[[project @ 2001-08-23 14:44:43 by simonmar]
simonmar**20010823144443
Release notes updated with library changes since 5.00.2.
] {
hunk ./ghc/docs/users_guide/5-02-notes.sgml 6
+
+
+
+ Several small changes to bring GHC into line with the
+ newest Haskell 98 report.
+
+
+
+ RTS options can now be specified using the environment
+ variable GHCRTS.
+
+
+
+ The maximum heap size, set with
+ +RTS -Msize,
+ now defaults to unlimited. We recommend however that you set
+ a maximum heap size appropriate for your machine using the
+ GHCRTS variable.
+
+
+
+ Thanks to the heroic efforts of Ken Shan
+ ken@digitas.harvard.edu, GHC now works again on
+ the Alpha architecture (just Tru64 at the moment), and many
+ (all?) of the 64-bit bugs have been shaken out.
+
+
+
+ New option: which causes GHC
+ to omit code generation and all future compilation stages (see
+ ).
+
+
hunk ./ghc/docs/users_guide/5-02-notes.sgml 43
+
+
+
+
+
+ A compacting garbage collector has been added. It isn't
+ on by default, because it is somewhat slower than the existing
+ copying collector, but can be automatically enabled when
+ memory gets tight by setting the maximum heap size (see ). Compaction works together with
+ the existing generational scheme: it is only used on the
+ oldest generation.
+
+
hunk ./ghc/docs/users_guide/5-02-notes.sgml 79
-
-
+
+ BlockedOnDeadMVar and
+ ThreadKilled exceptions no longer generate
+ any output by default for forked threads.
+
hunk ./ghc/docs/users_guide/5-02-notes.sgml 85
-
- Build system changes
+
+ Weak.addForeignFinalizer is
+ deprecated; use the ForeignPtr library
+ instead.
+
+
+
+ The I/O library has been completely rewritten, using the
+ new FFI libraries and hsc2hs. The main
+ improvement is to the way streams are handled: simultaneous
+ read and write with multiple threads using a socket or FIFO is
+ now possible, whereas before it was necessary to use two
+ separate handles.
+
+
+
+ As a result of the I/O rewrite, the extensions
+ IOExts.hConnectTo and
+ IOExts.withHandleFor have been removed.
+ Also, hGetBuf and
+ hPutBuf have been removed, and
+ hGetBufFull and
+ hPutBufFull have been renamed to
+ hGetBuf and hPutBuf
+ respectively (similary for the BA
+ versions of these functions).
+
+
+
+ System.exitWith now throws
+ ExitException rather than causing the
+ program to exit immediately. ExitException
+ is by default caught by the top level exception handler in the
+ main thread, where it causes the program to exit. Hence, calling
+ System.exitWith in GHCi no longer causes
+ GHCi itself to exit.
+
+
+
+ New function: MVar.addMVarFinalizer
+ (see ).
+
+
+
+ New module SystemExts for useful
+ system-ish functionality (see ).
+
+
+
+ SocketPrim: added instances of
+ Eq and Show for the
+ Socket type.
+
+
+
+ The implementation of
+ MarsalAlloc.allocaBytes now uses GHC's
+ internal allocator and is much faster than before. As a
+ result, the UnsafeCString type and
+ functions are no longer necessary and have been removed from
+ CString.
+
+
hunk ./ghc/docs/users_guide/5-02-notes.sgml 153
+
+
+ The implementation of the Array,
+ IArray and MArray
+ libraries have been rewritten so that bulk operations like
+ listArray and elems do
+ less range checking and hence go faster.
+
+
+
+ The CPUTime library has been replaced
+ by one written using the FFI. No externally visible
+ changes.
+
+
}