	     The Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 4.08
	    ==============================================

We are pleased to announce a new release of the Glasgow Haskell
Compiler (GHC), version 4.08.  The 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 Haskell 98, agreed in December 1998.
Haskell related information is available from the Haskell home page at

	http://www.haskell.org/

GHC's Web page lives at

	http://www.haskell.org/ghc/

+ What's new
=============

This should be a stable release.  There have been many enhancements
since 4.06, and shed-loads of bug-fixes (one shed (imperial) ~ one ton
(US)).

There are the following changes

   - New profiling subsystem, based on cost-centre stacks.

   - Working x86 native code generator: now it works properly, runs
     about twice as fast as compiling via C, and is on a par for
     run-time speed (except in FP-intensive programs).

   - Implicit parameters (i.e. dynamic scoping without the pain).

   - DEPRECATED pragma for marking obsolescent interfaces.

   - In the wake of hslibs, a new package system for
     libraries. -package should now be used instead of -syslib.

   - Result type signatures work.

   - Many tiresome long-standing bugs and problems (e.g. the trace
     problem) have been fixed.

   - Many error messages have been made more helpful and/or
     accurate.

For full details see the release notes:

	http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/4.08/users_guide/release-4-08.html


+ Mailing lists
================

We run mailing lists for GHC users and bug reports; to subscribe, send
mail to majordomo@haskell.org; the msg body should be:

    subscribe glasgow-haskell-{users,bugs} Your Name <you@where.soever>

or

    subscribe cvs-ghc Your Name <you@where.soever>

Please send bug reports about GHC to glasgow-haskell-bugs@haskell.org;
GHC users hang out on glasgow-haskell-users@haskell.org.  Bleeding
edge CVS users party on cvs-ghc@haskell.org.


+ On-line GHC-related resources
================================

Relevant URLs on the World-Wide Web:

GHC home page    	  http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
Haskell home page	  http://www.haskell.org/
comp.lang.functional FAQ  http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~gmh/faq.html


+ How to get it
================

The easy way is to go to the WWW page, which should be
self-explanatory:

	http://www.haskell.org/ghc/

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 the sources, you need a machine with 32+MB memory, GNU C
(`gcc'), `perl' plus a version of GHC installed (3.02 at least).  This
release is known to work on the following platforms:

  * i386-unknown-{linux,freebsd,netbsd,cygwin32,mingw32}
  * sparc-sun-{sunos4,solaris2}
  * hppa1.1-hp-hpux{9,10}

Ports to the following platforms should be relatively easy (for a
wunderhacker), but haven't been tested due to lack of time/hardware:

  * i386-unknown-solaris2
  * alpha-dec-osf{2,3}
  * mips-sgi-irix{5,6}
  * {rs6000,powerpc}-ibm-aix

The builder's guide included in distribution gives a complete
run-down of what ports work; an on-line version can be found at

   http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/4.08/building/building-guide.html
