+++ /dev/null
- The Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 2.02
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-We are pleased to announce the first release of the Glasgow Haskell
-Compiler (GHC, version 2.02) for *Haskell 1.4*. Sources and binaries
-are freely available by anonymous FTP and on the World-Wide Web;
-details below.
-
-Haskell is "the" standard lazy functional programming language; the
-current language version is 1.3, agreed in May, 1996. The Haskell
-Report is online at
-
- http://haskell.cs.yale.edu/1.4/haskell-report.html
-
-GHC 2.02 is a beta-quality release - some highlights:
-
- * It is reliable.
- It has been extensively tested against a large suite of Haskell 1.2
- programs, but not so extensively tested against Haskell 1.4 programs
- because we don't have a comprehensive set (Donations of Haskell 1.4
- programs to our test suite are most welcome).
-
- * It should generate good code.
- All the optimisations that GHC 0.29 used to do are back in, with
- the exception of specialisation. It ought to be the case that
- GHC 2.02 outperforms GHC 0.29, because it has a much better
- handle on cross-module inlining, but there's a good chance that
- there are performance "holes" lurking. We have yet to make
- a systematic comparison. (Please send us programs where 2.02
- does noticeably worse than 0.29.)
-
- * It is more expensive than it should be.
- GHC 2.02 has received even less attention to its own performance.
- At present it eats more space and time than GHC 0.29, especially
- for very small programs. We're working on this.
-
- * A couple of Haskell 1.4 features are incompletely supported,
- notably polymorphic strictness annotations, and Unicode.
-
-If you want to use Haskell 1.4, this is a good moment to switch. If
-you don't need the Haskell 1.4 extensions, then stay with GHC 0.29.
-If you want to hack on GHC itself, then 2.02 is definitely for you.
-The release notes comment further on this point.
-
-GHC 2.02 is substantially changed from 2.01. Changes worth noting
-include:
-
- * The whole front end, which deals with the module system, has
- been rewritten. The interface file format has changed.
-
- * GHC 2.02 comes complete with Green Card, a C foreign language
- interface for GHC. Green card is a pre-processor that
- scans Haskell source files for Green Card directives, which
- it expands into tons of "ccall" boilerplate that marshalls
- your arguments to and from C.
-
- * GHC 2.02 is available for Win32 platforms. From now on, Win32
- (Windows NT and Windows 95) will be a fully supported platform
- for GHC.
-
- * GHC 2.02 supports full cross module inlining. Unlike 0.29 and
- its predecessors, inlining can happen even if the inlined body
- mentions a function or type that is not itself exported. This is
- one place Haskell 1.4's new module system really pays off.
-
- * Like 2.01, GHC 2.02 aborts a compilation if it decides that
- nothing that the module imports *and acually uses* has changed.
- This decision is now taken by the compiler itself, rather than
- by a Perl script (as in 2.01) which sometimes got it wrong.
-
- * The ghc/lib libraries are much more systematically organised.
-
- * There's a completely new "make" system. This will mainly affect people
- who want the source distribution, who will hopefully find it much, much,
- easier than grappling with the old Jmakefiles. Even for binary
- installation, the procedure is a little simpler, though.
-
-Please see the release notes for a complete discussion of What's New.
-
-To run this release, you need a machine with 16+MB memory (more if
-building from sources), GNU C (`gcc'), and `perl'. We have seen GHC
-2.01 work on these platforms: alpha-dec-osf2, hppa1.1-hp-hpux9,
-sparc-sun-{sunos4,solaris2}, mips-sgi-irix5, and
-i386-unknown-{linux,solaris2,freebsd,cygwin32}. Similar platforms
-should work with minimal hacking effort. The installer's guide give a
-complete run-down of what-ports-work.
-
-Binaries are distributed in `bundles', e.g. a "profiling bundle" or a
-"concurrency bundle" for your platform. Just grab the ones you need.
-
-Once you have the distribution, please follow the pointers in the
-README file to find all of the documentation about this release. NB:
-preserve modification times when un-tarring the files (no `m' option
-for tar, please)!
-
-We run mailing lists for GHC users and bug reports; to subscribe, send
-mail to majordomo@dcs.gla.ac.uk; the msg body should be:
-
- subscribe glasgow-haskell-<which> Your Name <your-email@where.you.are>
-
-Please send bug reports about GHC to glasgow-haskell-bugs@dcs.gla.ac.uk.
-
-Simon Peyton Jones
-
-Dated: March 1997
-
-Relevant URLs on the World-Wide Web:
-
-GHC home page http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/fp/software/ghc/
-Glasgow FP group page http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/fp/
-comp.lang.functional FAQ http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/Department/Staff/mpj/faq.html
-
-======================================================================
-How to get GHC 2.02:
-
-This release is available by anonymous FTP from the main Haskell
-archive sites, in the directory pub/haskell/glasgow:
-
- ftp.dcs.gla.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 (146.169.43.1), 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:
-
-README.html A WWW `front-end' to the contents of the glasgow
- directory.
-
-ghc-2.02-src.tar.gz The source distribution; about 3MB.
-
-ghc-2.02.ANNOUNCE This file.
-
-ghc-2.02.{README,RELEASE-NOTES} From the distribution; for those who
- want to peek before FTPing...
-
-ghc-2.02-ps-docs.tar.gz Main GHC documents in PostScript format; in
- case your TeX setup doesn't agree with our
- DVI files...
-
-ghc-2.02-<platform>.tar.gz Basic binary distribution for a particular
- <platform>. Unpack and go: you can compile
- and run Haskell programs with nothing but one
- of these files. NB: does *not* include
- profiling (see below).
-
- <platform> ==> alpha-dec-osf2
- hppa1.1-hp-hpux9
- i386-unknown-freebsd
- i386-unknown-linux
- i386-unknown-solaris2
- i386-unknown-cygwin32
- m68k-sun-sunos4
- mips-sgi-irix5
- sparc-sun-sunos4
- sparc-sun-solaris2
-
-ghc-2.02-<bundle>-<platform>.tar.gz
-
- <platform> ==> as above
- <bundle> ==> prof (profiling)
- conc (concurrent Haskell)
- par (parallel)
- gran (GranSim parallel simulator)
- ticky (`ticky-ticky' counts -- for implementors)
- prof-conc (profiling for "conc[urrent]")
- prof-ticky (ticky for "conc[urrent]")
-
-ghc-2.02-hc-files.tar.gz Basic set of intermediate C (.hc) files for the
- compiler proper, the prelude, and `Hello,
- world'. Used for bootstrapping the system.
- About 4MB.
-
-ghc-2.02-<bundle>-hc-files.tar.gz Further sets of .hc files, for
- building other "bundles", e.g., profiling.
-
-ghc-2.02-hi-files-<blah>.tar.gz Sometimes it's more convenient to
- use a different set of interface files than
- the ones in *-src.tar.gz. (The installation
- guide will advise you of this.)
-
+++ /dev/null
-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}
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