X-Git-Url: http://git.megacz.com/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=ghc%2FANNOUNCE;h=c7a0904696fa960c703c533e21a8701b3993f1d3;hb=f57d31353e0a36bbdb6b93b6d46e2bcd76d6a8e0;hp=011c1c9326980a9d09b5aee7b083982d2411a4f7;hpb=39592c91e69774df54530656ff53f99076c28223;p=ghc-hetmet.git diff --git a/ghc/ANNOUNCE b/ghc/ANNOUNCE index 011c1c9..c7a0904 100644 --- a/ghc/ANNOUNCE +++ b/ghc/ANNOUNCE @@ -1,183 +1,155 @@ - The Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 2.02 - ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - -We are pleased to announce the first release of the Glasgow Haskell -Compiler (GHC, version 2.02) for *Haskell 1.4*. Sources and binaries -are freely available by anonymous FTP and on the World-Wide Web; -details below. - -Haskell is "the" standard lazy functional programming language; the -current language version is 1.3, agreed in May, 1996. The Haskell -Report is online at - - http://haskell.cs.yale.edu/1.4/haskell-report.html - -GHC 2.02 is a beta-quality release - some highlights: - - * It is reliable. - It has been extensively tested against a large suite of Haskell 1.2 - programs, but not so extensively tested against Haskell 1.4 programs - because we don't have a comprehensive set (Donations of Haskell 1.4 - programs to our test suite are most welcome). - - * It should generate good code. - All the optimisations that GHC 0.29 used to do are back in, with - the exception of specialisation. It ought to be the case that - GHC 2.02 outperforms GHC 0.29, because it has a much better - handle on cross-module inlining, but there's a good chance that - there are performance "holes" lurking. We have yet to make - a systematic comparison. (Please send us programs where 2.02 - does noticeably worse than 0.29.) - - * It is more expensive than it should be. - GHC 2.02 has received even less attention to its own performance. - At present it eats more space and time than GHC 0.29, especially - for very small programs. We're working on this. - - * A couple of Haskell 1.4 features are incompletely supported, - notably polymorphic strictness annotations, and Unicode. - -If you want to use Haskell 1.4, this is a good moment to switch. If -you don't need the Haskell 1.4 extensions, then stay with GHC 0.29. -If you want to hack on GHC itself, then 2.02 is definitely for you. -The release notes comment further on this point. - -GHC 2.02 is substantially changed from 2.01. Changes worth noting -include: - - * The whole front end, which deals with the module system, has - been rewritten. The interface file format has changed. - - * GHC 2.02 comes complete with Green Card, a C foreign language - interface for GHC. Green card is a pre-processor that - scans Haskell source files for Green Card directives, which - it expands into tons of "ccall" boilerplate that marshalls - your arguments to and from C. - - * GHC 2.02 is available for Win32 platforms. From now on, Win32 - (Windows NT and Windows 95) will be a fully supported platform - for GHC. - - * GHC 2.02 supports full cross module inlining. Unlike 0.29 and - its predecessors, inlining can happen even if the inlined body - mentions a function or type that is not itself exported. This is - one place Haskell 1.4's new module system really pays off. - - * Like 2.01, GHC 2.02 aborts a compilation if it decides that - nothing that the module imports *and acually uses* has changed. - This decision is now taken by the compiler itself, rather than - by a Perl script (as in 2.01) which sometimes got it wrong. - - * The ghc/lib libraries are much more systematically organised. - - * There's a completely new "make" system. This will mainly affect people - who want the source distribution, who will hopefully find it much, much, - easier than grappling with the old Jmakefiles. Even for binary - installation, the procedure is a little simpler, though. - -Please see the release notes for a complete discussion of What's New. - -To run this release, you need a machine with 16+MB memory (more if -building from sources), GNU C (`gcc'), and `perl'. We have seen GHC -2.01 work on these platforms: alpha-dec-osf2, hppa1.1-hp-hpux9, -sparc-sun-{sunos4,solaris2}, mips-sgi-irix5, and -i386-unknown-{linux,solaris2,freebsd,cygwin32}. Similar platforms -should work with minimal hacking effort. The installer's guide give a -complete run-down of what-ports-work. - -Binaries are distributed in `bundles', e.g. a "profiling bundle" or a -"concurrency bundle" for your platform. Just grab the ones you need. -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)! + The (Interactive) Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 5.00 + ============================================================ + +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. + +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 +============ + +5.00 