X-Git-Url: http://git.megacz.com/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=ghc%2FANNOUNCE;h=c7a0904696fa960c703c533e21a8701b3993f1d3;hb=110a35dc422a67e79baf1e101a19284dc7168908;hp=77b7c5c77608160c488156550222248b65b7294c;hpb=13c8aad6a15f903e652b325e5b71b217e4d50d5b;p=ghc-hetmet.git diff --git a/ghc/ANNOUNCE b/ghc/ANNOUNCE index 77b7c5c..c7a0904 100644 --- a/ghc/ANNOUNCE +++ b/ghc/ANNOUNCE @@ -1,107 +1,155 @@ - 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 5.00 + ============================================================ -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: +We are pleased to announce a new major release of the Glasgow Haskell +Compiler (GHC), version 5.00. The source distribution is freely +available via the World-Wide Web and through anon. FTP, under a +BSD-style license. See below for download details. Pre-built +packages for Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and Win32 are also available. - http://haskell.org/ +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). -+ What's new -============= +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 -Release 2.04 represent work done through May '97; highlights include: + http://www.haskell.org/ - * Data constructors can now have polymophic fields, and ordinary - functions can have polymoprhic arguments. Details on +GHC's Web page lives at - http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~simonpj/quantification.html + http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ - Existential types coming, but not done yet. - * 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)). + What's new +============ - * 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. +5.00 has been majorly revamped since the previous stable version, 4.08.2. +This should be a stable release. Major changes since 4.08.2 are: - * powerpc-ibm-aix is now a supported GHC platform, due to the - Heroic Efforts of Andr\'e Santos . + - An interactive system, similar in style to Hugs. You can interactively + load and unload modules, run expressions, ask the types of things. + Module dependencies are tracked and chased automatically. + Combinations of compiled and interpreted modules may be used. + All the GHC libraries are available in interactive mode, as are + most of the Glasgow extensions to Haskell 98. Compilation in + interactive mode (to bytecode) is about three times faster than + compiling to object code. - * 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. + - Batch compilation of multiple modules at once, with automatic + dependency chasing. For large programs this can halve compilation + times, and removes the need for Makefiles. - * A couple of Haskell 1.4 features are still incompletely supported, - notably polymorphic strictness annotations, and Unicode. + - Enhanced package (library) management system. Packages may be + installed and removed from an installation using the ghc-pkg tool. -Please see the release notes for a complete discussion of What's New. + - Initial Unicode support - the Char type is now 31 bits. + - Sparc native code generator, giving much faster compilation on sparcs. + (Native code generation for x86s has been available for a while). -+ Mailing lists -================ + - Improved heap profiling - you can restrict heap profiles + by type, closure description, cost centre, and module. -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: + - Support for the latest Foreign Function Interface (FFI) + proposals. Marcin Kowalczyk's hsc2hs tool is included. - subscribe glasgow-haskell- Your Name + - Language extensions: parallel list comprehensions and functional + dependencies. -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 + - The usual huge collection of bug fixes. Most reported bugs have + been fixed. +For full details see the release notes: -+ On-line GHC-related resources -================================ + http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/5.00/set/release-5-00.html -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 + How to get it +=============== -+ How to get it -================ +The easy way is to go to the WWW page, which should be +self-explanatory: -The easy way is to go to the WWW GHC distribution page, which should -be self-explanatory: + http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ - ftp://ftp.dcs.gla.ac.uk/pub/haskell/glasgow/README.html +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. 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)! +README file to find all of the documentation about this release. + + + + On-line GHC-related resources +=============================== + +Relevant URLs on the World-Wide Web: + +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 + + + + System requirements +===================== +To compile programs with GHC, you need a machine with 32+MB memory, GNU C +and perl. This release is known to work on the following platforms: -+ System requirements -====================== + * i386-unknown-{linux,freebsd,mingw32} + * sparc-sun-solaris2 -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: +Ports to the following platforms should be relatively easy (for a +wunderhacker), but haven't been tested due to lack of time/hardware: - * alpha-dec-osf2 * hppa1.1-hp-hpux{9,10} - * sparc-sun-{sunos4,solaris2} + * i386-unknown-solaris2 + * alpha-dec-osf{2,3} * mips-sgi-irix{5,6} - * i386-unknown-{linux,solaris2,freebsd,cygwin32}. - * powerpc-ibm-aix + * {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/5.00/building/building-guide.html + + + + Mailing lists +=============== + +We run mailing lists for GHC users and bug reports; to subscribe, use +the web interfaces at + + 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/ -Similar platforms should work with minimal hacking effort. The installer's -guide included in distribution gives a complete run-down of what-ports-work. +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.