This is the pre-mangled text of the 2.02-specific part of the GHC release notes. ====================================================================== Release~2.02 is the first release of Glasgow Haskell for Haskell~1.4. The announcement for this release is distributed as \tr{ANNOUNCE-2.02} in the top-level directory. It contains very important caveats about 2.02, which we do not repeat here! Information about ``what's ported to which machine'' is in the Installation Guide. Since 2.01, we've added support for Win32 (Windows NT and Windows 95). %************************************************************************ %* * \subsection[2-02-config]{New configuration things in 2.02} %* * %************************************************************************ %************************************************************************ %* * \subsection[2-02-user-visible]{User-visible changes in 2.02, including incompatibilities} %* * %************************************************************************ GHC~2.02 is a compiler for Haskell~1.4 and, as such, introduces a bunch of user-visible changes. The GHC user's guide has a section to help you upgrade your programs to Haskell~1.4 from 1.2; all user-visible changes are described there (and not repeated here). %************************************************************************ %* * \subsection[2-02-options]{New or changed GHC command-line options} %* * %************************************************************************ \begin{itemize} \item GHC now warns of possibly-incomplete patterns in case expressions and function bindings. You can suppress these warnings with @-fno-warn-incomplete-patterns@. GHC also warns of completely overlapped patterns. You can't switch this off. \item GHC can warn of shadowed names, though it does not do so by default. Just occasionally this shows up an otherwise hard-to-find bug. To warn of shadowed names use @-fwarn-name-shadowing@ \item You can now generate `make' dependencies via the compiler driver, use the option @-M@ together with the list source files to compute the dependencies for. By default, the dependencies will be appended to the file \tr{Makefile} in the current directory. \item For hackers, the flag @-dshow-rn-trace@ shows what the renamer is up to. Sit back and marvel. \end{itemize} %************************************************************************ %* * \subsection[2-02-new-in-compiler]{New in the compiler proper} %* * %************************************************************************ \begin{itemize} \item Completely new ``make-world'' system, properly documented (at last) in the installation guide. No Jmakefiles; but you *need* Gnu make (gmake). The more recent the better (v 3.70+). \item The ``renamer''---the part of the compiler that implements the Haskell module system---has been completely rewritten, again. The format of interface files has changed significantly. Interface files generated by 2.01 will not work with 2.02. \item Even less special pleading for the Prelude than in 2.01. If you wanted to write your own Prelude and drop it in, you would have a really good chance now. \end{itemize} %************************************************************************ %* * \subsection[2-02-new-in-libraries]{In the libraries} %* * %************************************************************************ The libraries have been completely reorganised. There's a description in \sectionref{syslibs}. %************************************************************************ %* * \subsection[2-02-new-in-syslibs]{In ``hslibs'' libraries} %* * %************************************************************************ %************************************************************************ %* * \subsection[2-02-new-in-rts]{In the runtime system} %* * %************************************************************************ \begin{itemize} \item @ForeignObjs@ are properly deallocated when execution halts, as well as when the garbage collector spots the @ForeignObj@ as being unreferenced. This is important if you are using a @ForeignObj@ to refer to a @COM@ object or other remote resource. You want that resource to be relased when the program terminates. \item Files handles in the IO prelude are implemented using @ForeignObjs@, and closed when the file handle is unreferenced. This means that if you open zillions of files then just letting go of the file handle is enough to close it. \end{itemize} %************************************************************************ %* * \subsection[2-02-new-elsewhere]{Other new stuff} %* * %************************************************************************ 2.02 is released together with Green Card, a foreign-language interface generator for Haskell. More details elsewhere... %************************************************************************ %* * \subsection[2-02-troublespots]{Known troublespots} %* * %************************************************************************ The 2.02 compiler has the following known deficiencies: \begin{description} \item[native code generator, x86:] The native code generator for x86 platforms is by default switched off, as the code the compiler produces with it enabled was discovered just before releaseing to be wonky. Rather than delay the release further, GHC on x86 platforms rely on \tr{GCC} as their backend for now. Hopefully fixed soon. \item[Simplifier looping:] The simplifier(Glasgow-speak for optimiser) has been observed to get into a loop in one or two cases. If you should observe this, please report it as a bug - the work around is to turn off optimisation. \item[Undefined @*_vap_info@ symbols:] If the linker complains about some undefined @*_vap_info@ symbols when linking 2.02 compiled programs (very unlikely) - fix this by compiling the module where the references are coming from with @-fno-lambda-lifting@. \end{description}