This is the release notes for GHC-2.03, describing what's new since the
previous release:

GHC 2.03 is a minor upgrade of GHC 2.02.  It differs in the following
ways:

* A slew of small bugs are fixed.  You can find the complete list at

    http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~simonpj/ghc-bugs.html

  One bug remains un-fixed, namely the crash when there's an empty
  comment at the end of file.It's wierd!

* Last-minute language changes have been implemented (minor changes
  to the libraries, and to module export/hiding scope rules)

* It is only available as a source distribution.  If you want to
  use it you'll have to build it from source.  Nowadays this is
  a well-documented process (see the build and installation guide, but
  note that this release is still not self-booting, you still need
  to have The Good Old Compiler (0.29) at your disposal).

None of the bugs in GHC 2.02 are show-stoppers, so you'll only want
to upgrade if you are a build-from-source junkie and the bugs are 
irritating you.

Apart from bug-fixes, which are itemized elsewhere, 
the exact language and standard-library changes are as follows:

* A hiding clause hides the unqualified name, but not the qualified name.

* There's a new @Numeric@ library, containing mostly mildly marginal
  code for showing and reading numbers.  Parts of its exports used to be
  exported by @Prelude@, but now you'll have to import them explicitly.
  It also defines some functions that weren't provided before; have a
  look in the Haskell library report for details of complete interface.

* The following extra functions are exported from IO:
 
     try, bracket, bracket_, hGetLine, hWaitForInput

In addition, we've made following changes to GHC libraries/GHC's
implementation of the Haskell standard prelude:


* The function fromRational__, exported from PrelNum, is now called fromRat
  (And it's exported by @Numeric@).

* Documentation for the Glasgow specific interfaces plus the system
  libraries have been re-instated. Posix library documentation
  included also.

* `maybe' is now exported from Prelude, as it should have been in 2.02.

* Equality on IO.Handle is now defined as specified by the library report.

* Ix.rangeSize returns `0' on an empty range;previously it failed.

* The new interface GlaExts which is meant to be the gateway to the
  various Glasgow extensions has now been documented.

* GlaExts now exports the representation of Char

* The mutable variable interface, MutVar, has also been documented,
  together with ByteArray, MutableArray and Foreign.

* Added documentation on how to compile mutually recursive modules with
  2.03.