+ 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.
+
+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:
+
+ http://haskell.org/
+
+
++ What's new
+=============
+
+Release 2.04 represent work done through May '97; highlights include:
+
+ * Data constructors can now have polymophic fields, and ordinary
+ functions can have polymoprhic arguments. Details on
+
+ http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~simonpj/quantification.html
+
+ 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)).
+
+ * 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.
+
+ * powerpc-ibm-aix is now a supported GHC platform, due to the
+ Heroic Efforts of Andr\'e Santos <alms@di.ufpe.br>.
+
+ * 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.
+
+ * A couple of Haskell 1.4 features are still incompletely supported,
+ notably polymorphic strictness annotations, and Unicode.
+
+Please see the release notes for a complete discussion of What's New.
+
+
++ Mailing lists
+================
+
+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:
+
+ subscribe glasgow-haskell-<which> Your Name <your-email@where.you.are>
+
+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
+
+
++ On-line GHC-related resources
+================================
+
+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
+================
+
+The easy way is to go to the WWW GHC distribution page, which should
+be self-explanatory:
+
+ ftp://ftp.dcs.gla.ac.uk/pub/haskell/glasgow/README.html
+
+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)!
+
+
++ System requirements
+======================
+
+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:
+
+ * alpha-dec-osf2
+ * hppa1.1-hp-hpux{9,10}
+ * sparc-sun-{sunos4,solaris2}
+ * mips-sgi-irix{5,6}
+ * i386-unknown-{linux,solaris2,freebsd,cygwin32}.
+ * powerpc-ibm-aix
+
+Similar platforms should work with minimal hacking effort. The installer's
+guide included in distribution gives a complete run-down of what-ports-work.
+