docs/users_guide/6.0-notes.xml

   1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
   2 <sect1 id="release-6-0">
   3   <title>Release notes for version 6.0</title>
   4
   5   <sect2>
   6     <title>User-visible compiler changes</title>
   7     <itemizedlist>
   8       <listitem>
   9         <para>Template Haskell, a new feature for compile-time
  10         metaprogramming has been introduced.  See <xref
  11         linkend="template-haskell"/>.</para>
  12       </listitem>
  13       <listitem>
  14         <para>INLINE pragmas on methods in class or instance
  15         declarations now work properly.</para>
  16       </listitem>
  17       <listitem>
  18         <para>Recursive do-notation (aka <literal>mdo</literal>) is
  19         now supported.  See <xref linkend="mdo-notation"/>.</para>
  20       </listitem>
  21       <listitem>
  22         <para>There is now a native code generator for PowerPC
  23         platforms.</para>
  24       </listitem>
  25       <listitem>
  26         <para>Profiling: the <option>-xt</option> RTS option enables
  27         inclusion of thread stacks in a heap profile.  See <xref
  28         linkend="rts-options-heap-prof"/>.</para>
  29       </listitem>
  30       <listitem>
  31         <para>Non-blocking I/O is now supported on Windows.</para>
  32       </listitem>
  33       <listitem>
  34         <para>The <ulink url="../libraries/base/Data.Dynamic.html#Typeable"><literal>Typeable</literal></ulink> class can now be
  35         derived, and the implementation of <literal>Typeable</literal>
  36         is now more efficient.</para>
  37       </listitem>
  38     </itemizedlist>
  39   </sect2>
  40
  41   <sect2>
  42     <title>User-visible interpreter (GHCi) changes</title>
  43     <itemizedlist>
  44       <listitem>
  45         <para>Loading a <literal>Main</literal> module that does not
  46         define <literal>main</literal> is no longer an error, although
  47         GHCi will still emit a warning in this case.</para>
  48       </listitem>
  49     </itemizedlist>
  50   </sect2>
  51
  52   <sect2>
  53     <title>User-visible library changes</title>
  54     <itemizedlist>
  55       <listitem>
  56         <para>Hierarchical libraries are now available without needing
  57         to specify an explicit <option>-package</option> flag.  There
  58         are some exceptions to this rule (see <xref
  59         linkend="using-packages"/>), but if you stick to GHCi and
  60         <option>--make</option> mode then there will normally be no
  61         need to specify <option>-package</option> options at
  62         all.</para>
  63
  64         <para>Non-hierarchical libraries
  65         (i.e. <literal>hslibs</literal> libraries) still need to be
  66         explicitly requested with <option>-package</option>
  67         options.</para>
  68       </listitem>
  69
  70       <listitem>
  71         <para>The <literal>Posix</literal> library has been rewritten.
  72         It is now a hierarchical library rooted at
  73         <literal>System.Posix</literal>, and has some additions aimed
  74         at supporting the latest revision of the POSIX standard (IEEE
  75         Std 1003.1-2001).  See the <ulink
  76         url="../libraries/unix/index.html"><literal>unix</literal>
  77         package</ulink> for details.</para>
  78
  79         <para>The old <literal>posix</literal> package is still
  80         available for backwards compatibility, but is deprecated and
  81         will be removed in a future release.</para>
  82       </listitem>
  83
  84       <listitem>
  85         <para><ulink url="../libraries/base/Data.IORef.html"><literal>Data.IORef</literal></ulink>: Added <literal>atomicModifyIORef</literal>.</para>
  86       </listitem>
  87
  88       <listitem>
  89         <para><ulink url="../libraries/base/System.Cmd.html"><literal>System.Cmd</literal></ulink>: Added <literal>rawSystem</literal>.</para>
  90       </listitem>
  91
  92       <listitem>
  93         <para><ulink
  94         url="../libraries/base/System.Environment.html"><literal>System.Environment</literal></ulink>:
  95         Added <literal>withArgs</literal> and <literal>withProgName</literal>.</para>
  96       </listitem>
  97
  98       <listitem>
  99         <para><ulink
 100         url="../libraries/network/Network.Socket.html"><literal>Network.Socket</literal></ulink>:
 101         Added <literal>sendFd</literal> and <literal>recvFd</literal>.</para>
 102       </listitem>
 103
 104       <listitem>
 105         <para>The <literal>Readline</literal> library has moved to
 106         <ulink
