The Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 2.09
	    ==============================================

We are pleased to announce a new release of the Glasgow Haskell
Compiler (GHC), version 2.09. Source distribution is freely available
via the World-Wide Web and through 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 2.09 contains some library changes that may break programs
using glasgow extensions.  The main points:

	* PrimIO has been removed, replaced by IO in all places
	  (including the type of C calls).
	* The types of IO and ST have changed, to make them more
	  efficient.  This won't bite you unless you go digging
	  around in the IO or ST monads, which you shouldn't...
	* Several extension libraries have been moved to be
	  compatible with Hugs.  See 

		ftp://haskell.org/pub/reid/libs971028/libs.html
	
	  for the definitions of the new libraries.
	* Several of the interfaces exported by GlaExts are deprecated,
	  as they have been moved into common libraries (ST for instance).
	  GlaExts will eventually contain only extensions that are
	  exclusive to GHC.

We've also fixed several bugs, one space leak, and added better
handling of warnings (-W, -Wall and -Wnot flags).  As usual, see the
release notes in the Users' Guide for the full story.

+ 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 onwards). 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}.
  * {rs6000,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;
an on-line version can be found at

   http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/fp/software/ghc/ghc-doc/install-guide.html

EOF