[project @ 1997-06-05 23:48:29 by sof]

Announce msg for 2.04

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+            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.
+