 107         url="../libraries/readline/System.Console.Readline.html"><literal>System.Console.Readline</literal></ulink>,
 108         and is in a package of its own
 109         (<literal>readline</literal>).</para>
 110       </listitem>
 111
 112       <listitem>
 113         <para>The non-hierarchical versions of the FFI libraries are
 114         now all available without needing to specify <literal>-package
 115         lang</literal> (they are actually now in the
 116         <literal>haskell98</literal> package, which is available by
 117         default).</para>
 118       </listitem>
 119
 120       <listitem>
 121         <para><ulink
 122         url="../libraries/network/Network.BSD.html"><literal>Network.BSD</literal></ulink>:
 123         <literal>symlink</literal> and <literal>readline</literal> are
 124         now deprecated; use
 125         <literal>System.Posix.createSymbolicLink</literal> and
 126         <literal>System.Posix.readSymbolicLink</literal>
 127         respectively.</para>
 128       </listitem>
 129
 130       <listitem>
 131         <para><ulink
 132         url="../libraries/base/Control.Exception.html"><literal>Control.Exception</literal></ulink>:
 133         Added <literal>mapException</literal>.</para>
 134       </listitem>
 135
 136       <listitem>
 137         <para><ulink
 138         url="../libraries/base/Data.Dynamic.html"><literal>Data.Dynamic</literal></ulink>:
 139         various changes to make the implementation of
 140         <literal>Typeable</literal> more efficient.  This entails some
 141         changes to the interface, and affects how instances of
 142         <literal>Typeable</literal> are defined.</para>
 143       </listitem>
 144
 145       <listitem>
 146         <para><ulink
 147         url="../libraries/base/Data.Tree.html"><literal>Data.Tree</literal></ulink>
 148         is a new library for trees.</para>
 149       </listitem>
 150
 151       <listitem>
 152         <para><ulink
 153         url="../libraries/base/Data.Graph.html"><literal>Data.Graph</literal></ulink>
 154         is a new library for graphs.</para>
 155       </listitem>
 156
 157       <listitem>
 158         <para><ulink
 159         url="../libraries/base/System.IO.html"><literal>System.IO</literal></ulink>:
 160         Removed <literal>bracket</literal> and
 161         <literal>bracket_</literal> (use the versions from
 162         <literal>Control.Exception</literal> instead).</para>
 163       </listitem>
 164
 165       <listitem>
 166         <para><ulink
 167         url="../libraries/base/System.IO.html"><literal>System.IO</literal></ulink>:
 168         The <literal>IOError</literal> type is now a synonym for
 169         <literal>IOException</literal>, whereas previously it was a
 170         synonym for <literal>Exception</literal>.  This has various
 171         consequences, one of which is that the types of
 172         <literal>System.IO.catch</literal> and
 173         <literal>Control.Exception.catch</literal> are now different
 174         (useful, because they do different things).</para>
 175       </listitem>
 176
 177       <listitem>
 178         <para><ulink
 179         url="../libraries/base/System.IO.Error.html"><literal>System.IO.Error</literal></ulink>:
 180         added <literal>annotateIOError</literal>,
 181         <literal>modifyIOError</literal>, and <literal>ioeSet{ErrorType,ErrorString,Handle,FileName}</literal>.</para>
 182       </listitem>
 183
 184       <listitem>
 185         <para><ulink
 186         url="../libraries/base/Text.ParserCombinators.ReadP.html"><literal>Text.ParserCombinators.ReadP</literal></ulink>:
 187         lots of updates.</para>
 188       </listitem>
 189
 190       <listitem>
 191         <para><literal>Control.Monad.Monoid</literal> is now <ulink url="../libraries/base/Data.Monoid.html"><literal>Data.Monoid</literal></ulink>.</para>
 192       </listitem>
 193
 194       <listitem>
 195         <para><ulink
 196         url="../libraries/base/Data.PackedString.html"><literal>Data.PackedString</literal></ulink>:
 197         added <literal>joinPS</literal>, <literal>unwordsPS</literal>
 198         and <literal>unlinesPS</literal>.</para>
 199       </listitem>
 200
 201       <listitem>
 202         <para><ulink
 203         url="../libraries/base/Data.HashTable.html"><literal>Data.HashTable</literal></ulink>
 204         is a new dynamic hash-table implementation.</para>
 205       </listitem>
 206
 207       <listitem>
 208         <para>Added <ulink
 209         url="../libraries/unix/System.Sendfile.html"><literal>System.Sendfile</literal></ulink>.</para>
 210       </listitem>
 211
 212       <listitem>
 213         <para>Added <ulink
