The Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 4.08 ============================================== We are pleased to announce a new release of the Glasgow Haskell Compiler (GHC), version 4.08. The source distribution is freely available via the World-Wide Web and through anon. FTP; details below. Haskell is "the" standard lazy functional programming language; the current language version is Haskell 98, agreed in December 1998. Haskell related information is available from the Haskell home page at http://www.haskell.org/ GHC's Web page lives at http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ + What's new ============= This should be a stable release. There have been many enhancements since 4.06, and shed-loads of bug-fixes (one shed (imperial) ~ one ton (US)). There are the following changes - New profiling subsystem, based on cost-centre stacks. - Working x86 native code generator: now it works properly, runs about twice as fast as compiling via C, and is on a par for run-time speed (except in FP-intensive programs). - Implicit parameters (i.e. dynamic scoping without the pain). - DEPRECATED pragma for marking obsolescent interfaces. - In the wake of hslibs, a new package system for libraries. -package should now be used instead of -syslib. - Result type signatures work. - Many tiresome long-standing bugs and problems (e.g. the trace problem) have been fixed. - Many error messages have been made more helpful and/or accurate. For full details see the release notes: http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/4.08/users_guide/release-4-08.html + Mailing lists ================ We run mailing lists for GHC users and bug reports; to subscribe, send mail to majordomo@haskell.org; the msg body should be: subscribe glasgow-haskell-{users,bugs} Your Name or subscribe cvs-ghc Your Name Please send bug reports about GHC to glasgow-haskell-bugs@haskell.org; GHC users hang out on glasgow-haskell-users@haskell.org. Bleeding edge CVS users party on cvs-ghc@haskell.org. + On-line GHC-related resources ================================ Relevant URLs on the World-Wide Web: GHC home page http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ Haskell home page http://www.haskell.org/ comp.lang.functional FAQ http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~gmh/faq.html + How to get it ================ The easy way is to go to the WWW page, which should be self-explanatory: http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ 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)! + System requirements ====================== To compile the sources, you need a machine with 32+MB memory, GNU C (`gcc'), `perl' plus a version of GHC installed (3.02 at least). This release is known to work on the following platforms: * i386-unknown-{linux,freebsd,netbsd,cygwin32,mingw32} * sparc-sun-{sunos4,solaris2} * hppa1.1-hp-hpux{9,10} Ports to the following platforms should be relatively easy (for a wunderhacker), but haven't been tested due to lack of time/hardware: * 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/4.08/building/building-guide.html