- The Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 2.04
- ==============================================
-We are pleased to announce a new release of the Glasgow Haskell
-Compiler (GHC), version 2.04. Source distribution is freely available
-via the World-Wide Web and anon. FTP; details below.
+ ============================================================
+ The (Interactive) Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 5.04
+ ============================================================
-Haskell is "the" standard lazy functional programming language; the
-current language version is 1.4, agreed in April, 1997. Haskell
-related information is available from the Haskell home page at:
+We are pleased to announce a new major release of the Glasgow Haskell
+Compiler (GHC), version 5.04.
- http://haskell.org/
+Highlights include:
+ * Hierarchical libraries, with documentation produced by Haddock.
-+ What's new
-=============
+ * New type system extensions: full rank-N types and kind
+ annotations.
+
+ * New heap profiling facilities (retainer profiling, biographical
+ profiling).
-Release 2.04 represent work done through May '97; highlights include:
+ * MacOS X support
- * Data constructors can now have polymophic fields, and ordinary
- functions can have polymoprhic arguments. Details on
+See the release notes for a full list of the changes:
- http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~simonpj/quantification.html
+ http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/latest/html/users_guide/release-5-04.html
- Existential types coming, but not done yet.
- * Pattern guards implemented, see
-
- http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~simonpj/guards.html
+How to get it
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+The easy way is to go to the WWW page, which should be self-explanatory:
- * Compiler can now compile itself (i.e., no real dependence on
- the Haskell 1.2 compiler anymore (version 0.29)).
+ http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
- * Faster compilation
- Compilation speeds has improved since 2.02, although it still slower
- than GHC-0.29, the Good Old Compiler. (the gap is narrowing, though!)
-
- * Code quality is better, the simplifier and inlining machinery has been
- refurbished. Not sure how much better.
+We supply binary builds in the native package format for various
+flavours of Linux and BSD, and in Windows Installer (MSI) form
+for Windows folks. Binary builds for other platforms are available
+as a .tar.gz which can be installed wherever you want. The source
+distribution is also available from the same place.
- * powerpc-ibm-aix is now a supported GHC platform, due to the
- Heroic Efforts of Andr\'e Santos <alms@di.ufpe.br>.
+Packages will appear as they are built - if the package for your
+system isn't available yet, please try again later.
- * It has been tested against a large suite of (mostly) Haskell 1.2
- programs (the NoFib suite). Bunch of bugs related to new
- Haskell 1.4 has been weeded out.
+Background
+~~~~~~~~~~
+Haskell is a standard lazy functional programming language; the
+current language version is Haskell 98, agreed in December 1998.
- * A couple of Haskell 1.4 features are still incompletely supported,
- notably polymorphic strictness annotations, and Unicode.
+GHC is a state-of-the-art programming suite for Haskell. Included is
+an optimising compiler generating good code for a variety of
+platforms, together with an interactive system for convenient, quick
+development. The distribution includes space and time profiling
+facilities, a large collection of libraries, and support for various
+language extensions, including concurrency, exceptions, and foreign
+language interfaces (C, whatever). GHC is distributed under a
+BSD-style open source license.
-Please see the release notes for a complete discussion of What's New.
+A wide variety of Haskell related resources (tutorials, libraries,
+specifications, documentation, compilers, interpreters, references,
+contact information, links to research groups) are available from the
+Haskell home page (see below).
-+ Mailing lists
-================
+On-line GHC-related resources
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-We run mailing lists for GHC users and bug reports; to subscribe, send
-mail to majordomo@dcs.gla.ac.uk; the msg body should be:
+Relevant URLs on the World-Wide Web:
- subscribe glasgow-haskell-<which> Your Name <your-email@where.you.are>
+GHC home page http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
+Haskell home page http://www.haskell.org/
+comp.lang.functional FAQ http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~gmh/faq.html
-Please send bug reports about GHC to glasgow-haskell-bugs@dcs.gla.ac.uk ; GHC
-users hang out on glasgow-haskell-users@dcs.gla.ac.uk
-+ On-line GHC-related resources
-================================
+System requirements
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+To compile programs with GHC, you need a machine with 64+MB memory, GCC
+and perl. This release is known to work on the following platforms:
-Relevant URLs on the World-Wide Web:
+ * i386-unknown-{linux,*bsd,mingw32}
+ * sparc-sun-solaris2
+ * alpha-dec-osf3
+ * powerpc-apple-darwin (MacOS/X)
+
+Ports to the following platforms should be relatively easy (for a
+wunderhacker), but haven't been tested due to lack of time/hardware:
-GHC home page http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/fp/software/ghc/
-Haskell home page http://haskell.org/
-Glasgow FP group page http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/fp/
-comp.lang.functional FAQ http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/Department/Staff/mpj/faq.html
+ * hppa1.1-hp-hpux{9,10}
+ * i386-unknown-solaris2
+ * mips-sgi-irix{5,6}
+ * {rs6000,powerpc}-ibm-aix
+The builder's guide on the web site gives a complete run-down of what
+ports work; it can be found at
-+ How to get it
-================
+ http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/latest/html/building/building-guide.html
-The easy way is to go to the WWW GHC distribution page, which should
-be self-explanatory:
- ftp://ftp.dcs.gla.ac.uk/pub/haskell/glasgow/README.html
+Mailing lists
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+We run mailing lists for GHC users and bug reports; to subscribe, use
+the web interfaces at
-Once you have the distribution, please follow the pointers in the
-README file to find all of the documentation about this release. NB:
-preserve modification times when un-tarring the files (no `m' option
-for tar, please)!
+ http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/glasgow-haskell-users
+ http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/glasgow-haskell-bugs
+There are several other haskell and ghc-related mailing lists on
+www.haskell.org; for the full list, see
-+ System requirements
-======================
+ http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/
-To compile up this source-only release, you need a machine with 16+MB
-memory, GNU C (`gcc'), `perl' plus a version of GHC installed (either
-version 0.29 or 2.02/2.03). We have seen GHC work on these platforms:
+Please report bugs using our SourceForge page at
+
+ http://sourceforge.net/projects/ghc/
- * alpha-dec-osf2
- * hppa1.1-hp-hpux{9,10}
- * sparc-sun-{sunos4,solaris2}
- * mips-sgi-irix{5,6}
- * i386-unknown-{linux,solaris2,freebsd,cygwin32}.
- * powerpc-ibm-aix
+or send them to glasgow-haskell-bugs@haskell.org.
-Similar platforms should work with minimal hacking effort. The installer's
-guide included in distribution gives a complete run-down of what-ports-work.
+GHC users hang out on glasgow-haskell-users@haskell.org. Bleeding
+edge CVS users party on cvs-ghc@haskell.org.