Things to check before you start typing

Here's a list of things to check before you get started.

1. Disk space needed: About 30MB (five hamburgers' worth) of disk space for the most basic binary distribution of GHC; more for some platforms, e.g., Alphas. An extra "bundle" (e.g., concurrent Haskell libraries) might take you to 8--10 hamburgers. You'll need over 100MB (say, 20 hamburgers' worth) if you need to build the basic stuff from scratch. All of the above are estimates of disk-space needs.(I don't yet know the disk requirements for the non-GHC tools).
2. Use an appropriate machine, compilers, and things. SPARC boxes, DEC Alphas running OSF/1, and PCs running Linux, FreeBSD, or Solaris are all fully supported. MIPS, AIX, Win32 and HP boxes are in pretty good shape. Section See section What machines the Glasgow tools run on gives the full run-down on ports or lack thereof.
3. Be sure that the "pre-supposed" utilities are installed. Section See section Installing pre-supposed utilities elaborates.
4. If you have any problem when building or installing the Glasgow tools, please check the "known pitfalls" (section See section Known pitfalls in building Glasgow Haskell). Also check the "known bugs" web page for GHC: @begin{center} `http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/fp/software/ghc/ghc-bugs.html' @end{center} If you feel there is still some shortcoming in our procedure or instructions, please report it. For GHC, please see the bug-reporting section of the User's guide (separate document), to maximise the usefulness of your report. If in doubt, please send a message to `glasgow-haskell-bugs@dcs.gla.ac.uk'.