[project @ 2004-11-26 16:19:45 by simonmar]

[project @ 2004-11-26 16:19:45 by simonmar]
Further integration with the new package story.  GHC now supports
pretty much everything in the package proposal.

  - GHC now works in terms of PackageIds (<pkg>-<version>) rather than
    just package names.  You can still specify package names without
    versions on the command line, as long as the name is unambiguous.

  - GHC understands hidden/exposed modules in a package, and will refuse
    to import a hidden module.  Also, the hidden/eposed status of packages
    is taken into account.

  - I had to remove the old package syntax from ghc-pkg, backwards
    compatibility isn't really practical.

  - All the package.conf.in files have been rewritten in the new syntax,
    and contain a complete list of modules in the package.  I've set all
    the versions to 1.0 for now - please check your package(s) and fix the
    version number & other info appropriately.

  - New options:

	-hide-package P    sets the expose flag on package P to False
	-ignore-package P  unregisters P for this compilation

	For comparison, -package P sets the expose flag on package P
        to True, and also causes P to be linked in eagerly.

        -package-name is no longer officially supported.  Unofficially, it's
	a synonym for -ignore-package, which has more or less the same effect
	as -package-name used to.

	Note that a package may be hidden and yet still be linked into
	the program, by virtue of being a dependency of some other package.
	To completely remove a package from the compiler's internal database,
        use -ignore-package.

	The compiler will complain if any two packages in the
        transitive closure of exposed packages contain the same
        module.

	You *must* use -ignore-package P when compiling modules for
        package P, if package P (or an older version of P) is already
        registered.  The compiler will helpfully complain if you don't.
	The fptools build system does this.

   - Note: the Cabal library won't work yet.  It still thinks GHC uses
     the old package config syntax.

Internal changes/cleanups:

   - The ModuleName type has gone away.  Modules are now just (a
     newtype of) FastStrings, and don't contain any package information.
     All the package-related knowledge is in DynFlags, which is passed
     down to where it is needed.

   - DynFlags manipulation has been cleaned up somewhat: there are no
     global variables holding DynFlags any more, instead the DynFlags
     are passed around properly.

   - There are a few less global variables in GHC.  Lots more are
     scheduled for removal.

   - -i is now a dynamic flag, as are all the package-related flags (but
     using them in {-# OPTIONS #-} is Officially Not Recommended).

   - make -j now appears to work under fptools/libraries/.  Probably
     wouldn't take much to get it working for a whole build.