1 <sect1>Release notes for version~4.04---7/99
2 <label id="release-4-04">
6 <item> <tt/Weak/ library changes:
8 <item> Finalise is now spelt finalize in all function names.
9 <item> <tt/finalize/ now runs the finalizer immediately, and
10 waits for it to complete before returning.
11 <item> <tt/mkWeak/ now takes a <tt/Maybe (IO ())/ for the finalizer,
12 and <tt/mkWeakNoFinalizer/ is removed.
13 <item> A weak pointer whose key is itself a weak pointer will now do
17 <item> Changed representation of <tt/Integer/ type to speed up
18 computations on small integers. The performance of <tt/Integer/ is now
19 only slightly slower than <tt/Int/ for values between <tt/minBound::Int/
20 and <tt/maxBound::Int/.
22 <item> On Win32 platforms, added support for using (and producing) dynamic
23 link libraries (DLLs) containing ghc-compiled code.
25 <item> Added @-funbox-strict-fields@ for unboxing/unpacking strict
28 <item> GHC now has a license! Check out <tt>fptools/ghc/LICENSE/</tt>.
30 <item> Added CPR analysis, which reduces allocation by unboxing
31 function results (thanks to Kevin Glynn <tt><keving@@cs.mu.OZ.AU></tt>).
33 <item> UsageSP analysis added, but not yet functional.
35 <item> Added a simple common sub-expression analysis pass.
37 <item> Implemented update-in-place for certain very restricted cases.
39 <item> Replaced GHC's old and worn yacc/lex parser with a new one
40 based on Happy. Fixed several Haskell 98 non-conformance issues in
43 <item> Added <tt>Concurrent.yield :: IO ()</tt>.
45 <item> Added RULES pragms - transformation rules for Haskell source.
46 This is used for list fusion: now intermediate lists between map,
47 foldr, list comprehensions are removed automatically.
49 <item> Unregisterised/unmangled builds now work.
51 <item> Much performance tuning: GHC 4.04 produces faster code than all
54 <item> GHC now defines <tt/__HASKELL98__/ when compiling files with
57 <item> <tt/hppa1.1-hp-hpux/ port reinstated.
59 <item> New operations for unsafely thawing byte arrays:
60 <tt/unsafeThaw{Byte,ST,IO}Array/.
62 <item> <tt/mkdependHS/ now lives in GHC's lib directory, not the
63 binary directory. It isn't intended to be run standalone, only via
66 <item> Asynchronous exceptions are now supported (see Section <ref name="The Concurrent Library" id="concurrent-interface">). New operations:
68 <itemize> <item> <tt/Exception.killThread/ now raises an exception
69 (<tt/AsyncException.KilledThread/) in the killed thread.
70 <item> <tt/Exception.raiseInThread/ allows a thread to raise an
71 exception in another thread.
72 <item> <tt/Concurrent.myThreadId/ returns the <tt/ThreadId/ of the
74 <item> Stack overflow results in <tt/AsyncException.StackOverflow/
75 being raised in the offending thread.
78 <item> Assertion failures now raise an <tt/AssertionFailed/ exception.
80 <item> Added simple high-level interface to the Regex library, see
81 Section <ref name="The RegexString Library" id="RegexString">.
83 <item> <tt/forkIO/ now handles any uncaught exceptions cleanly.
85 <item> <tt/integer2Int#/ isn't sign preserving any longer, but modulo
86 <tt/(maxBound::Int + 1) * 2/.
88 <item> <tt/-ddump-rdr/ is now called <tt/-ddump-parsed/.
90 <item> Signal handling with the <tt/Posix/ library now works.
92 <item> Many, many bugs fixed.