- ============================================================
- The (Interactive) Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 5.04
- ============================================================
+ =============================================================
+ The (Interactive) Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 6.4
+ =============================================================
-We are pleased to announce a new major release of the Glasgow Haskell
-Compiler (GHC), version 5.04.
+The GHC Team is pleased to announce a new major release of GHC. It
+has been a long time since the last major release (Dec 2003!), and a
+lot has happened:
-Highlights include:
+ - GADTs (Generalised Abstract Datatypes) are supported
- * Hierarchical libraries, with documentation produced by Haddock.
+ - STM (Software Transactional Memory) is implemented
- * New type system extensions: full rank-N types and kind
- annotations.
-
- * New heap profiling facilities (retainer profiling, biographical
- profiling).
+ - Full support for Cabal and a much improved package framework
- * MacOS X support
+ - Better support for mutually-recursive modules
-See the release notes for a full list of the changes:
+ - A complete rewrite of the back end
- http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/latest/html/users_guide/release-5-04.html
+ - Accurate source locations in error messages
+ - Lots of new libraries
+
+The full release notes are here:
+
+ http://haskell.org/ghc/docs/6.4/html/users_guide/release-6-4.html
How to get it
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
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.
+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.
Packages will appear as they are built - if the package for your
system isn't available yet, please try again later.
+
+
Background
~~~~~~~~~~
Haskell is a standard lazy functional programming language; the
-current language version is Haskell 98, agreed in December 1998.
+current language version is Haskell 98, agreed in December 1998 and
+revised December 2002.
GHC is a state-of-the-art programming suite for Haskell. Included is
an optimising compiler generating good code for a variety of
* 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:
-
- * hppa1.1-hp-hpux{9,10}
- * i386-unknown-solaris2
- * mips-sgi-irix{5,6}
- * {rs6000,powerpc}-ibm-aix
+ * powerpc-apple-darwin (MacOS X)
+ * powerpc-apple-linux
-The builder's guide on the web site gives a complete run-down of what
-ports work; it can be found at
+Ports to other platforms are possible with varying degrees of
+difficulty. The builder's guide on the web site gives a complete
+run-down of what ports work and how to go about porting to a new
+platform; it can be found at
- http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/latest/html/building/building-guide.html
+ http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/latest/html/building/
Mailing lists