-<sect1 id="release-5-02">
- <title>Release notes for version 5.02</title>
+<sect1 id="release-5-04">
+ <title>Release notes for version 5.04</title>
<sect2>
<title>User-visible compiler changes</title>
-
<itemizedlist>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>Majorly improved support for Windows platforms. Binary
- builds are now entirely freestanding. There is no longer any
- need to install Cygwin or Mingwin to use it. It's a
- one-click-install-and-off-you-go story now.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>Several small changes to bring GHC into line with the
- newest Haskell 98 report.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>RTS options can now be specified using the environment
- variable <envar>GHCRTS</envar>.</para>
- </listitem>
-
<listitem>
- <para>The maximum heap size, set with
- <literal>+RTS -M<replaceable>size</replaceable></literal>,
- now defaults to unlimited. We recommend however that you set
- a maximum heap size appropriate for your machine using the
- <envar>GHCRTS</envar> variable.</para>
+ <para></para>
</listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>Thanks to the heroic efforts of Ken Shan
- <email>ken@digitas.harvard.edu</email>, GHC now works again on
- the Alpha architecture (just Tru64 at the moment), and many
- 64-bit bugs have been shaken out. Interactive mode and the
- native code generator do not currently work, sorry.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>New option: <option>-fno-code</option> which causes GHC
- to omit code generation and all future compilation stages (see
- <xref linkend="options-codegen">).</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>New option <option>-package-conf
- <replaceable>file</replaceable></option>. This makes GHC read
- additional package descriptions from
- <replaceable>file</replaceable>.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para><option>+RTS
- -i<replaceable>seconds</replaceable></option> flag reinstated
- for heap profiling.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para><option>-funbox-strict-fields</option> now works
- correctly.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Many bug fixes related to implicit-parameter support.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Data declarations with no constructors are allowed.</para>
- </listitem>
-
</itemizedlist>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>User-visible interpreter (GHCi) changes</title>
-
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
- <para>GHCi now works on Windows.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>Partial FFI support in GHCi. At the moment, foreign
- import (static and dynamic) are supported on x86 and sparc
- platforms.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>New interpreter command <literal>:add</literal>, to add
- modules to the current bunch.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>New interpreter command <literal>:info</literal>, to provide
- information on values, types and classes, a la Hugs.</para>
+ <para></para>
</listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>Multiple target modules are supported. You may specify
- multiple modules for the <literal>:add</literal> and
- <literal>:load</literal> commands. From the command line, you
- may specify multiple modules when starting GHCi and when
- compiling in <option>--make</option> mode.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>New flags <option>-ignore-dot-ghci</option> and
- <option>-read-dot-ghci</option>.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>When starting GHCi from the command line, you may now
- use the flags
- <option>-L<replaceable>library-path</replaceable></option> and
- <option>-l<replaceable>library-name</replaceable></option> to
- specify libraries to be loaded into the interactive
- session.</para>
- </listitem>
-
</itemizedlist>
</sect2>
<title>User-visible library changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
- <para>The <literal>SocketPrim</literal> and
- <literal>BSD</literal> modules in the <literal>net</literal>
- package have been re-written to use the FFI, be more portable,
- and be more thread-safe. There are minor user-visible
- changes: the functions <function>writeSocket</function>,
- <function>readSocket</function> and
- <function>readSocketAll</function> have been removed (use
- <function>socketToHandle</function> and
- <literal>Handle</literal> operations instead).</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>New function: <function>Exception.throwDynTo</function>.
- See <xref linkend="sec-Dynamic-Exceptions">.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para><literal>BlockedOnDeadMVar</literal> and
- <literal>ThreadKilled</literal> exceptions no longer generate
- any output by default for forked threads.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para><literal>Weak.addForeignFinalizer</literal> is
- deprecated; use the <literal>ForeignPtr</literal> library
- instead.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>The I/O library has been completely rewritten, using the
- new FFI libraries and <command>hsc2hs</command>. The main
- improvement is to the way streams are handled: simultaneous
- read and write with multiple threads using a socket or FIFO is
- now possible, whereas before it was necessary to use two
- separate handles.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>As a result of the I/O rewrite, the extensions
- <literal>IOExts.hConnectTo</literal> and
- <literal>IOExts.withHandleFor</literal> have been removed.
- Also, <literal>hGetBuf</literal> and
- <literal>hPutBuf</literal> have been removed, and
- <literal>hGetBufFull</literal> and
- <literal>hPutBufFull</literal> have been renamed to
- <literal>hGetBuf</literal> and <literal>hPutBuf</literal>
- respectively (similary for the <literal>BA</literal>
- versions of these functions).</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para><literal>System.exitWith</literal> now throws
- <literal>ExitException</literal> rather than causing the
- program to exit immediately. <literal>ExitException</literal>
- is by default caught by the top level exception handler in the
- main thread, where it causes the program to exit. Hence, calling
- <literal>System.exitWith</literal> in GHCi no longer causes
- GHCi itself to exit.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>New function: <literal>MVar.addMVarFinalizer</literal>
- (see <xref linkend="sec-MVars">).</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>New module <literal>SystemExts</literal> for useful
- system-ish functionality (see <xref
- linkend="sec-SystemExts">).</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para><literal>SocketPrim</literal>: added instances of
- <literal>Eq</literal> and <literal>Show</literal> for the
- <literal>Socket</literal> type.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>The implementation of
- <literal>MarsalAlloc.allocaBytes</literal> now uses GHC's
- internal allocator and is much faster than before. As a
- result, the <literal>UnsafeCString</literal> type and
- functions are no longer necessary and have been removed from
- <literal>CString</literal>.</para>
+ <para></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>New experimental features</title>
-
<itemizedlist>
- <!-- don't forget: 31-bit support -->
-
- <listitem>
- <para>Support for hierarchical module names.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>.NET code generator.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>Emission of external Core format.</para>
- </listitem>
-
<listitem>
- <para>Experimental FFI extensions.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>A compacting garbage collector has been added. It isn't
- on by default, because it is somewhat slower than the existing
- copying collector, but can be automatically enabled when
- memory gets tight by setting the maximum heap size (see <xref
- linkend="rts-options-gc">). Compaction works together with
- the existing generational scheme: it is only used on the
- oldest generation.</para>
+ <para></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect2>
<title>Internal changes</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
- <para>The implementation of the <literal>Array</literal>,
- <literal>IArray</literal> and <literal>MArray</literal>
- libraries have been rewritten so that bulk operations like
- <literal>listArray</literal> and <literal>elems</literal> do
- less range checking and hence go faster.</para>
+ <para></para>
</listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>The <literal>CPUTime</literal> library has been replaced
- by one written using the FFI. No externally visible
- changes.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>The compiler has a new strictness-and-absence analyser,
- which is alleged to help it generate better code.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>Improved temporary (<literal>alloca</literal>-style)
- memory support in the RTS: pinned objects.</para>
- </listitem>
-
</itemizedlist>
</sect2>
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