The Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 0.23
	     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A new public release of the Glasgow Haskell Compiler is now available
(GHC, version 0.23). Binaries and sources are freely available by
anonymous FTP; details below.

Haskell is "the" standard lazy functional programming language [see
SIGPLAN Notices, May 1992].  The current language version is 1.2.

GHC is a state-of-the-art batch compiler.  For some idea of how it
compares against the competition, see Pieter Hartel's recent revision
of his FPCA '93 paper.  Reference attached.  Summary: we win!

Highlights of what's new in GHC 0.23 since 0.22 (July 1994):

  * Faster compilation times (less than 10% slower than HBC if not
    using -O [on a Sun4]).

  * Produces 10-15% smaller executables. The main compiler binary is
    1MB smaller than in 0.22.

  * >>> USER-VISIBLE changes <<< to "monadic I/O", because we are
    switching to the Haskell 1.3 *draft* I/O proposal.  Please see the
    relevant bit of the User's Guide before doing monadic I/O things
    with 0.23.

  * Native-code generator for DEC Alphas.

  * A _selective_ lambda lifter.

  * The yacc-based parser is now called directly from Haskell.

  * Configuration changed enough that "the same old thing" *won't* work.
    Configuring binary distributions should be trivial now.

  * Quite a few bugs fixed; the usual big wad of code added.

Please see the release notes for a complete discussion of What's New.

Should you upgrade to 0.23?  If you are a contented 0.22 user,
probably not.  Otherwise, probably yes.

To run this release, you need a machine with 16+MB memory, GNU C
(`gcc'), and `perl'.  We have seen GHC work in *some* form or fashion
on: Sun4s, DEC Alphas, Sun3s, NeXTs, DECstations, HP-PA and SGI boxes.
Sun4s and Alphas, our development platforms, are fully supported; we
distribute binaries for them.  The release notes give a full
what-ports-work report.

Once you have the distribution, please follow the pointers in
ghc/README to find all of the documentation in and about this release.
NB: preserve modification times when un-tarring (no `m' option for
tar, please)!

We run mailing lists for GHC users and bug reports; to subscribe, send
mail to glasgow-haskell-{users,bugs}-request@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk.
Please send bug reports to glasgow-haskell-bugs.

Simon Peyton Jones

Dated: 94/12/21

======================================================================
Hartel reference:

@techreport{Har94g,
	author = {P. H. Hartel},
	title = {Benchmarking implementations of lazy functional
		languages {II} -- Two years later},
	institution = {Dept. of Comp. Sys, Univ. of Amsterdam},
	type = {Technical report},
	number = {Cs-94-21},
	month = {Dec},
	year = {1994}}

The paper is available from ftp.fwi.uva.nl,
file: pub/computer-systems/functional/reports/benchmarkII.ps.Z

The programs are in file: pub/computer-systems/functional/packages/benchmark.tar.Z

======================================================================
How to get GHC:

This release is available, in whole or in part, from the usual Haskell
anonymous FTP sites, in the directory pub/haskell/glasgow:

	ftp.dcs.glasgow.ac.uk  (130.209.240.50)
	ftp.cs.chalmers.se     (129.16.227.140)
	haskell.cs.yale.edu    (128.36.11.43)

The Glasgow site is mirrored by src.doc.ic.ac.uk (155.198.191.4), in
computing/programming/languages/haskell/glasgow.

These are the available files (.gz files are gzipped) -- some are `on
demand', ask if you don't see them:

ghc-0.23-bin-sun4.tar.gz A binary distribution -- unpack & run!
			For SunOS 4.1.x; assumes you have GNU C (gcc)

ghc-0.23-bin-alpha.tar.gz A binary distribution -- unpack & run!
			Built on OSF1 V2.0; assumes you have GNU C (gcc).

ghc-0.23-bin-<other>.tar.gz Other binary distributions -- we will
			make them available as we go along; they
			will be announced on the Haskell mailing list
			(not elsewhere).

ghc-0.23-src.tar.gz	The basic source distribution; about 3MB.

ghc-0.23-hc-files.tar.gz The intermediate C (.hc) files for the
			 compiler proper, the prelude, and `Hello,
			 world'.  About 4MB.

ghc-0.23.ANNOUNCE	This file

ghc-0.23.{README,RELEASE-NOTES} From the distribution; for those who
			want to peek before FTPing...

ghc-0.23-ps-docs.tar.gz	Main GHC documents in PostScript format; in
			case your TeX setup doesn't agree with our
			DVI files...
			
There are no diffs from version 0.22, as they would be monstrous.