X-Git-Url: http://git.megacz.com/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=ghc%2FANNOUNCE;h=c5cbae687fa4ffcbe120d329cbb30e553d6c16d8;hb=a0f46309637779ccc141ec531e9b128596a5bba0;hp=77b7c5c77608160c488156550222248b65b7294c;hpb=13c8aad6a15f903e652b325e5b71b217e4d50d5b;p=ghc-hetmet.git diff --git a/ghc/ANNOUNCE b/ghc/ANNOUNCE index 77b7c5c..c5cbae6 100644 --- a/ghc/ANNOUNCE +++ b/ghc/ANNOUNCE @@ -1,107 +1,116 @@ - The Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 2.04 - ============================================== -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. + ============================================================= + The (Interactive) Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 6.4 + ============================================================= -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: +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: - http://haskell.org/ + - GADTs (Generalised Abstract Datatypes) are supported + - STM (Software Transactional Memory) is implemented -+ What's new -============= + - Full support for Cabal and a much improved package framework -Release 2.04 represent work done through May '97; highlights include: + - Better support for mutually-recursive modules - * Data constructors can now have polymophic fields, and ordinary - functions can have polymoprhic arguments. Details on + - A complete rewrite of the back end - http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~simonpj/quantification.html + - Accurate source locations in error messages - Existential types coming, but not done yet. + - Lots of new libraries - * Pattern guards implemented, see - - http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~simonpj/guards.html - - * Compiler can now compile itself (i.e., no real dependence on - the Haskell 1.2 compiler anymore (version 0.29)). +The full release notes are here: - * 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. + http://haskell.org/ghc/docs/6.4/html/users_guide/release-6-4.html - * powerpc-ibm-aix is now a supported GHC platform, due to the - Heroic Efforts of Andr\'e Santos . +How to get it +~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +The easy way is to go to the WWW page, which should be self-explanatory: - * 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. + http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ - * A couple of Haskell 1.4 features are still incompletely supported, - notably polymorphic strictness annotations, and Unicode. +We supply binary builds in the native package format for various +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. -Please see the release notes for a complete discussion of What's New. +Packages will appear as they are built - if the package for your +system isn't available yet, please try again later. -+ 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: +Background +~~~~~~~~~~ +Haskell is a standard lazy functional programming language; the +current language version is Haskell 98, agreed in December 1998 and +revised December 2002. - subscribe glasgow-haskell- Your Name +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, whatever). GHC is distributed under a +BSD-style open source license. -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 +A wide variety of Haskell related resources (tutorials, libraries, +specifications, documentation, compilers, interpreters, references, +contact information, links to research groups) are available from the +Haskell home page (see below). -+ On-line GHC-related resources -================================ +On-line GHC-related resources +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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/ -comp.lang.functional FAQ http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/Department/Staff/mpj/faq.html +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/~gmh/faq.html + -+ How to get it -================ +System requirements +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +To compile programs with GHC, you need a machine with 64+MB memory, GCC +and perl. This release is known to work on the following platforms: -The easy way is to go to the WWW GHC distribution page, which should -be self-explanatory: + * i386-unknown-{linux,*bsd,mingw32} + * sparc-sun-solaris2 + * powerpc-apple-darwin (MacOS X) + * powerpc-apple-linux - ftp://ftp.dcs.gla.ac.uk/pub/haskell/glasgow/README.html +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 -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)! + http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/latest/html/building/ -+ System requirements -====================== +Mailing lists +~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +We run mailing lists for GHC users and bug reports; to subscribe, use +the web interfaces at -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: + 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/ - * alpha-dec-osf2 - * hppa1.1-hp-hpux{9,10} - * sparc-sun-{sunos4,solaris2} - * mips-sgi-irix{5,6} - * i386-unknown-{linux,solaris2,freebsd,cygwin32}. - * powerpc-ibm-aix +or send them to glasgow-haskell-bugs@haskell.org. -Similar platforms should work with minimal hacking effort. The installer's -guide included in distribution gives a complete run-down of what-ports-work. +GHC users hang out on glasgow-haskell-users@haskell.org. Bleeding +edge CVS users party on cvs-ghc@haskell.org.