Release notes for version 2.06 -- 9/97

Here's a list of the changes made since GHC 2.05:

• Fix to reader to allow let expressions in pattern guards.
• Tidied up `nofib/parallel'
• Changed derived `Show' (and `Read') code for constructors with labelled fields to bring them into line with the Report.
• Fixed `ghc-0.29 -O' booting problem (codeGen/ClosureInfo not closed.)
• Improved error messages for illegal derivings of `Ix', `Enum' and `Bounded'.
• Fixed bug in deriving `Ix' code. (need to actively slurp in return and zero)
• New module: `PackBase' - minimum pack/unpack code.
• Moved `PackedString' to ghc system library
• Added export of `unionBy' and `intersectBy' to `List' (plus commented out unused functions).
• Uniform size to `ForeignObj' closures (indep of GC scheme).
• Added `ForeignObj' support to NCG
• Added `index*OffForeignObj#' primops (for completeness, mostly)
• Removed: `Util.mapAccumL' and `Util.mapAccumR' (now via List)
• Removed: `forall' and `exists' from `Util' (now `any' and `all' from `Prelude').
• fixed: handling of source input from stdin in the driver.
• x86 NCG should now compile under 2.0x
• PECULIAR: compiling -prof "fixes" simplifier performance on deep list comprehensions.
• Added -O for ghc/lib/cbits
• Updated `lndir' (sync wrt. X11R6.3)
• Removed `glafp-utils/msub'
• Fixed misleading error message for guards (used to mention list comprehensions)
• Fixed incorrect handling of default methods (used to complain about differing contexts)
• Fixed missing `tidyPrimOp' in `simplCore/SimplCore' (Sven Panne bug report.)
• Fixed desugaring of record construction for overloaded constructors. (Dave Barton bug report.)
• Fixed rank-2 polymorphism bug (Ralf Hinze bug report.)
• Fixed interface-file parser error on `GHC.->'
• Added `-no-recomp' flag
• Changed grouping syntax for simplifier opts, instead of '(' and ')', use '[' and ']'. The change is made to make it more Win32 (and cygwin32) friendly.
• Removed the use of `COMPILING_GHC' in `ghc/compiler/'
• Use `COMPILING_NCG' instead of `COMPILING_GHC' in `ghc/includes/' header files to control visibility of info needed when compiling the native code generator.
• Tidied up handling of IO error messages in `IOBase'
• Fixed `PackBase.unpackCString' and `PackedString.unpackCString' to handle `NULL' pointer arg gracefully.
• fix: archives in `INSTALL_LIBS' are now ranlib'ed when installing.
• fix: for `-monly-x-regs', the mangler now generates necessary code for loading up unstolen registers before GC, and save their updated contents (via BaseReg) on GC return before `handing back' the registers. This change fixed the `SIGSEGV' problem reported by David Barton on an x86 platform (linux) with 2.05.
• changed `SMstats.elapsedtime' to return non-negative floats. (=> no more `-Rghc-timing' warnings about not finding `InitTime' etc.)
• Change `mkWrapper' in `WwLib.lhs' to call `splitForAllTyExpandingDicts' instead of `splitForALlTy' to fix `absApply' crash. (Jon Mountjoy bug report.)
• GHC's interface file parser now uses the latest version of Happy.
• Happy is now included in the source distribution.