- ============================================================
- The (Interactive) Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 5.02
- ============================================================
+ =============================================================
+ The (Interactive) Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 6.4
+ =============================================================
-We are pleased to announce a new major release of the Glasgow Haskell
-Compiler (GHC), version 5.02.
+The GHC Team is pleased to announce a new major release of GHC. It
+has been a long time since the last major release (Dec 2003!), and a
+lot has happened:
-This is the first version of GHC that has all of the following:
+ - GADTs (Generalised Abstract Datatypes) are supported
- * An interactive read-eval-print loop, similar to Hugs.
- You can load a mixture of compiled and interpreted modules;
- in particular, you automatically use the precompiled libraries,
- so your "interpreted" programs often run pretty fast.
+ - STM (Software Transactional Memory) is implemented
- * Works solidly on Windows platforms. Installation is simple
- (Installshield); you don't have to install anything else;
- and GHC does not get confused if you also happen to
- have (say) Cygwin installed.
+ - Full support for Cabal and a much improved package framework
- * Implements the changes adopted for the (now almost finalised)
- Revised Haskell 98 Language and Library Reports.
+ - Better support for mutually-recursive modules
- * The ability to emit "External Core", a documented typed
- intermediate language, suitable for slurping up into other
- tools. [Andrew Tolmach's work.]
+ - A complete rewrite of the back end
- * A particularly thorough pre-release test programme.
- Some releases are more solid than others; this one is
- at the solid end of the spectrum. We fondly hope.
+ - Accurate source locations in error messages
-So if you have been waiting to upgrade your GHC 4.08, this is
-the moment.
+ - Lots of new libraries
+The full release notes are here:
+
+ http://haskell.org/ghc/docs/6.4/html/users_guide/release-6-4.html
How to get it
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
We supply binary builds in the native package format for various
-flavours of Linux and BSD, and in InstallShield form for Windows
-folks. Binary builds for other platforms are available as a .tar.gz
-which can be installed wherever you want. The source distribution is
-also available from the same place.
-
-Once you have the distribution, please follow the pointers in the
-README file to find all of the documentation about this release.
-
-
-More details about what's new
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-5.02 incorporates many small refinements and bug fixes over the previous
-stable release (5.00.2). There are no major language changes.
-
- - Implements Haskell 98 (revised)
-
- - Ability to emit External Core. (But GhC can't read External Core
- back in. Yet.)
-
- - Much improved support for Windows platforms. Binary builds are
- now entirely freestanding. There's no need to install Cygwin or
- Mingwin to use it. It's a one-click-install-and-off-you-go story now.
-
- - Several small changes to bring GHC into line with the newest Haskell 98
- report.
-
- - GHCi (the interactive system) now works on Windows.
-
- - Partial FFI support in GHCi. At the moment, foreign import (both
- static and dynamic) is supported on x86 and sparc platforms.
-
- - A compacting garbage collector, to try and reduce space use.
+flavours of Linux and BSD, and in Windows Installer (MSI) form
+for Windows folks. Binary builds for other platforms are available
+as a .tar.gz which can be installed wherever you want. The source
+distribution is also available from the same place.
- - Ability to disconnect built-in numeric syntax from the supplied
- Prelude. This allows you to define your own arithmetic packages,
- which Haskell98 doesn't quite support.
+Packages will appear as they are built - if the package for your
+system isn't available yet, please try again later.
- - Experimental: partial support for hierarchical module names.
-
- - Experimental: following heroic hacking by Ken Shan, 5.02 now
- works on Alpha (Tru64 only). Many 64-bit bugs have been shaken
- out. At the moment only the batch-mode compiler works -- no GHCi
- or native code generator yet.
-
-We've found and fixed more bugs than you could possibly imagine. A
-big thank-you to all those who reported bugs in the 5.00.X series. We
-claim to have fixed almost all reported bugs. In general we've spent
-a large amount of effort trying to improve the stability of the
-system relative to 5.00.X. (Famous last words ...)
-
-For full details see the release notes:
-
- http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/5.02/set/release-5-02.html
Background
~~~~~~~~~~
Haskell is a standard lazy functional programming language; the
-current language version is Haskell 98, agreed in December 1998.
+current language version is Haskell 98, agreed in December 1998 and
+revised December 2002.
GHC is a state-of-the-art programming suite for Haskell. Included is
an optimising compiler generating good code for a variety of
A wide variety of Haskell related resources (tutorials, libraries,
specifications, documentation, compilers, interpreters, references,
contact information, links to research groups) are available from the
-Haskell home page at
-
- http://www.haskell.org/
-
-GHC's Web page lives at
-
- http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
+Haskell home page (see below).
On-line GHC-related resources
System requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-To compile programs with GHC, you need a machine with 64+MB memory, GNU C
+To compile programs with GHC, you need a machine with 64+MB memory, GCC
and perl. This release is known to work on the following platforms:
- * i386-unknown-{linux,freebsd,mingw32}
+ * i386-unknown-{linux,*bsd,mingw32}
* sparc-sun-solaris2
+ * powerpc-apple-darwin (MacOS X)
+ * powerpc-apple-linux
-Ports to the following platforms should be relatively easy (for a
-wunderhacker), but haven't been tested due to lack of time/hardware:
-
- * hppa1.1-hp-hpux{9,10}
- * i386-unknown-solaris2
- * alpha-dec-osf{2,3}
- * mips-sgi-irix{5,6}
- * {rs6000,powerpc}-ibm-aix
-
-The builder's guide included in distribution gives a complete
-run-down of what ports work; an on-line version can be found at
-
- http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/5.02/building/building-guide.html
+Ports to other platforms are possible with varying degrees of
+difficulty. The builder's guide on the web site gives a complete
+run-down of what ports work and how to go about porting to a new
+platform; it can be found at
+ http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/latest/html/building/
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