- 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
+ The (Interactive) Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 5.00
+ ============================================================
+
+We are pleased to announce a new major release of the Glasgow Haskell
+Compiler (GHC), version 5.00. 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.
-Haskell is "the" standard lazy functional programming language; the
+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 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).
+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, C++, whatever).
A wide variety of Haskell related resources (tutorials, libraries,
specifications, documentation, compilers, interpreters, references,
http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
-+ What's new
-=============
-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)).
-There are the following changes
+ What's new
+============
+
+5.00 has been majorly revamped since the previous stable version, 4.08.2.
+This should be a stable release. Major changes since 4.08.2 are:
- - New profiling subsystem, based on cost-centre stacks.
+ - An interactive system, similar in style to Hugs. You can interactively
+ load and unload modules, run expressions, ask the types of things.
+ Module dependencies are tracked and chased automatically.
+ Combinations of compiled and interpreted modules may be used.
+ All the GHC libraries are available in interactive mode, as are
+ most of the Glasgow extensions to Haskell 98. Compilation in
+ interactive mode (to bytecode) is about three times faster than
+ compiling to object code.
- - 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).
+ - Batch compilation of multiple modules at once, with automatic
+ dependency chasing. For large programs this can halve compilation
+ times, and removes the need for Makefiles.
- - Implicit parameters (i.e. dynamic scoping without the pain).
+ - Enhanced package (library) management system. Packages may be
+ installed and removed from an installation using the ghc-pkg tool.
- - DEPRECATED pragma for marking obsolescent interfaces.
+ - Initial Unicode support - the Char type is now 31 bits.
- - In the wake of hslibs, a new package system for
- libraries. -package should now be used instead of -syslib.
+ - Sparc native code generator, giving much faster compilation on sparcs.
+ (Native code generation for x86s has been available for a while).
- - Result type signatures work.
+ - Improved heap profiling - you can restrict heap profiles
+ by type, closure description, cost centre, and module.
- - Many tiresome long-standing bugs and problems (e.g. the trace
- problem) have been fixed.
+ - Support for the latest Foreign Function Interface (FFI)
+ proposals. Marcin Kowalczyk's hsc2hs tool is included.
- - Many error messages have been made more helpful and/or
- accurate.
+ - Language extensions: parallel list comprehensions and functional
+ dependencies.
+
+ - The usual huge collection of bug fixes. Most reported bugs have
+ been fixed.
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/5.00/set/release-5-00.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:
- subscribe glasgow-haskell-{users,bugs} Your Name <you@where.soever>
+ How to get it
+===============
-or
+The easy way is to go to the WWW page, which should be
+self-explanatory:
- 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.
+We supply binary builds in the native package format for various
+flavours of Linux and BSD, and in InstallShield form for Windows
+folks. Everybody else gets a .tar.gz which can be installed where you
+want.
-+ On-line GHC-related resources
-================================
+Once you have the distribution, please follow the pointers in the
+README file to find all of the documentation about this release.
+
+
+
+ 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
-======================
+ System requirements
+=====================
To compile programs with GHC, you need a machine with 32+MB memory, GNU C
and perl. 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/5.00/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