X-Git-Url: http://git.megacz.com/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=ghc%2FANNOUNCE;h=809df2d91e593204b62b22dc4ff9ebeb84e53f6a;hb=5a21d20b0f25de3d829de90d219cb66855f91d58;hp=77b7c5c77608160c488156550222248b65b7294c;hpb=13c8aad6a15f903e652b325e5b71b217e4d50d5b;p=ghc-hetmet.git diff --git a/ghc/ANNOUNCE b/ghc/ANNOUNCE index 77b7c5c..809df2d 100644 --- a/ghc/ANNOUNCE +++ b/ghc/ANNOUNCE @@ -1,66 +1,68 @@ - The Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 2.04 + The Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 4.06 ============================================== We are pleased to announce a new release of the Glasgow Haskell -Compiler (GHC), version 2.04. Source distribution is freely available -via the World-Wide Web and anon. FTP; details below. +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 -current language version is 1.4, agreed in April, 1997. Haskell -related information is available from the Haskell home page at: +current language version is Haskell 98, agreed in December 1998. +Haskell related information is available from the Haskell home page at - http://haskell.org/ + http://www.haskell.org/ +GHC's Web page lives at + + http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ + What's new ============= -Release 2.04 represent work done through May '97; highlights include: - - * Data constructors can now have polymophic fields, and ordinary - functions can have polymoprhic arguments. Details on +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!) - http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~simonpj/quantification.html +Apart from that, there are the following changes - Existential types coming, but not done yet. + - 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. - * Pattern guards implemented, see - - http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~simonpj/guards.html + 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 - * Compiler can now compile itself (i.e., no real dependence on - the Haskell 1.2 compiler anymore (version 0.29)). + Existing programs that use the -syslib flag may need to change which + syslibs they include. - * Faster compilation - Compilation speeds has improved since 2.02, although it still slower - than GHC-0.29, the Good Old Compiler. (the gap is narrowing, though!) - - * Code quality is better, the simplifier and inlining machinery has been - refurbished. Not sure how much better. + - Support for "foreign export dynamic". - * powerpc-ibm-aix is now a supported GHC platform, due to the - Heroic Efforts of Andr\'e Santos . + - Clean up of concurrent I/O system; in particular, I/O is now non-blocking, + except (alas) on stdout/stderr for tiresome reasons. - * It has been tested against a large suite of (mostly) Haskell 1.2 - programs (the NoFib suite). Bunch of bugs related to new - Haskell 1.4 has been weeded out. + - Some refinements to the exceptions mechanism: + http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/4.06/users_guide/release-4-06.html#exc-changes-406 - * A couple of Haskell 1.4 features are still incompletely supported, - notably polymorphic strictness annotations, and Unicode. + - More performance tuning: compiled programs now allocate 10% less memory + than 4.04 -Please see the release notes for a complete discussion of What's New. +For full details see the release notes: + http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/4.06/users_guide/release-4-06.html + Mailing lists ================ We run mailing lists for GHC users and bug reports; to subscribe, send -mail to majordomo@dcs.gla.ac.uk; the msg body should be: +mail to majordomo@haskell.org; the msg body should be: subscribe glasgow-haskell- Your Name -Please send bug reports about GHC to glasgow-haskell-bugs@dcs.gla.ac.uk ; GHC -users hang out on glasgow-haskell-users@dcs.gla.ac.uk +Please send bug reports about GHC to glasgow-haskell-bugs@haskell.org ; GHC +users hang out on glasgow-haskell-users@haskell.org + On-line GHC-related resources @@ -68,19 +70,18 @@ users hang out on glasgow-haskell-users@dcs.gla.ac.uk Relevant URLs on the World-Wide Web: -GHC home page http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/fp/software/ghc/ -Haskell home page http://haskell.org/ -Glasgow FP group page http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/fp/ +GHC home page http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ +Haskell home page http://www.haskell.org/ comp.lang.functional FAQ http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/Department/Staff/mpj/faq.html + How to get it ================ -The easy way is to go to the WWW GHC distribution page, which should -be self-explanatory: +The easy way is to go to the WWW page, which should be +self-explanatory: - ftp://ftp.dcs.gla.ac.uk/pub/haskell/glasgow/README.html + 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: @@ -91,17 +92,22 @@ for tar, please)! + System requirements ====================== -To compile up this source-only release, you need a machine with 16+MB -memory, GNU C (`gcc'), `perl' plus a version of GHC installed (either -version 0.29 or 2.02/2.03). We have seen GHC work on these platforms: +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: - * alpha-dec-osf2 - * hppa1.1-hp-hpux{9,10} + * i386-unknown-{linux,solaris2,freebsd,netbsd,cygwin32} * sparc-sun-{sunos4,solaris2} + * hppa1.1-hp-hpux{9,10} + +Ports to the following platforms should be relatively easy, but +haven't been tested due to lack of time/hardware: + + * alpha-dec-osf{2,3} * mips-sgi-irix{5,6} - * i386-unknown-{linux,solaris2,freebsd,cygwin32}. - * powerpc-ibm-aix + * {rs6000,powerpc}-ibm-aix -Similar platforms should work with minimal hacking effort. The installer's -guide included in distribution gives a complete run-down of what-ports-work. +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/4.06/building_guide/installing.html