+ ============================================================
The (Interactive) Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 5.02
============================================================
We are pleased to announce a new major release of the Glasgow Haskell
-Compiler (GHC), version 5.02. The source distribution is freely
-available via the World-Wide Web, under a BSD-style license. See
-below for download details. Pre-built packages for Linux, FreeBSD,
-Solaris and Win32 are also available.
+Compiler (GHC), version 5.02.
-Haskell is a standard lazy functional programming language; the
-current language version is Haskell 98, agreed in December 1998.
+This is the first version of GHC that has all of the following:
-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).
+ * An interactive read-eval-print loop, similar to Hugs.
+ You can load a mixture of compiled and interpreted modules;
+ in particular, you automatically use the precompiled libraries,
+ so your "interpreted" programs often run pretty fast.
-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
+ * Works solidly on Windows platforms. Installation is simple
+ (Installshield); you don't have to install anything else;
+ and GHC does not get confused if you also happen to
+ have (say) Cygwin installed.
- http://www.haskell.org/
+ * Implements the changes adopted for the (now almost finalised)
+ Revised Haskell 98 Language and Library Reports.
+
+ * The ability to emit "External Core", a documented typed
+ intermediate language, suitable for slurping up into other
+ tools. [Andrew Tolmach's work.]
+
+ * A particularly thorough pre-release test programme.
+ Some releases are more solid than others; this one is
+ at the solid end of the spectrum. We fondly hope.
+
+So if you have been waiting to upgrade your GHC 4.08, this is
+the moment.
-GHC's Web page lives at
+
+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.
+
+The source distribution is freely available via the World-Wide Web,
+under a BSD-style license. See below for download details. Pre-built
+packages for Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and Win32 are also available.
- What's new
-============
+More details about what's new
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5.02 incorporates many small refinements and bug fixes over the previous
-stable release (5.00.2). There are no major changes.
+stable release (5.00.2). There are no major language changes.
+
+ - Implements Haskell 98 (revised)
+
+ - Ability to emit External Core. (But GhC can't read External Core
+ back in. Yet.)
- Much improved support for Windows platforms. Binary builds are
now entirely freestanding. There's no need to install Cygwin or
- A compacting garbage collector, to try and reduce space use.
+ - Ability to disconnect built-in numeric syntax from the supplied
+ Prelude. This allows you to define your own arithmetic packages,
+ which Haskell98 doesn't quite support.
+
- Experimental: partial support for hierarchical module names.
- Experimental: following heroic hacking by Ken Shan, 5.02 now
http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/5.02/set/release-5-02.html
+Background
+~~~~~~~~~~
+Haskell is a standard lazy functional programming language; the
+current language version is Haskell 98, agreed in December 1998.
- How to get it
-===============
-
-The easy way is to go to the WWW page, which should be
-self-explanatory:
+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, whatever).
- http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
+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
-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.
+ http://www.haskell.org/
-Once you have the distribution, please follow the pointers in the
-README file to find all of the documentation about this release.
+GHC's Web page lives at
+ http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
- On-line GHC-related resources
-===============================
+On-line GHC-related resources
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Relevant URLs on the World-Wide Web:
- System requirements
-=====================
-
+System requirements
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To compile programs with GHC, you need a machine with 64+MB memory, GNU C
and perl. This release is known to work on the following platforms:
- Mailing lists
-===============
-
+Mailing lists
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We run mailing lists for GHC users and bug reports; to subscribe, use
the web interfaces at
GHC users hang out on glasgow-haskell-users@haskell.org. Bleeding
edge CVS users party on cvs-ghc@haskell.org.
+
projects / ghc-hetmet.git / commitdiff