</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
+ FFI change: header files are now <emphasis>not
+ used</emphasis> when compiling via C.
+ The <option>-#include</option> flag,
+ the <literal>includes</literal> field
+ in <literal>.cabal</literal> files, and header files
+ specified in a <literal>foreign import</literal>
+ declaration all have no effect when compiling Haskell
+ source code.</para>
+
+ <para>This change has important ramifications if you are
+ calling FFI functions that are defined by macros (or renamed
+ by macros). If you need to call one of these functions,
+ then write a C wrapper for the function and call the wrapper
+ using the FFI instead. In this way, your code will work
+ with GHC 6.10.1, and will also work
+ with <option>-fasm</option> in older GHCs.</para>
+
+ <para>This change was made for several reasons.
+ Firstly, <option>-fvia-C</option> now behaves consistently
+ with <option>-fasm</option>, which is important because we
+ intend to stop compiling via C in the future. Also, we
+ don't need to worry about the interactions between header
+ files, or CPP options necessary to expose certain functions
+ from the system header files (this was becoming quite a
+ headache). We don't need to worry about needing header
+ files when inlining FFI calls across module or package
+ boundaries; calls can now be inlined freely. One downside
+ is that you don't get a warning from the C compiler when you
+ call a function via the FFI at the wrong type.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>Another consequence of this change is that
+ calling <emphasis>varargs</emphasis> functions (such
+ as <literal>printf</literal>) via the FFI no longer works.
+ It has never been officially supported (the FFI spec outlaws
+ it), but in GHC 6.10.1 it may now really cause a crash on
+ certain platforms. Again, to call one of these functions
+ use appropriate fixed-argument C wrappers.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
There is a new languages extension PackageImports which allows
imports to be qualified with the package they should come
from, e.g.
import "network" Network.Socket
</programlisting>
<para>
- See <xref linkend="package-imports" /> for more details.
+ Note that this feature is not intended for general use, it
+ was added for constructing backwards-compatibility packages
+ such as the <literal>base-3.0.3.0</literal> package. See
+ <xref linkend="package-imports" /> for more details.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- When compiling with <literal>-fvia-C</literal>, we no longer
- use the C header files. Instead we rely on all the type
- information being given as part of the FFI import declaration.
- This makes it more consistent with <literal>-fasm</literal>.
- </para>
- <para>
- This means that, unlike <literal>-fasm</literal>,
- <literal>-fvia-C</literal> is no longer able to
- call varargs functions.
- </para>
- <para>
- Also, if you were using <literal>-fvia-C</literal> because
- your program didn't work with <literal>-fasm</literal>, then
- it probably won't work with <literal>-fvia-C</literal> either
- now.
- </para>
- <para>
- We recommend using <literal>-fasm</literal> (the default).
- We expect to remove the <literal>-fvia-C</literal>
- functionality in the 6.12 release.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
GHC now treats the Unicode "Letter, Other" class as lowercase
letters. This is an arbitrary choice, but better than not
allowing them in identifiers at all. This may be revisited
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- GHCi can now use libffi to make FFI calls, which means that
- it now works on all platforms that libffi supports.
+ GHCi now uses libffi to make FFI calls, which means that the
+ FFI now works in GHCi on a much wider range of platforms
+ (all those platforms that libffi supports).
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<sect2>
<title>Runtime system changes</title>
-
+
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
- If the user presses control-C while running a Haskell program
- then the program gets an asynchronous UserInterrupt exception.
+ The garbage collector can now use multiple threads in parallel.
+ The new <literal>-g<replaceable>n</replaceable></literal> RTS
+ flag controls it, e.g. run your program with
+ <literal>+RTS -g2 -RTS</literal> to use 2 threads.
+ The <option>-g</option> option is implied by the
+ usual <option>-N</option> option, so normally there will be
+ no need to specify it separately, although occasionally it
+ is useful to turn it off with <option>-g1</option>.</para>
+ <para>Do let us know if you experience strange effects,
+ especially an increase in GC time when using the parallel GC
+ (use <option>+RTS -s -RTS</option> to measure GC time).
+ See <xref linkend="rts-options-gc" /> for more details.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ It is now possible to generate a heap profile without
+ recompiling your program for profiling. Run the program
+ with <option>+RTS -hT</option> to generate a basic heap
+ profile, and use <command>hp2ps</command> as usual to
+ convert the heap profile into a <literal>.ps</literal> file
+ for viewing. See <xref linkend="rts-profiling" /> for more
+ details.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- We now ignore SIGPIPE by default.
+ If the user presses control-C while running a Haskell program
+ then the program gets an asynchronous UserInterrupt exception.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- The garbage collector can now use multiple threads in parallel.
- The new <literal>-g<replaceable>n</replaceable></literal> RTS
- flag controls it, e.g. run your program with
- <literal>+RTS -g2 -RTS</literal> to use 2 threads.
- Don't use more threads than you have CPUs.
- Only major GCs are parallelised; minor GCs are still sequential.
