- The Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 4.08
- ==============================================
-We are pleased to announce a new release of the Glasgow Haskell
-Compiler (GHC), version 4.08. The source distribution is freely
-available via the World-Wide Web and through anon. FTP, under a
-BSD-style license. See below for download details. Pre-built
-packages for Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and Win32 are also available.
+ ============================================================
+ The (Interactive) Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 5.02
+ ============================================================
-Haskell is "the" standard lazy functional programming language; the
-current language version is Haskell 98, agreed in December 1998.
+We are pleased to announce a new major release of the Glasgow Haskell
+Compiler (GHC), version 5.02.
-GHC is a state-of-the-art optimising compiler for Haskell, generating
-good code for a variety of platforms. 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, C++, whatever).
+This is the first version of GHC that has all of the following:
-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 at
+ * An interactive read-eval-print loop, similar to Hugs.
+ You can load a mixture of compiled and interpreted modules;
+ in particular, you automatically use the precompiled libraries,
+ so your "interpreted" programs often run pretty fast.
- http://www.haskell.org/
+ * Works solidly on Windows platforms. Installation is simple
+ (Installshield); you don't have to install anything else;
+ and GHC does not get confused if you also happen to
+ have (say) Cygwin installed.
-GHC's Web page lives at
+ * Implements the changes adopted for the (now almost finalised)
+ Revised Haskell 98 Language and Library Reports.
+
+ * The ability to emit "External Core", a documented typed
+ intermediate language, suitable for slurping up into other
+ tools. [Andrew Tolmach's work.]
+
+ * A particularly thorough pre-release test programme.
+ Some releases are more solid than others; this one is
+ at the solid end of the spectrum. We fondly hope.
+
+So if you have been waiting to upgrade your GHC 4.08, this is
+the moment.
+
+
+How to get it
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+The easy way is to go to the WWW page, which should be self-explanatory:
http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
-+ What's new
-=============
+We supply binary builds in the native package format for various
+flavours of Linux and BSD, and in InstallShield 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.
-This should be a stable release. There have been many enhancements
-since 4.06, and shed-loads of bug-fixes (one shed (imperial) ~ one ton
-(US)).
+Once you have the distribution, please follow the pointers in the
+README file to find all of the documentation about this release.
+
+
+More details about what's new
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+5.02 incorporates many small refinements and bug fixes over the previous
+stable release (5.00.2). There are no major language changes.
+
+ - Implements Haskell 98 (revised)
+
+ - Ability to emit External Core. (But GhC can't read External Core
+ back in. Yet.)
-There are the following changes
+ - Much improved support for Windows platforms. Binary builds are
+ now entirely freestanding. There's no need to install Cygwin or
+ Mingwin to use it. It's a one-click-install-and-off-you-go story now.
- - New profiling subsystem, based on cost-centre stacks.
+ - Several small changes to bring GHC into line with the newest Haskell 98
+ report.
- - Working x86 native code generator: now it works properly, runs
- about twice as fast as compiling via C, and is on a par for
- run-time speed (except in FP-intensive programs).
+ - GHCi (the interactive system) now works on Windows.
- - Implicit parameters (i.e. dynamic scoping without the pain).
+ - Partial FFI support in GHCi. At the moment, foreign import (both
+ static and dynamic) is supported on x86 and sparc platforms.
- - DEPRECATED pragma for marking obsolescent interfaces.
+ - A compacting garbage collector, to try and reduce space use.
- - In the wake of hslibs, a new package system for
- libraries. -package should now be used instead of -syslib.
+ - Ability to disconnect built-in numeric syntax from the supplied
+ Prelude. This allows you to define your own arithmetic packages,
+ which Haskell98 doesn't quite support.
- - Result type signatures work.
+ - Experimental: partial support for hierarchical module names.
- - Many tiresome long-standing bugs and problems (e.g. the trace
- problem) have been fixed.
+ - Experimental: following heroic hacking by Ken Shan, 5.02 now
+ works on Alpha (Tru64 only). Many 64-bit bugs have been shaken
+ out. At the moment only the batch-mode compiler works -- no GHCi
+ or native code generator yet.
- - Many error messages have been made more helpful and/or
- accurate.
+We've found and fixed more bugs than you could possibly imagine. A
+big thank-you to all those who reported bugs in the 5.00.X series. We
+claim to have fixed almost all reported bugs. In general we've spent
+a large amount of effort trying to improve the stability of the
+system relative to 5.00.X. (Famous last words ...)
For full details see the release notes:
- http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/4.08/users_guide/release-4-08.html
+ http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/5.02/set/release-5-02.html
-+ Mailing lists
-================
-We run mailing lists for GHC users and bug reports; to subscribe, send
-mail to majordomo@haskell.org; the msg body should be:
+Background
+~~~~~~~~~~
+Haskell is a standard lazy functional programming language; the
+current language version is Haskell 98, agreed in December 1998.
+
+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.
+
+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 at
- subscribe glasgow-haskell-{users,bugs} Your Name <you@where.soever>
+ http://www.haskell.org/
-or
+GHC's Web page lives at
- subscribe cvs-ghc Your Name <you@where.soever>
+ http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
-Please send bug reports about GHC to glasgow-haskell-bugs@haskell.org;
-GHC users hang out on glasgow-haskell-users@haskell.org. Bleeding
-edge CVS users party on cvs-ghc@haskell.org.
-+ On-line GHC-related resources
-================================
+On-line GHC-related resources
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Relevant URLs on the World-Wide Web:
Haskell home page http://www.haskell.org/
comp.lang.functional FAQ http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~gmh/faq.html
-+ How to get it
-================
-The easy way is to go to the WWW page, which should be
-self-explanatory:
- http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
-
-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)!
+System requirements
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+To compile programs with GHC, you need a machine with 64+MB memory, GNU C
+and perl. This release is known to work on the following platforms:
-+ System requirements
-======================
-
-To compile the sources, you need a machine with 32+MB memory, GNU C
-(`gcc'), `perl' plus a version of GHC installed (3.02 at least). This
-release is known to work on the following platforms:
-
- * i386-unknown-{linux,freebsd,netbsd,cygwin32,mingw32}
+ * i386-unknown-{linux,freebsd,mingw32}
* sparc-sun-solaris2
- * hppa1.1-hp-hpux{9,10}
Ports to the following platforms should be relatively easy (for a
wunderhacker), but haven't been tested due to lack of time/hardware:
+ * hppa1.1-hp-hpux{9,10}
* i386-unknown-solaris2
* alpha-dec-osf{2,3}
* mips-sgi-irix{5,6}
The builder's guide included in distribution gives a complete
run-down of what ports work; an on-line version can be found at
- http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/4.08/building/building-guide.html
+ http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/5.02/building/building-guide.html
+
+
+
+Mailing lists
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+We run mailing lists for GHC users and bug reports; to subscribe, use
+the web interfaces at
+
+ 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
+
+ http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/
+
+Please report bugs using our SourceForge page at
+
+ http://sourceforge.net/projects/ghc/
+
+or send them to glasgow-haskell-bugs@haskell.org.
+
+GHC users hang out on glasgow-haskell-users@haskell.org. Bleeding
+edge CVS users party on cvs-ghc@haskell.org.
projects / ghc-hetmet.git / blobdiff