 214         url="../libraries/base/Foreign.Marshal.Pool.html"><literal>Foreign.Marshal.Pool</literal></ulink>.</para>
 215       </listitem>
 216
 217       <listitem>
 218         <para><ulink
 219         url="../libraries/base/Data.Bits.html"><literal>Data.Bits</literal></ulink>:
 220         <literal>shiftL</literal>, <literal>shiftR</literal>,
 221         <literal>rotateL</literal>, and <literal>rotateR</literal> are
 222         now methods of the <literal>Bite</literal> class.</para>
 223       </listitem>
 224
 225       <listitem>
 226         <para>The FFI libraries now conform to the latest version of
 227         the FFI spec:</para>
 228         <itemizedlist>
 229           <listitem>
 230             <para>Added <ulink
 231             url="../libraries/base/Foreign.ForeignPtr.html#mallocForeignPtr"><literal>Foreign.ForeignPtr.mallocForeignPtr</literal></ulink>
 232             and friends.</para>
 233           </listitem>
 234           <listitem>
 235             <para>Finalizers added to a <literal>ForeignPtr</literal>
 236             with <literal>addForeignPtrFinalizer</literal> are now run
 237             in strict order; namely the reverse of the order they were
 238             added.</para>
 239           </listitem>
 240           <listitem>
 241             <para><literal>Foreign.C.TypesISO</literal> has been
 242             merged into <ulink
 243             url="../libraries/base/Foreign.C.Types.html"><literal>Foreign.C.Types</literal></ulink>.</para>
 244           </listitem>
 245         </itemizedlist>
 246       </listitem>
 247     </itemizedlist>
 248   </sect2>
 249
 250   <sect2>
 251     <title>Experimental features</title>
 252     <itemizedlist>
 253       <listitem>
 254         <para>The <literal>Data</literal> class provides for generic
 255         data traversals and folds; see <ulink
 256         url="../libraries/base/Data.Generics.html"><literal>Data.Generics</literal></ulink>.
 257         <literal>Data</literal> can be derived for arbitrary
 258         datatypes.  The <literal>Data</literal> class is still
 259         experimental, so its contents may change in the future.</para>
 260       </listitem>
 261       <listitem>
 262         <para>Several bugs have been fixed in the threaded RTS, and it
 263         should now be rather more robust (it should still be
 264         considered experimental, however).</para>
 265       </listitem>
 266     </itemizedlist>
 267   </sect2>
 268
 269   <sect2>
 270     <title>Internal changes</title>
 271     <itemizedlist>
 272       <listitem>
 273         <para>Sweeping changes to the compiler and runtime system to
 274         change the evaluation model from <quote>push/enter</quote> to
 275         <quote>eval/apply</quote>.  The bottom line is that the
 276         compiler is now more portable and some of the complexity is
 277         now more centralised, while performance and binary sizes
 278         remain about the same.</para>
 279
 280         <para>A paper describing these changes can be found <ulink
 281         url="http://research.microsoft.com/~simonpj/papers/eval-apply">here</ulink>.</para>
 282       </listitem>
 283       <listitem>
 284         <para>The test suite is now driven by a Python script and is
 285         rather more flexible and robust.  It now supports building
 286         tests several different "ways", and as a result we now run
 287         each test with optimisation, profiling, native code
 288         generation, and GHCi in addition to the vanilla way.</para>
 289       </listitem>
 290       <listitem>
 291         <para>The build system now supports bootstrapping the compiler
 292         in a single build tree.  By default, typing
 293         <literal>make</literal> at the top level will bootstrap the
 294         compiler once to create a stage-2 compiler.  See the Building
 295         Guide for more details.</para>
 296       </listitem>
 297       <listitem>
 298         <para>The RTS debugging flags are no longer represented by a
 299         bitfield and now have single-character names.  For example, to
 300         turn on scheduler debugging output, use <literal>-Ds</literal>
 301         rather than <literal>-D1</literal>.</para>
 302       </listitem>
 303       <listitem>
 304         <para>The compiler no longer requires any packages from
 305         <literal>hslibs</literal> to bootstrap.  It is enough to
 306         compile <literal>fptools/libraries</literal> before building
 307         the stage 2 compiler.</para>
 308       </listitem>
 309     </itemizedlist>
 310   </sect2>
 311
 312 </sect1>
 313
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