Dear GHC users We usually make a Christmas release of GHC, and indeed we are poised to do so (4.06). Allocation is down another 8% on nofib, and compilation times seem to be down significantly (10-25%) [vs 4.04]. There has been a large-scale library reoganisation, to make it easier to contribute and maintain Haskell libraries without them being tied to GHC. We'll announce more about this in the new year. There are no substantial compiler changes, though, so this release should be a stable one. However, we are in the middle of switching over our documentation from Linuxdoc to Docbook format, and that is not completed so, rather than make a half-baked release now, we thought we would complete the switch over and release 4.06 in the next millenium. Meanwhile, let me encourage the keen among you to check out the current GHC from the repository and beat it to death, because it's pretty much what will be inflicted on you as 4.06 early in the New Year. This also gives me a chance to introduce Reuben Thomas. Sigbjorn has moved to Microsoft Research in Redmond, where he is working with Conal Elliott. Reuben has just completed his PhD at Cambridge, and has taken over Sigbjorn's position here. (Sigbjorn remains Mr H/Direct, though.) The switchover to Docbook is Rueben's first contribution. Happy Xmas Simon
