X-Git-Url: http://git.megacz.com/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=ghc%2FANNOUNCE;h=c5cbae687fa4ffcbe120d329cbb30e553d6c16d8;hb=a888792cd6eaad3f8850d72dc7b958db5bccf521;hp=4df3c97596823322840ba5cb72c0c3afbb91abeb;hpb=002b2a8f9770555e8059d21e320242ed038602ec;p=ghc-hetmet.git diff --git a/ghc/ANNOUNCE b/ghc/ANNOUNCE index 4df3c97..c5cbae6 100644 --- a/ghc/ANNOUNCE +++ b/ghc/ANNOUNCE @@ -1,37 +1,29 @@ - ============================================================ - The (Interactive) Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 5.02 - ============================================================ + ============================================================= + The (Interactive) Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 6.4 + ============================================================= -We are pleased to announce a new major release of the Glasgow Haskell -Compiler (GHC), version 5.02. +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: -This is the first version of GHC that has all of the following: + - GADTs (Generalised Abstract Datatypes) are supported - * An interactive read-eval-print loop, similar to Hugs. - You can load a mixture of compiled and interpreted modules; - in particular, you automatically use the precompiled libraries, - so your "interpreted" programs often run pretty fast. + - STM (Software Transactional Memory) is implemented - * Works solidly on Windows platforms. Installation is simple - (Installshield); you don't have to install anything else; - and GHC does not get confused if you also happen to - have (say) Cygwin installed. + - Full support for Cabal and a much improved package framework - * Implements the changes adopted for the (now almost finalised) - Revised Haskell 98 Language and Library Reports. + - Better support for mutually-recursive modules - * The ability to emit "External Core", a documented typed - intermediate language, suitable for slurping up into other - tools. [Andrew Tolmach's work.] + - A complete rewrite of the back end - * A particularly thorough pre-release test programme. - Some releases are more solid than others; this one is - at the solid end of the spectrum. We fondly hope. + - Accurate source locations in error messages -So if you have been waiting to upgrade your GHC 4.08, this is -the moment. + - Lots of new libraries +The full release notes are here: + + http://haskell.org/ghc/docs/6.4/html/users_guide/release-6-4.html How to get it ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @@ -40,66 +32,21 @@ The easy way is to go to the WWW page, which should be self-explanatory: http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ We supply binary builds in the native package format for various -flavours of Linux and BSD, and in InstallShield 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. - -Once you have the distribution, please follow the pointers in the -README file to find all of the documentation about this release. - - -More details about what's new -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - -5.02 incorporates many small refinements and bug fixes over the previous -stable release (5.00.2). There are no major language changes. - - - Implements Haskell 98 (revised) - - - Ability to emit External Core. (But GhC can't read External Core - back in. Yet.) - - - 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. - - - Several small changes to bring GHC into line with the newest Haskell 98 - report. - - - GHCi (the interactive system) now works on Windows. - - - Partial FFI support in GHCi. At the moment, foreign import (both - static and dynamic) is supported on x86 and sparc platforms. - - - A compacting garbage collector, to try and reduce space use. +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. - - Ability to disconnect built-in numeric syntax from the supplied - Prelude. This allows you to define your own arithmetic packages, - which Haskell98 doesn't quite support. +Packages will appear as they are built - if the package for your +system isn't available yet, please try again later. - - Experimental: partial support for hierarchical module names. - - - 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. - -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/5.02/set/release-5-02.html Background ~~~~~~~~~~ Haskell is a standard lazy functional programming language; the -current language version is Haskell 98, agreed in December 1998. +current language version is Haskell 98, agreed in December 1998 and +revised December 2002. GHC is a state-of-the-art programming suite for Haskell. Included is an optimising compiler generating good code for a variety of @@ -113,13 +60,7 @@ BSD-style open source license. 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 at - - http://www.haskell.org/ - -GHC's Web page lives at - - http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ +Haskell home page (see below). On-line GHC-related resources @@ -135,26 +76,20 @@ comp.lang.functional FAQ http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~gmh/faq.html System requirements ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -To compile programs with GHC, you need a machine with 64+MB memory, GNU C +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: - * i386-unknown-{linux,freebsd,mingw32} + * i386-unknown-{linux,*bsd,mingw32} * sparc-sun-solaris2 + * powerpc-apple-darwin (MacOS X) + * powerpc-apple-linux -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} - * {rs6000,powerpc}-ibm-aix - -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/5.02/building/building-guide.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 + http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/latest/html/building/ Mailing lists