0.08 was not an announced release, so these notes are of historical
interest, at best.

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\subsection[0-08-new-docs]{New documentation, especially for hackers!}
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\subsection[0-08-new-in-usage]{Main user-visible changes}
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\begin{description}
%-------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[@ghc@ driver flag fiddling:]
These things change... A good thing to try is \tr{ghc -help}, unless
of course you think the documentation might be right (in which case
look there :-).

%-------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[@ghc@ driver more ``policy-free'':]

The driver no longer has great wads of built-in options for its
constituent phases (parser, Haskell compiler, C compiler, etc.).  It
is much easier to configure these (if required) at build time.  A
better idea, which we use, is to wired in very few options, but to use
the ``make world'' machinery to ensure that the desired (wads of
options) are always passed explicitly.

%-------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[-OC:] We got rid of the \tr{-OC} flag.
\end{description}

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\subsection[0-08-new-in-compiler]{To do with the compiler proper}
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\begin{description}
%-------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[``Renamer'' is in:]
Essentially, this implements module-system stuff.  Checks for
naming/scoping errors have been moved out of the typechecker into the
renamer, which should be faster.

%-------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Interface-file (\tr{.hi} file) generation:]
It works.

%-------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Ambiguous-type resolution:]
It's basically right now, except that we still don't grok @default@
declarations (which we have yet to see in a real Haskell program :-).

%-------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Smaller C output:]

%-------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Code generator:]
Improvements related to the information carried around about closures
(@ClosureInfo@ and @LambdaFormInfo@ types); matches the STG-machine paper.

CAFs fully supported (notably updatable ones).

Black-holing (at garbage-collection time) fully supported.

%-------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Simplifiers:]
Further work on the @Core@-to-@Core@ local-transformation passes (in
\tr{compiler/simplCore/}).  Also, we have added
some @STG@-to-@STG@ transformations; for example, floating @lets@
outward is most conveniently done at the STG level...

%-------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Cost-centre-style profiling:]

%-------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Improvements to basic datatypes:]
Notably to @Ids@ (\tr{basicTypes/Id.lhs}) and names
(\tr{basicTypes/NameTypes.lhs}).  There is a new compiler-wide class,
@NamedThing@ (\tr{utils/Outputable.lhs}).  Essentially it is easier to
ask of an entity: where did you come from? (e.g., PreludeCore?,
imported?) what are you? (a data-constructor? a dictionary selector?)
what is your original name? where are you going? (exported or not...)
\end{description}

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\subsection[0-08-new-in-compiler-contrib]{In contributed bits of the compiler}
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\begin{description}
\item[Evaluation-transformer bits:]
Denis Howe has sent us an initial version (\tr{compiler/evalTran}).
It isn't used by default, but is presumably play-withable...

This @Core@-to-@Core@ transformation makes all lets of the form
\begin{verbatim}
let VAR = eval EXPR in ...
\end{verbatim}
strict.  @eval@ is a dummy name which is thrown away (i.e., @eval x = x@).
\end{description}

Please send us {\em your} bits for next time!

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\subsection[0-08-new-in-libraries]{In @Prelude@ and runtime support}
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Prelude is 1.2.

The compiler has basically all of @PreludeCore@ wired into it (see
\tr{compiler/prelude/}); the rest is brought in with a straightforward
\tr{import Prelude} (which brings in \tr{imports/Prelude.hi}).  [The
old \tr{MiniPrel*} files are dead and unmissed.]

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\subsection[0-08-new-in-mkworld]{In distribution/build/installation machinery}
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The ``make world'' machinery has many small improvements.

It works notably better in a shared-symlink-tree world (which we use
at Glasgow).

We have abandoned efforts to use one build tree for making object
files for multiple platforms.  We can make simpler Makefiles as a
result.

There's a new standard setup, called \tr{fast}.  The name is
inappropriate at present, but it is intended to be for people who
value compiled-code-speed above all else (within reason, of course).

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\subsection[0-08-new-misc]{Miscellaneous new things}
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New version of Denis Howe's \tr{mira2hs} script.