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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
+<sect1 id="release-5-00">
+ <title>Release notes for version 5.00 (April 2001)</title>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>User-visible compiler changes</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>GHCi, the new interactive environment on top of GHC, has
+ been added (<xref linkend="ghci">).</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>New <option>&ndash;&ndash;make</option> flag added (<xref
+ linkend="make-mode">).</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The native code generator now supports Sparc in addition
+ to x86.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>We now make it clear which options can be placed in an
+ OPTIONS pragma. See <xref
+ linkend="static-dynamic-flags">.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para><option>-fglasgow-exts</option> no longer implies
+ <option>-package lang</option>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para><option>-noC</option> is no more.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para><option>-hi</option> and <option>-nohi</option> are no more.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The concept of &ldquo;packages&rdquo; has been
+ generalised and extended. Packages may be installed or
+ removed from an existing GHC installation using the new
+ <command>ghc-pkg</command> tool. See <xref
+ linkend="packages">.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Initial unicode support: the <literal>Char</literal>
+ type is now 31 bits. We don't yet have support for unicode
+ I/O.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para><option>-v</option> now takes an optional numeric
+ argument indicating the level of verbosity (<xref
+ linkend="options-help">). <option>-dshow-passes</option> has
+ been removed.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Parallel list comprehensions added. See <xref
+ linkend="parallel-list-comprehensions">.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Functional dependencies are now fully implemented.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Profiling: please use
+ <literal>{-# SCC ".." #-}</literal>
+ rather than <literal>_scc_ "..."</literal>. The latter
+ will be phased out in due course.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>A new experimental optimisation, SpecConstr, is turned
+ on with <literal>-O2</literal>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Please report bugs using the <ulink
+ url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ghc/">SourceForge bug
+ tracker</ulink> instead of
+ <email>glasgow-haskell-bugs@haskell.org</email> if
+ possible.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Documentation changes: there's now a useful Flag
+ Reference section, see <xref linkend="flag-reference">.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Many, many, bugfixes.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>New experimental features</title>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>A &ldquo;front panel&rdquo; for GHC-compiled programs
+ displays real-time graphs of memory behaviour in a GTK+
+ window. You need to recompile the RTS with front panel
+ support to use this.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>FFI changes</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para><command>hsc2hs</command> added (<xref linkend="hsc2hs">).</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>FFI libraries have been updated to the latest proposal
+ from the FFI task force. Too many changes to list here, see
+ the docs: <xref linkend="sec-Foreign">.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>User-visible library changes</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para><function>putMVar</function> now blocks if the
+ <literal>MVar</literal> is already full. The
+ <literal>PutFullMVar</literal> exception no longer exists.
+ A non-blocking version of <function>putMVar</function>,
+ <function>tryPutMVar</function>, has been added (<xref
+ linkend="sec-MVars">).</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The <literal>Int</literal> and
+ <literal>Integer</literal> types now have instances of
+ <literal>Bits</literal> (<xref linkend="sec-Bits">).</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Package <literal>hssource</literal> has been added. It
+ contains a Haskell 98 abstract syntax, parser, lexer and pretty
+ printer. No documentation yet.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The methods <literal>fromInt</literal> and
+ <literal>toInt</literal>, which used to be in class
+ <literal>Num</literal> but exported from module
+ <literal>Int</literal>, are no longer in class
+ <literal>Num</literal>. They're still available from module
+ <literal>Int</literal>, however.</para>
+
+ <para>In most cases, there should be no benefit from using
+ <literal>fromInt</literal> instead of
+ <literal>fromIntegral</literal>, which is specialised for all
+ integral types.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>New modules: DiffArray (<xref linkend="sec-DiffArray">),
+ StorableArray (<xref linkend="sec-StorableArray">),
+ MonadList, MonadCont (no documentation yet).</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Build system changes</title>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The <literal>WithGhcHc</literal> setting in
+ <literal>build.mk</literal> has been replaced by the
+ <literal>&ndash;&ndash;with-ghc=<replaceable>ghc</replaceable></literal>
+ option to <literal>configure</literal>. The new option
+ <emphasis>must</emphasis> be used if you intend to use
+ anything except &ldquo;<literal>ghc</literal>&rdquo; to
+ bootstrap GHC, in order that the build system can figure out
+ what version of GHC you're using.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Source distributions are now made by doing <literal>make
+ distclean</literal> in a build tree, instead of requiring a
+ linked build tree.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Internal changes</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Many internal compiler changes: too many to list
+ here.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The old perl driver has been removed and replaced by a
+ driver in the compiler proper.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>We now use GMP 3 instead of GMP 2 for
+ arbitrary-precision integer support.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Several libraries rewritten to use the FFI.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </sect2>
+
+</sect1>
+
+<!-- Emacs stuff:
+ ;;; Local Variables: ***
+ ;;; mode: xml ***
+ ;;; sgml-parent-document: ("users_guide.xml" "book" "chapter" "sect1") ***
+ ;;; End: ***
+ -->