ghc/docs/users_guide/4-06-notes.sgml

   1 <Sect1 id="release-4-06">
   2 <Title>Release notes for version&nbsp;4.06&mdash;1/00
   3 </Title>
   4
   5 <Para>
   6
   7 <ItemizedList>
   8 <ListItem>
   9
  10 <Para>
  11 User visible changes
  12
  13 <ItemizedList>
  14
  15 <ListItem>
  16 <Para>
  17 Major library reorganisation.  The libraries are now split into 8
  18 categories:
  19
  20 <VariableList>
  21
  22 <VarListEntry>
  23 <Term><Literal>concurrent</Literal></Term>
  24 <ListItem>
  25 <Para>
  26 Same as the old <literal>concurrent</literal> library
  27 </Para>
  28 </ListItem>
  29 </VarListEntry>
  30
  31 <VarListEntry>
  32 <Term><Literal>data</Literal></Term>
  33 <ListItem>
  34 <Para>
  35 Datatypes.  Contains old <literal>FiniteMap</literal>
  36 and <literal>Set</literal> modules, and Chris Okasaki's Edison
  37 library.
  38 </Para>
  39 </ListItem>
  40 </VarListEntry>
  41
  42 <VarListEntry>
  43 <Term><Literal>lang</Literal></Term>
  44 <ListItem>
  45 <Para>
  46 contains most of the contents of
  47 the old <literal>exts</literal> library
  48 </Para>
  49 </ListItem>
  50 </VarListEntry>
  51
  52 <VarListEntry>
  53 <Term><Literal>net</Literal></Term>
  54 <ListItem>
  55 <Para>
  56 networking-related libraries (Socket, SocketPrim, and
  57 new URI library).
  58 </Para>
  59 </ListItem>
  60 </VarListEntry>
  61
  62 <VarListEntry>
  63 <Term><Literal>num</Literal></Term>
  64 <ListItem>
  65 <Para>
  66 numerical-related libraries (currently empty).
  67 </Para>
  68 </ListItem>
  69 </VarListEntry>
  70
  71 <VarListEntry>
  72 <Term><Literal>posix</Literal></Term>
  73 <ListItem>
  74 <Para>
  75 the old POSIX library
  76 </Para>
  77 </ListItem>
  78 </VarListEntry>
  79
  80 <VarListEntry>
  81 <Term><Literal>text</Literal></Term>
  82 <ListItem>
  83 <Para>
  84 text-processing related libraries (including Andy Gill's
  85 HTML library)
  86 </Para>
  87 </ListItem>
  88 </VarListEntry>
  89
  90 <VarListEntry>
  91 <Term><Literal>util</Literal></Term>
  92 <ListItem>
  93 <Para>
  94 various miscellaneous libraries, including John Hughes'
  95 and Koen Claessen's QuickCheck library.
  96 </Para>
  97 </ListItem>
  98 </VarListEntry>
  99
 100 </VariableList>
 101
 102 See the accompanying libraries documentation for more details.
 103 </Para>
 104 </ListItem>
 105
 106 <ListItem>
 107 <Para>
 108 Cleanup of concurrent I/O system.  We now use non-blocking I/O on
 109 all Handles, so that multiple threads can do I/O simultaneously.
 110 We <Emphasis>don't</Emphasis> however do non-blocking I/O on <Constant>stdout</Constant>/<Constant>stderr</Constant>,
 111 due to reports that some shells don't correctly restore
 112 blocking mode on these file descriptors after running a program.
 113 </Para>
 114 </ListItem>
 115
 116 <ListItem id="exc-changes-406">
 117 <Para>
 118 Exception changes
 119
 120 <ItemizedList>
 121 <ListItem>
 122 <Para>
 123 <Function>raiseInThread</Function> can now raise exceptions in threads blocked on I/O or time delays.
 124 </Para>
 125 </ListItem>
 126
 127 <ListItem>
 128 <Para>
 129 New functions in <literal>Exception</literal>
 130
 131 <ProgramListing>
 132 blockAsyncExceptions   :: IO a -> IO a
 133 unblockAsyncExceptions :: IO a -> IO a
 134 </ProgramListing>
 135
 136 used to control the delivery of asynchronous exceptions to
 137 a thread (including those raised via <Function>raiseInThread</Function>).
 138 </Para>
 139 </ListItem>
 140
 141 <ListItem>
 142 <Para>
 143 Asynchronous exceptions are now blocked by default inside
 144 an exception handler.  Use <Function>unblockAsyncExceptions</Function> to
 145 restore the previous behaviour.
 146 </Para>
 147 </ListItem>
 148
 149 </ItemizedList>
 150
 151 </Para>
 152 </ListItem>
 153
 154 <ListItem>
 155 <Para>
 156 Add NetBSD/x86 support.
 157 </Para>
 158 </ListItem>
 159
 160 <ListItem>
 161 <Para>
 162 Added support for <Literal>foreign export dynamic</Literal>.
 163 </Para>
 164 </ListItem>
 165
 166 </ItemizedList>
 167
 168 </Para>
 169 </ListItem>
 170
 171 <ListItem>
 172 <Para>
 173 Minor changes
 174
 175 <ItemizedList>
 176
 177 <ListItem>
 178 <Para>
 179 Build system cleanup&mdash;<Command>BIN_DIST=1</Command> is now needed in <Filename>build.mk</Filename> (before building!) to build binary dists.
 180 </Para>
 181 </ListItem>
 182
 183 <ListItem>
 184 <Para>
 185 New RTS option <Option>-xc</Option>, which prints the current cost-centre
 186 stack to stderr whenever an exception is raised (only for
 187 profiling builds).
 188 </Para>
 189 </ListItem>
 190
 191 </ItemizedList>
 192
 193 </Para>
 194 </ListItem>
 195
 196 <ListItem>
 197 <Para>
 198 Not-quite-ready-yet, but in there nontheless
 199
 200 <VariableList>
 201
 202 <VarListEntry>
 203 <Term>
 204 SMP support
 205 </Term>
 206 <ListItem>
 207 <Para>
 208 Building way '<Literal>s</Literal>' on a system with pthreads (only tested on
 209 Linux so far) will include support for running multiple
 210 Haskell threads on several pthreads simultaneously.  If
 211 your system supports it, this will enable Haskell programs
 212 to take advantage of multiprocessor SMP machines.
 213 </Para>
 214 </ListItem>
 215 </VarListEntry>
 216
 217 <VarListEntry>
 218 <Term>
 219 GranSim and GUM
 220 </Term>
 221 <ListItem>
 222 <Para>
 223 Initial ports of GranSim and GUM to GHC 4 are in there.  Not quite
 224 ready yet.
 225 </Para>
 226 </ListItem>
 227 </VarListEntry>
 228
 229 <VarListEntry>
 230 <Term>
 231 Profiling
 232 </Term>
 233 <ListItem>
 234 <Para>
 235 Heap profiling sort-of works.  Only cost-centre heap
 236 profiles are supported so far.
 237 </Para>
 238 </ListItem>
 239 </VarListEntry>
 240
 241 </VariableList>
 242
 243 </Para>
 244 </ListItem>
 245
 246 </ItemizedList>
 247
 248 </Para>
 249
 250 </Sect1>