[project @ 2000-04-30 01:42:23 by chak]

[ghc-hetmet.git] / ghc / ANNOUNCE

diff --git a/ghc/ANNOUNCE b/ghc/ANNOUNCE
index 566fa5d..809df2d 100644 (file)
--- a/ghc/ANNOUNCE
+++ b/ghc/ANNOUNCE
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
-            The Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 4.04
+            The Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 4.06
            ==============================================
 
 We are pleased to announce a new release of the Glasgow Haskell
-Compiler (GHC), version 4.04.  The source distribution is freely
+Compiler (GHC), version 4.06.  The source distribution is freely
 available via the World-Wide Web and through anon. FTP; details below.
 
 Haskell is "the" standard lazy functional programming language; the
@@ -18,20 +18,40 @@ GHC's Web page lives at
 + What's new
 =============
 
-   - GHC is now officially Open Source, see the LICENSE file in the
-     distribution for details.
+This should be a stable release. We have not made major changes
+since 4.04 to the core compiler, but we have fixed lots of bugs.
+We believe that 4.06 is in a nice stable well-tested state.  (Ha!)
 
-   - Rewrite rules can be specified in the source using the RULES
-     pragma.  This is used for automatic fusion of common list functions.
+Apart from that, there are the following changes
 
-   - Performance tuning: compiled programs now allocate 30% less
-     and run 20% faster on average compared to GHC 4.02.
+   - Major library reorganisation.  All libraries, except the ones that
+     are part of the Haskell 98 *language* specification, have moved to
+     fptools/hslibs/.  The hslibs tree is independent of GHC, shared between
+     GHC, Hugs, and (we hope) other Haskell implementations.  
+     The idea is to make it easier for people to contribute and maintain 
+     libraries.
 
-   - GHC now uses a Happy parser instead of the old yacc/lex one.
+     The hslibs/ tree is organised in a Java-like fashion.  Details in 
+     the new Library guide:
+     http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/4.06/hslibs/book1.html
+
+     Existing programs that use the -syslib flag may need to change which
+     syslibs they include.
+
+   - Support for "foreign export dynamic".
+
+   - Clean up of concurrent I/O system; in particular, I/O is now non-blocking,
+     except (alas) on stdout/stderr for tiresome reasons.
+
+   - Some refinements to the exceptions mechanism:
+     http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/4.06/users_guide/release-4-06.html#exc-changes-406
+
+   - More performance tuning: compiled programs now allocate 10% less memory
+     than 4.04
 
 For full details see the release notes:
 
-       http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/latest/users_guide/users_guide-1.html#ss1.4
+       http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/4.06/users_guide/release-4-06.html
 
 + Mailing lists
 ================
@@ -76,7 +96,7 @@ To compile up this source-only release, 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,solaris2,freebsd,cygwin32}
+  * i386-unknown-{linux,solaris2,freebsd,netbsd,cygwin32}
   * sparc-sun-{sunos4,solaris2}
   * hppa1.1-hp-hpux{9,10}
 
@@ -87,7 +107,7 @@ haven't been tested due to lack of time/hardware:
   * mips-sgi-irix{5,6}
   * {rs6000,powerpc}-ibm-aix
 
-The installer's guide included in distribution gives a complete
+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/latest/installation_guide/installing.html
+   http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/4.06/building_guide/installing.html