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: + + - 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. + + - 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. + + - Enhanced package (library) management system. Packages may be + installed and removed from an installation using the ghc-pkg tool. -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: + - Initial Unicode support - the Char type is now 31 bits. - subscribe glasgow-haskell- Your Name + - Sparc native code generator, giving much faster compilation on sparcs. + (Native code generation for x86s has been available for a while). -Please send bug reports about GHC to glasgow-haskell-bugs@dcs.gla.ac.uk. + - Improved heap profiling - you can restrict heap profiles + by type, closure description, cost centre, and module. -Simon Peyton Jones + - Support for the latest Foreign Function Interface (FFI) + proposals. Marcin Kowalczyk's hsc2hs tool is included. -Dated: March 1997 + - Language extensions: parallel list comprehensions and functional + dependencies. + + - The usual huge collection of bug fixes. Most reported bugs have + been fixed. + +For full details see the release notes: + + http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/5.00/set/release-5-00.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 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. + + + + On-line GHC-related resources +=============================== Relevant URLs on the World-Wide Web: -GHC home page http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/fp/software/ghc/ -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 GHC 2.02: -This release is available by anonymous FTP from the main Haskell -archive sites, in the directory pub/haskell/glasgow: + System requirements +===================== - ftp.dcs.gla.ac.uk (130.209.240.50) - ftp.cs.chalmers.se (129.16.227.140) - haskell.cs.yale.edu (128.36.11.43) +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: -The Glasgow site is mirrored by src.doc.ic.ac.uk (146.169.43.1), in -computing/programming/languages/haskell/glasgow. + * i386-unknown-{linux,freebsd,mingw32} + * sparc-sun-solaris2 -These are the available files (.gz files are gzipped) -- some are `on -demand', ask if you don't see them: +Ports to the following platforms should be relatively easy (for a +wunderhacker), but haven't been tested due to lack of time/hardware: -README.html A WWW `front-end' to the contents of the glasgow - directory. + * hppa1.1-hp-hpux{9,10} + * i386-unknown-solaris2 + * alpha-dec-osf{2,3} + * mips-sgi-irix{5,6} + * {rs6000,powerpc}-ibm-aix -ghc-2.02-src.tar.gz The source distribution; about 3MB. +The builder's guide included in distribution gives a complete +run-down of what ports work; an on-line version can be found at -ghc-2.02.ANNOUNCE This file. + http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/5.00/building/building-guide.html -ghc-2.02.{README,RELEASE-NOTES} From the distribution; for those who - want to peek before FTPing... -ghc-2.02-ps-docs.tar.gz Main GHC documents in PostScript format; in - case your TeX setup doesn't agree with our - DVI files... -ghc-2.02-.tar.gz Basic binary distribution for a particular - . Unpack and go: you can compile - and run Haskell programs with nothing but one - of these files. NB: does *not* include - profiling (see below). + Mailing lists +=============== - ==> alpha-dec-osf2 - hppa1.1-hp-hpux9 - i386-unknown-freebsd - i386-unknown-linux - i386-unknown-solaris2 - i386-unknown-cygwin32 - m68k-sun-sunos4 - mips-sgi-irix5 - sparc-sun-sunos4 - sparc-sun-solaris2 +We run mailing lists for GHC users and bug reports; to subscribe, use +the web interfaces at -ghc-2.02--.tar.gz + http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/glasgow-haskell-users + http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/glasgow-haskell-bugs - ==> as above - ==> prof (profiling) - conc (concurrent Haskell) - par (parallel) - gran (GranSim parallel simulator) - ticky (`ticky-ticky' counts -- for implementors) - prof-conc (profiling for "conc[urrent]") - prof-ticky (ticky for "conc[urrent]") +There are several other haskell and ghc-related mailing lists on +www.haskell.org; for the full list, see -ghc-2.02-hc-files.tar.gz Basic set of intermediate C (.hc) files for the - compiler proper, the prelude, and `Hello, - world'. Used for bootstrapping the system. - About 4MB. + http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/ -ghc-2.02--hc-files.tar.gz Further sets of .hc files, for - building other "bundles", e.g., profiling. +Please report bugs using our SourceForge page at + + http://sourceforge.net/projects/ghc/ -ghc-2.02-hi-files-.tar.gz Sometimes it's more convenient to - use a different set of interface files than - the ones in *-src.tar.gz. (The installation - guide will advise you of this.) +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.