+ We now ignore SIGPIPE by default.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
+ <para>ghc-pkg will refuse to unregister a package on which
+ other packages depend, unless
+ the <option>––force</option> option is also
+ supplied.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
<para>
ghc-pkg now has a <literal>-no-user-package-conf</literal>
flag which instructs it to ignore the user's personal
</itemizedlist>
</sect2>
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Boot Libraries</title>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>array</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Version number 0.2.0.0 (was 0.1.0.0)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>base</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Version number 4.0.0.0 (was 3.0.2.0)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ We also ship a base version 3.0.3.0, so legacy code should
+ continue to work.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The <literal>Show</literal> instance
+ for <literal>Ratio</literal> now puts spaces around
+ the <literal>%</literal>, as required by Haskell 98.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ There is a new module <literal>Control.Category</literal>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal>>>></literal> is no longer a method of the
+ <literal>Arrow</literal> class; instead
+ <literal>Category</literal> is a superclass of
+ <literal>Arrow</literal>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal>pure</literal> is no longer a method of the
+ <literal>Arrow</literal> class; use <literal>arr</literal>
+ instead.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal>Control.Exception</literal> now uses extensible
+ exceptions. The old style of exceptions are still available
+ in <literal>Control.OldException</literal>, but we expect to
+ remove them in a future release.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ There is a new function
+ <literal>System.Exit.exitSuccess :: IO a</literal>
+ analogous to the existing
+ <literal>System.Exit.exitFailure :: IO a</literal>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ There are new functions
+ <literal>Data.Either.lefts :: [Either a b] -> [a]</literal>,
+ <literal>Data.Either.rights :: [Either a b] -> [b]</literal>
+ and
+ <literal>
+ Data.Either.partitionEithers :: [Either a b] -> ([a], [b])
+ </literal>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The new function
+ <literal>Data.List.subsequences :: [a] -> [[a]]</literal>
+ gives all sublists of a list, e.g.
+ <literal>
+ subsequences "abc" ==
+ ["","a","b","ab","c","ac","bc","abc"]
+ </literal>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The new function
+ <literal>Data.List.permutations :: [a] -> [[a]]</literal>
+ gives all permutations of a list, e.g.
+ <literal>
+ permutations "abc" ==
+ ["abc","bac","cba","bca","cab","acb"]
+ </literal>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The new functions
+ <literal>Data.Traversable.mapAccumL</literal> and
+ <literal>Data.Traversable.mapAccumR</literal> generalise their
+ <literal>Data.List</literal> counterparts to work on any
+ <literal>Traversable</literal> type.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The new function
+ <literal>Control.Exception.blocked :: IO Bool</literal>
+ tells you whether or not exceptions are blocked (as controlled
+ by <literal>Control.Exception.(un)block</literal>).
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ There is a new function
+ <literal>traceShow :: Show a => a -> b -> b</literal> in
+ <literal>Debug.Trace</literal>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The type of <literal>Control.Monad.forever</literal> has
+ been generalised from
+ <literal>Monad m => m a -> m ()</literal> to
+ <literal>Monad m => m a -> m b</literal>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The new value <literal>GHC.Exts.maxTupleSize</literal>
+ tells you the largest tuple size that can be used. This is
+ mostly of use in Template Haskell programs.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal>GHC.Exts</literal> now exports
+ <literal>Down(..)</literal>,
+ <literal>groupWith</literal>,
+ <literal>sortWith</literal> and
+ <literal>the</literal> which are used in the desugaring of
+ generalised comprehensions.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal>GHC.Exts</literal> no longer exports the
+ <literal>Integer</literal> internals. If you want them then
+ you need to get them directly from the
+ new <literal>integer</literal> package.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The new function <literal>GHC.Conc.threadStatus</literal>
+ allows you to ask whether a thread is running, blocked on
+ an MVar, etc.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The <literal>Data.Generics</literal> hierarchy has been
+ moved to a new package <literal>syb</literal>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The <literal>GHC.Prim</literal> and
+ <literal>GHC.PrimopWrappers</literal> modules have been
+ moved into a new <literal>ghc-prim</literal> package.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>bytestring</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Version number 0.9.0.1.2 (was 0.9.0.1.1)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>Cabal</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Version number 1.6.0.1 (was 1.2.4.0)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Many API changes. See the Cabal docs for more information.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>containers</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Version number 0.2.0.0 (was 0.1.0.2)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Various result type now use <literal>Maybe</literal> rather
+ than allowing any Monad.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>directory</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Version number 1.0.0.2 (was 1.0.0.1)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ No longer defines the UNICODE CPP symbol for packages that
+ use it.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>editline</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This is a new bootlib, version 0.2.1.0.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>filepath</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Version number 1.1.0.1 (was 1.1.0.0)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>ghc-prim</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This is a new bootlib, version 0.1.0.0.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>haskell98</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Version number 1.0.1.0 (unchanged)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>hpc</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Version number 0.5.0.2 (was 0.5.0.1)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>integer</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This is a new bootlib, version 0.1.0.0.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>old-locale</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Version number 1.0.0.1 (was 1.0.0.0)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>old-time</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Version number 1.0.0.1 (was 1.0.0.0)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>packedstring</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Version number 0.1.0.1 (was 0.1.0.0)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>pretty</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Version number 1.0.1.0 (was 1.0.0.0)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ There is a new combinator
+ <literal>zeroWidthText :: String -> Doc</literal>
+ for printing things like ANSI escape sequences.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>process</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Version number 1.0.1.0 (was 1.0.0.1)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The <literal>System.Process</literal> API has been overhauled.
+ The new API is a superset of the old API, however.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>random</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Version number 1.0.0.1 (was 1.0.0.0)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>readline</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This is no longer a bootlib; editline replaces it.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>syb</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This is a new bootlib, version 0.1.0.0.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>template-haskell</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Version number 2.3.0.0 (was 2.2.0.0)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The datatypes now have support for Word primitives.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal>currentModule :: Q String</literal> has been
+ replaced with
+ <literal>location :: Q Loc</literal>, where
+ <literal>Loc</literal> is a new datatype.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>unix</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Version number 2.3.1.0 (was 2.3.0.1)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The <literal>System.Posix.Terminal.BaudRate</literal> type
+ now includes <literal>B57600</literal> and
+ <literal>B115200</literal> constructors.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>Win32</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Version number 2.2.0.0 (was 2.1.1.1)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ No longer defines the UNICODE CPP symbol for packages that
+ use it.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect3>
+ </sect2>
</sect1>
projects / ghc-hetmet.git / blobdiff