2 ============================================================
3 The (Interactive) Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 5.02
4 ============================================================
6 We are pleased to announce a new major release of the Glasgow Haskell
7 Compiler (GHC), version 5.02.
9 This is the first version of GHC that has all of the following:
11 * An interactive read-eval-print loop, similar to Hugs.
12 You can load a mixture of compiled and interpreted modules;
13 in particular, you automatically use the precompiled libraries,
14 so your "interpreted" programs often run pretty fast.
16 * Works solidly on Windows platforms. Installation is simple
17 (Installshield); you don't have to install anything else;
18 and GHC does not get confused if you also happen to
19 have (say) Cygwin installed.
21 * Implements the changes adopted for the (now almost finalised)
22 Revised Haskell 98 Language and Library Reports.
24 * The ability to emit "External Core", a documented typed
25 intermediate language, suitable for slurping up into other
26 tools. [Andrew Tolmach's work.]
28 * A particularly thorough pre-release test programme.
29 Some releases are more solid than others; this one is
30 at the solid end of the spectrum. We fondly hope.
32 So if you have been waiting to upgrade your GHC 4.08, this is
38 The easy way is to go to the WWW page, which should be self-explanatory:
40 http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
42 We supply binary builds in the native package format for various
43 flavours of Linux and BSD, and in InstallShield form for Windows
44 folks. Everybody else gets a .tar.gz which can be installed where you
47 Once you have the distribution, please follow the pointers in the
48 README file to find all of the documentation about this release.
50 The source distribution is freely available via the World-Wide Web,
51 under a BSD-style license. See below for download details. Pre-built
52 packages for Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and Win32 are also available.
55 More details about what's new
56 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
58 5.02 incorporates many small refinements and bug fixes over the previous
59 stable release (5.00.2). There are no major language changes.
61 - Implements Haskell 98 (revised)
63 - Ability to emit External Core. (But GhC can't read External Core
66 - Much improved support for Windows platforms. Binary builds are
67 now entirely freestanding. There's no need to install Cygwin or
68 Mingwin to use it. It's a one-click-install-and-off-you-go story now.
70 - Several small changes to bring GHC into line with the newest Haskell 98
73 - GHCi (the interactive system) now works on Windows.
75 - Partial FFI support in GHCi. At the moment, foreign import (both
76 static and dynamic) is supported on x86 and sparc platforms.
78 - A compacting garbage collector, to try and reduce space use.
80 - Ability to disconnect built-in numeric syntax from the supplied
81 Prelude. This allows you to define your own arithmetic packages,
82 which Haskell98 doesn't quite support.
84 - Experimental: partial support for hierarchical module names.
86 - Experimental: following heroic hacking by Ken Shan, 5.02 now
87 works on Alpha (Tru64 only). Many 64-bit bugs have been shaken
88 out. At the moment only the batch-mode compiler works -- no GHCi
89 or native code generator yet.
91 We've found and fixed more bugs than you could possibly imagine. A
92 big thank-you to all those who reported bugs in the 5.00.X series. We
93 claim to have fixed almost all reported bugs. In general we've spent
94 a large amount of effort trying to improve the stability of the
95 system relative to 5.00.X. (Famous last words ...)
97 For full details see the release notes:
99 http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/5.02/set/release-5-02.html
104 Haskell is a standard lazy functional programming language; the
105 current language version is Haskell 98, agreed in December 1998.
107 GHC is a state-of-the-art programming suite for Haskell. Included is
108 an optimising compiler generating good code for a variety of
109 platforms, together with an interactive system for convenient, quick
110 development. The distribution includes space and time profiling
111 facilities, a large collection of libraries, and support for various
112 language extensions, including concurrency, exceptions, and foreign
113 language interfaces (C, whatever).
115 A wide variety of Haskell related resources (tutorials, libraries,
116 specifications, documentation, compilers, interpreters, references,
117 contact information, links to research groups) are available from the
120 http://www.haskell.org/
122 GHC's Web page lives at
124 http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
127 On-line GHC-related resources
128 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
130 Relevant URLs on the World-Wide Web:
132 GHC home page http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
133 Haskell home page http://www.haskell.org/
134 comp.lang.functional FAQ http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~gmh/faq.html
140 To compile programs with GHC, you need a machine with 64+MB memory, GNU C
141 and perl. This release is known to work on the following platforms:
143 * i386-unknown-{linux,freebsd,mingw32}
146 Ports to the following platforms should be relatively easy (for a
147 wunderhacker), but haven't been tested due to lack of time/hardware:
149 * hppa1.1-hp-hpux{9,10}
150 * i386-unknown-solaris2
153 * {rs6000,powerpc}-ibm-aix
155 The builder's guide included in distribution gives a complete
156 run-down of what ports work; an on-line version can be found at
158 http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/5.02/building/building-guide.html
164 We run mailing lists for GHC users and bug reports; to subscribe, use
165 the web interfaces at
167 http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/glasgow-haskell-users
168 http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/glasgow-haskell-bugs
170 There are several other haskell and ghc-related mailing lists on
171 www.haskell.org; for the full list, see
173 http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/
175 Please report bugs using our SourceForge page at
177 http://sourceforge.net/projects/ghc/
179 or send them to glasgow-haskell-bugs@haskell.org.
181 GHC users hang out on glasgow-haskell-users@haskell.org. Bleeding
182 edge CVS users party on cvs-ghc@haskell.org.