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.. _release-8-8-1:

Release notes for version 8.8.1
===============================

The significant changes to the various parts of the compiler are listed in the
following sections. There have also been numerous bug fixes and performance
improvements over the 8.6.1 release.


Highlights
----------

The highlights, since the 8.6.1 release, are:

- Many, many bug fixes.


Full details
------------

Language
~~~~~~~~

- :extension:`ScopedTypeVariables`: The type variable that a type signature on
  a pattern can bring into scope can now stand for arbitrary types. Previously,
  they could only stand in for other type variables, but this restriction was deemed
  unnecessary in `GHC proposal #29 <https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/blob/master/proposals/0029-scoped-type-variables-types.rst>`__. Also see :ghc-ticket:`15050`.

- The pattern-match coverage checker now checks for cases that are unreachable
  due to constructors have strict argument types. For instance, in the
  following example: ::

    data K = K1 | K2 !Void

    f :: K -> ()
    f K1 = ()

  ``K2`` cannot be matched on in ``f``, since it is impossible to construct a
  terminating value of type ``Void``. Accordingly, GHC will not warn about
  ``K2`` (whereas previous versions of GHC would).

- ``(!)`` is now a valid type operator: ::

      type family a ! b

- An existential context no longer requires parenthesization: ::

    class a + b
    data D1 = forall a b. (a + b) => D1 a b
    data D2 = forall a b.  a + b  => D2 a b -- now allowed

- The requirement that kind signatures always be parenthesized has been relaxed.
  For instance, it is now permissible to write ``Proxy '(a :: A, b :: B)``
  (previous GHC versions required extra parens: ``Proxy '((a :: A), (b :: B))``).

Compiler
~~~~~~~~

- New :ghc-flag:`-keep-hscpp-files` to keep the output of the CPP pre-processor.

- The :ghc-flag:`-Wcompat` warning group now includes :ghc-flag:`-Wstar-is-type`.

- The :ghc-flag:`-fllvm-pass-vectors-in-regs` flag is now deprecated as vector
  arguments are now passed in registers by default.

Runtime system
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

- Add and document new FFI functions ``hs_lock_stable_ptr_table``
  and ``hs_unlock_stable_ptr_table``. These replace the undocumented
  functions ``hs_lock_stable_tables`` and ``hs_unlock_stable_tables``,
  respectively. The latter should now be considered deprecated.

- Document the heretofore undocumented FFI function
  ``hs_free_stable_ptr_unsafe``, used in conjunction with manual
  locking and unlocking.

- The runtime linker on Windows has been overhauled to properly handle section
  alignment, lower the amount of wasted memory and lower the amount of in use memory.
  See :ghc-ticket:`13617`. Note that committed memory may be slightly higher.


Template Haskell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

- Reifying type classes no longer shows redundant class type variables and
  contexts in the type signature of each class method. For instance,
  reifying the following class: ::

    class C a where
      method :: a

  Used to produce the following: ::

    class C a where
      method :: forall a. C a => a

  Where the ``forall a. C a =>`` part is entirely redundant. This part is no
  longer included when reifying ``C``. It's possible that this may break some
  code which assumes the existence of ``forall a. C a =>``.

- Template Haskell now supports implicit parameters and recursive do.

``ghc-prim`` library
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

- GHC now exposes a new primop, ``traceBinaryEvent#``. This primop writes
  eventlog events similar to ``traceBinaryEvent#`` but allows the user to pass
  the event payload as a binary blob instead of a ``String``.

- The ``StableName#`` type parameter now has a phantom role instead of
  a representational one. There is really no reason to care about the
  type of the underlying object.

``ghc`` library
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


``base`` library
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

- Support the characters from recent versions of Unicode (up to v. 12) in literals
    (see :ghc-ticket:`5518`).

- The ``StableName`` type parameter now has a phantom role instead of
  a representational one. There is really no reason to care about the
  type of the underlying object.

Build system
~~~~~~~~~~~~


Included libraries
------------------

The package database provided with this distribution also contains a number of
packages other than GHC itself. See the changelogs provided with these packages
for further change information.

.. ghc-package-list::

    libraries/array/array.cabal:             Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/base/base.cabal:               Core library
    libraries/binary/binary.cabal:           Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/bytestring/bytestring.cabal:   Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/Cabal/Cabal/Cabal.cabal:       Dependency of ``ghc-pkg`` utility
    libraries/containers/containers.cabal:   Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/deepseq/deepseq.cabal:         Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/directory/directory.cabal:     Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/filepath/filepath.cabal:       Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    compiler/ghc.cabal:                      The compiler itself
    libraries/ghci/ghci.cabal:               The REPL interface
    libraries/ghc-boot/ghc-boot.cabal:       Internal compiler library
    libraries/ghc-boot-th/ghc-boot-th.cabal: Internal compiler library
    libraries/ghc-compact/ghc-compact.cabal: Core library
    libraries/ghc-heap/ghc-heap.cabal:       GHC heap-walking library
    libraries/ghc-prim/ghc-prim.cabal:       Core library
    libraries/haskeline/haskeline.cabal:     Dependency of ``ghci`` executable
    libraries/hpc/hpc.cabal:                 Dependency of ``hpc`` executable
    libraries/integer-gmp/integer-gmp.cabal: Core library
    libraries/mtl/mtl.cabal:                 Dependency of ``Cabal`` library
    libraries/parsec/parsec.cabal:           Dependency of ``Cabal`` library
    libraries/process/process.cabal:         Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/stm/stm.cabal:                 Dependency of ``haskeline`` library
    libraries/template-haskell/template-haskell.cabal:     Core library
    libraries/terminfo/terminfo.cabal:       Dependency of ``haskeline`` library
    libraries/text/text.cabal:               Dependency of ``Cabal`` library
    libraries/time/time.cabal:               Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/transformers/transformers.cabal: Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/unix/unix.cabal:               Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/Win32/Win32.cabal:             Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/xhtml/xhtml.cabal:             Dependency of ``haddock`` executable