ANNOUNCE: GHC version 7.10.2

[Ben Gamari]

=====================================================================
    The (Interactive) Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 7.10.2
=====================================================================

The GHC Team is pleased to announce a new bug-fix release of GHC,
7.10.2.

There have been a number of significant bug fixes since the 7.10.1 (with
over 70 defects fixed). These include fixes affecting type-checker
correctness, runtime stability, and compiler performance. For this
reason we highly recommend that users of 7.10.1 upgrade quickly.

Note that due to changes made in this release to GHC's optimizer,
previously fragile-but-working rewrite rules may fail to fire. One
example of this was found in the widely-used `text` package late in the
release cycle, which manifested in long compilation times and poor code
generation for `Text` literals (see [Trac #10528]). Users are advised to
use text >=1.2.1.2 which includes more robust rewrite rules.

The full release notes including a complete listing of the changes in
this release can be found here,

  https://downloads.haskell.org/~ghc/7.10.2/docs/html/users_guide/release-7-10-2.html


[Trac #10528]: https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/10528


How to get it
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Both binary and source tarballs of GHC itself are available on
the release download page,

    https://www.haskell.org/ghc/download_ghc_7_10_2

For a more smoother, better integrated experience users are encouraged
to find a Haskell distribution. While these alternatives may not yet
include 7.10.2, they offer tools and libraries to quickly get users up
and running, as well as potentially better integration with the host
operating system and package manager. See,

    https://www.haskell.org/downloads

for more details.


Background
~~~~~~~~~~

Haskell is a standard lazy functional programming language.

GHC is a state-of-the-art programming suite for Haskell.  Included is
an optimising compiler generating good code for a variety of
platforms, together with an interactive system for convenient, quick
development. The distribution includes space and time profiling
facilities, a large collection of libraries, and support for various
language extensions, including concurrency, exceptions, and foreign
language interfaces (C, whatever). GHC is distributed under a
BSD-style open source license.

A wide variety of Haskell related resources (tutorials, libraries,
specifications, documentation, compilers, interpreters, references,
contact information, links to research groups) are available from the
Haskell home page (see below),

    https://www.haskell.org/


Supported Platforms
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The list of platforms supported by GHC and the people responsible for
them can be found here,

    https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/Platforms
    https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/CodeOwners

Ports to other platforms are possible with varying degrees of
difficulty.  The Building Guide describes how to go about porting to a
new platform:

    https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/Building

Developers
~~~~~~~~~~

If you enjoy using GHC, you will likely also enjoy contributing to it!
We are always looking for new contributors. Instructions on accessing
our source code repository, and getting started with hacking on GHC, are
available from the GHC developer site,

    https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/

Mailing lists
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We run mailing lists for GHC users and bug reports; to subscribe, use
the web interfaces at

    https://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/glasgow-haskell-users
    https://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/glasgow-haskell-bugs

There are several other haskell and ghc-related mailing lists on
www.haskell.org; for the full list, see

    https://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/

Some GHC developers hang out on #haskell on IRC, too:

    https://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/IRC_channel

Please report bugs using our bug tracking system.  Instructions on
reporting bugs can be found here:

    https://www.haskell.org/ghc/reportabug

Hashes & Signatures
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In https://downloads.haskell.org/~ghc/7.10.2/ you will find a signed
copy of the SHA256 hashes for the tarballs, using my GPG key,

     Benjamin Gamari <ben at well-typed.com>

     Fingerprint: FFEB 7CE8 1E16 A36B 3E2D
                  ED6F 2DE0 4D4E 97DB 64AD
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