- The (Interactive) Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 5.00
+ The (Interactive) Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 5.02
============================================================
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.
+Compiler (GHC), version 5.02. The source distribution is freely
+available via the World-Wide Web, under a BSD-style license. See
+below for download details. Pre-built packages for Linux, FreeBSD,
+Solaris and Win32 are also available.
Haskell is a standard lazy functional programming language; the
current language version is Haskell 98, agreed in December 1998.
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:
+5.02 incorporates many small refinements and bug fixes over the previous
+stable release (5.00.2). There are no major changes.
- - 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.
+ - 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.
- - 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.
+ - Several small changes to bring GHC into line with the newest Haskell 98
+ report.
- - Enhanced package (library) management system. Packages may be
- installed and removed from an installation using the ghc-pkg tool.
+ - GHCi (the interactive system) now works on Windows.
- - Initial Unicode support - the Char type is now 31 bits.
+ - Partial FFI support in GHCi. At the moment, foreign import (both
+ static and dynamic) is supported on x86 and sparc platforms.
- - Sparc native code generator, giving much faster compilation on sparcs.
- (Native code generation for x86s has been available for a while).
+ - A compacting garbage collector, to try and reduce space use.
- - Improved heap profiling - you can restrict heap profiles
- by type, closure description, cost centre, and module.
+ - Experimental: partial support for hierarchical module names.
- - Support for the latest Foreign Function Interface (FFI)
- proposals. Marcin Kowalczyk's hsc2hs tool is included.
+ - 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.
- - Language extensions: parallel list comprehensions and functional
- dependencies.
-
- - The usual huge collection of bug fixes. Most reported bugs have
- been fixed.
+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/5.00/set/release-5-00.html
+ http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/5.02/set/release-5-02.html
System requirements
=====================
-To compile programs with GHC, you need a machine with 32+MB memory, GNU C
+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:
* i386-unknown-{linux,freebsd,mingw32}
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/5.00/building/building-guide.html
+ http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/5.02/building/building-guide.html
http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/
-Please send bug reports about GHC to glasgow-haskell-bugs@haskell.org;
+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.