The (Interactive) Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 5.00

[Michael Weber]

>     The (Interactive) Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 5.00
>    ============================================================
> 
> We are pleased to announce a new major release of the Glasgow Haskell
> Compiler (GHC), version 5.00.  The source distribution is freely
> available via the World-Wide Web and through anon. FTP, under a
> BSD-style license.  See below for download details.  Pre-built
> packages for Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and Win32 are also available.
[...]


Debian packages for GHC 5.00 are available for some days now in the
'unstable' distribution.  They should have hit the mirrors already, so
please choose the nearest one.  More info on that below.


Important Changes/Notes
=======================
* It is possible now to install the new packages of ghc4 and ghc5
  simultaneously.  The system-wide default (/usr/bin/ghc) can be
  chosen via the 'alternatives' system.  For more info on that, refer
  to the according docs[1].


* The ghc[45] and related packages are now dependent on libgmp3(-dev)
  instead of libgmp2(-dev).  This is due to some forthcoming changes
  in Debian and because libgmp2 isn't maintained upstream for some
  time now.


* Also, there are new packages for happy and c2hs available.

  happy is the latest CVS version, since 1.9 didn't play with ghc5 well.
  It should work with both ghc4 and ghc5 now.
  
  c2hs is compiled for ghc5, so it won't work with ghc4.  If you are
  still dependent on ghc4&c2hs, you may want to recompile it
  yourself[2] and mark it as 'hold'.


* As usual, the packages come with all sorts of documentation.
  They're viewable via the 'doc-base' infrastructure at
  	http://localhost/doc/HTML/
	
  (provided the 'dhelp' package and the usual WWW tools are installed)
  
  Along with other formats like PostScript/DVI, the HTML documentation
  also is browseable at: /usr/share/doc/ghc*/*
  

[1] man update-alternatives
[2] 1) make ghc4 the default compiler
    2) install all build dependencies (with apt-get >= 0.5.3, you can
       achieve this with: ``apt-get build-dep c2hs'')
    3) build the source:  ``apt-get source --compile c2hs''.  That
       should download the c2hs sources and produce packages suited
       for use with ghc4.


Availability
============
Currently, the latest packages on the Debian servers are for
'unstable' (aka sid). They will hit the 'testing' distribution (aka
woody) in about 10 days, provided no critical bugs pop up during that
period.

As a consequence, GHC is built against the latest libraries in
'unstable', including libc6 (>= 2.2.2-2).  I am sorry, but at the
moment I cannot make any promises about when packages for 'stable'
(aka potato) will be available.

However, a complete list of all mirrors is available from:
	http://www.debian.org/misc/README.mirrors

You can use the package `netselect'[3] to determine the fastest of a
list of servers.


[3] http://packages.debian.org/stable/net/netselect.html


APT lines:
	deb     http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib
	deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib


WWW:
	http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/ghc4.html
	http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/ghc5.html
	http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/happy.html
	http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/c2hs.html


Name         Version              Description
============-====================-====================================================================================
ghc4         4.08.1-5             GHC - the Glasgow Haskell Compilation system
ghc4-doc     4.08.1-5             Documentation for GHC - the Glasgow Haskell Compilation system
ghc4-libsrc  4.08.1-5             Library Sources of GHC - the Glasgow Haskell Compilation system
ghc4-prof    4.08.1-5             Profiling Libs for GHC - the Glasgow Haskell Compilation system

ghc5         5.00-1               GHC - the Glasgow Haskell Compilation system
ghc5-doc     5.00-1               Documentation for GHC - the Glasgow Haskell Compilation system
ghc5-libsrc  5.00-1               Library Sources of GHC - the Glasgow Haskell Compilation system
ghc5-prof    5.00-1               Profiling Libs for GHC - the Glasgow Haskell Compilation system

c2hs         0.8.2-2              C->Haskell Interface Generator
happy        1.9+1.10.20010417-1  The Parser generator for Haskell


Cheers,
Michael