.00.2). There are no major changes.
41 - Much improved support for Windows platforms. Binary builds are
42 now entirely freestanding. There's no need to install Cygwin or
43 Mingwin to use it. It's a one-click-install-and-off-you-go story now.
45 - Several small changes to bring GHC into line with the newest Haskell 98
48 - GHCi (the interactive system) now works on Windows.
50 - Partial FFI support in GHCi. At the moment, foreign import (both
51 static and dynamic) is supported on x86 and sparc platforms.
53 - A compacting garbage collector, to try and reduce space use.
55 - Experimental: partial support for hierarchical module names.
57 - Experimental: following heroic hacking by Ken Shan, 5.02 now
58 works on Alpha (Tru64 only). Many 64-bit bugs have been shaken
59 out. At the moment only the batch-mode compiler works -- no GHCi
60 or native code generator yet.
62 We've found and fixed more bugs than you could possibly imagine. A
63 big thank-you to all those who reported bugs in the 5.00.X series. We
64 claim to have fixed almost all reported bugs. In general we've spent
65 a large amount of effort trying to improve the stability of the
66 system relative to 5.00.X. (Famous last words ...)
68 For full details see the release notes:
70 http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/5.02/set/release-5-02.html
77 The easy way is to go to the WWW page, which should be
80 http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
82 We supply binary builds in the native package format for various
83 flavours of Linux and BSD, and in InstallShield form for Windows
84 folks. Everybody else gets a .tar.gz which can be installed where you
87 Once you have the distribution, please follow the pointers in the
88 README file to find all of the documentation about this release.
92 On-line GHC-related resources
93 ===============================
95 Relevant URLs on the World-Wide Web:
97 GHC home page http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
98 Haskell home page http://www.haskell.org/
99 comp.lang.functional FAQ http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~gmh/faq.html
104 =====================
106 To compile programs with GHC, you need a machine with 64+MB memory, GNU C
107 and perl. This release is known to work on the following platforms:
109 * i386-unknown-{linux,freebsd,mingw32}
112 Ports to the following platforms should be relatively easy (for a
113 wunderhacker), but haven't been tested due to lack of time/hardware:
115 * hppa1.1-hp-hpux{9,10}
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/5.02/building/building-guide.html
131 We run mailing lists for GHC users and bug reports; to subscribe, use
132 the web interfaces at
134 http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/glasgow-haskell-users
135 http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/glasgow-haskell-bugs
137 There are several other haskell and ghc-related mailing lists on
138 www.haskell.org; for the full list, see
140 http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/
142 Please report bugs using our SourceForge page at
144 http://sourceforge.net/projects/ghc/
146 or send them to glasgow-haskell-bugs@haskell.org.
148 GHC users hang out on glasgow-haskell-users@haskell.org. Bleeding
149 edge CVS users party on cvs-ghc@haskell.org.