[ Announcements of minor releases are normally just sent to
the glasgow-haskell-users mailing list, but since this release
includes support for pattern guards, I thought I'd forward
to the Haskell list as well. Apologies to the g-h-u crowd
who will probably see this blurb twice. -- Sigbjorn ]
The Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 2.04
==============================================
We are pleased to announce a new release of the Glasgow Haskell
Compiler (GHC), version 2.04. A 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 1.4, agreed in April, 1997. Haskell
related information is available from the Haskell home page at:
http://haskell.org/
+ What's new
=============
Release 2.04 represent work done through May '97; highlights include:
* Data constructors can now have polymorphic fields, and ordinary
functions can have polymorphic arguments. Details on
http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~simonpj/quantification.html
Existential types coming, but not done yet.
* Pattern guards implemented, see
http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~simonpj/guards.html
* Compiler can now compile itself (i.e., no real dependence on
the Haskell 1.2 compiler anymore (version 0.29)). The release has
only be tested with 2.03 and 0.29, not 2.02.
* Faster compilation
Compilation speeds has improved since 2.02, although it is still slower
than the Good Old Compiler, GHC-0.29. (the gap is narrowing, though!)
* Code quality is better, the simplifier and inlining machinery has been
refurbished. Not sure how much better.
* powerpc-ibm-aix is now a supported GHC platform, due to the
Heroic Efforts of Andr\'e Santos <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
* It has been tested against a large suite of (mostly) Haskell 1.2
programs (the NoFib suite). A fair chunk of bugs has been fixed.
* A couple of Haskell 1.4 features are still incompletely supported,
notably polymorphic strictness annotations, and Unicode.
Please see the release notes for a complete discussion of What's New.
+ Mailing lists
================
We run mailing lists for GHC users and bug reports; to subscribe, send
mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]; the msg body should be:
subscribe glasgow-haskell-<which> Your Name <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Please send bug reports about GHC to [EMAIL PROTECTED];
GHC users hang out on [EMAIL PROTECTED]
+ On-line GHC-related resources
================================
Relevant URLs on the World-Wide Web:
GHC home page http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/fp/software/ghc/
Haskell home page http://haskell.org/
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 it
================
The easy way is to go to the WWW GHC distribution page, which should
be self-explanatory:
ftp://ftp.dcs.gla.ac.uk/pub/haskell/glasgow/README.html
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 up this source-only release, you need a machine with 16+MB
memory, GNU C (`gcc'), `perl' plus a version of GHC installed (either
version 0.29 or 2.02/2.03). We have seen GHC work on these platforms:
* alpha-dec-osf2
* hppa1.1-hp-hpux{9,10}
* sparc-sun-{sunos4,solaris2}
* mips-sgi-irix{5,6}
* i386-unknown-{linux,solaris2,freebsd,cygwin32}.
* powerpc-ibm-aix
Similar platforms should work with minimal hacking effort. The installer's
guide included in distribution gives a complete run-down of what-ports-work;
an on-line version can be found at
http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/fp/software/ghc/ghc-doc/install-guide.html
EOF
