X-Git-Url: http://git.megacz.com/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=ghc%2FANNOUNCE;h=c5cbae687fa4ffcbe120d329cbb30e553d6c16d8;hb=e6218fe7eff4e34e1a3c823cd4b7aebe09d2d4fb;hp=f3e262fc6cdb929ea803138c0155be984f62097e;hpb=5e1cb7db5b4efcba3758c591b0d1317a93a1865b;p=ghc-hetmet.git diff --git a/ghc/ANNOUNCE b/ghc/ANNOUNCE index f3e262f..c5cbae6 100644 --- a/ghc/ANNOUNCE +++ b/ghc/ANNOUNCE @@ -1,96 +1,70 @@ - 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 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. +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: -Haskell is a standard lazy functional programming language; the -current language version is Haskell 98, agreed in December 1998. - -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, C++, whatever). - -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/ - - - - What's new -============ - -5.02 incorporates many small refinements and bug fixes over the previous -stable release (5.00.2). There are no major changes. - - - 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. + - GADTs (Generalised Abstract Datatypes) are supported - - Several small changes to bring GHC into line with the newest Haskell 98 - report. + - STM (Software Transactional Memory) is implemented - - GHCi (the interactive system) now works on Windows. + - Full support for Cabal and a much improved package framework - - Partial FFI support in GHCi. At the moment, foreign import (both - static and dynamic) is supported on x86 and sparc platforms. + - Better support for mutually-recursive modules - - A compacting garbage collector, to try and reduce space use. + - A complete rewrite of the back end - - Experimental: partial support for hierarchical module names. + - Accurate source locations in error messages - - 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. + - Lots of new libraries -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 ...) +The full release notes are here: -For full details see the release notes: + http://haskell.org/ghc/docs/6.4/html/users_guide/release-6-4.html - http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/5.02/set/release-5-02.html +How to get it +~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +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 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. - How to get it -=============== +Packages will appear as they are built - if the package for your +system isn't available yet, please try again later. -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. Everybody else gets a .tar.gz which can be installed where you -want. +Background +~~~~~~~~~~ +Haskell is a standard lazy functional programming language; the +current language version is Haskell 98, agreed in December 1998 and +revised December 2002. -Once you have the distribution, please follow the pointers in the -README file to find all of the documentation about this release. +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. +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: @@ -100,34 +74,26 @@ 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 +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: - * 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: +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 - * hppa1.1-hp-hpux{9,10} - * i386-unknown-solaris2 - * alpha-dec-osf{2,3} - * mips-sgi-irix{5,6} - * {rs6000,powerpc}-ibm-aix + http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/latest/html/building/ -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 - - - - Mailing lists -=============== +Mailing lists +~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We run mailing lists for GHC users and bug reports; to subscribe, use the web interfaces at @@ -147,3 +113,4 @@ 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. +