HEADS UP (devs, users): 8.0.1 Roadmap

[Austin Seipp]

Hi *,

I've returned from vacation, and last week Simon, Simon and I met up
again after a long break, and talked a bit about the upcoming release.

The good news is that it is going to be an exciting one! The flip side
is, there's a lot of work to be done!

The current plan we'd roughly like to follow is...

  - November: Fork the new `ghc-8.0` STABLE branch
    - At this point, `master` development will probably slow as we fix bugs.
    - This gives us 2 months or so until branch, from Today.
    - This is nice as the branch is close to the first RC.
  - December: First release candidate
  - Mid/late February: Final release.

Here's our current feature roadmap (in basically the same place as all
our previous pages):

https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/Status/GHC-8.0.1

As time goes on, this page will be updated to reflect Reality™ and
track it as closely as possible. So keep an eye on it! It's got the
roadmap (near top) and large bug list (bottom).

Now, there are some things we need, so depending on who you are, please...

  - *Users*: please look over the bug list! If there's a bug you need
fixed that isn't there, set it to the 8.0.1 milestone (updated in
Trac). If this bug is critical to you, please let us know! You can
bump the priority (if we disagree, or it's workaround-able, it might
get bumped down). We just need a way to see what you need, so please
let us know somehow!

As a reminder, our regular policy is this: if a bug is NOT marked
highest or high priority, it is essentially 100% the case we will not
look at it. So please make sure this is accurate. Or if you can, write
a patch yourself!

  - *Developers*: double check the roadmap list, _and if you're
responsible for something, make sure it is accurate!_

There are some great things planned to land in HEAD, but we'll have to
work for it. Onward!

  - A better LLVM backend for Tier-1 platforms
  - Types are kinds and kind equality
  - Overloaded record fields!
  - Enhancements to DWARF debugging
  - ApplicativeDo
  - ... and many more...

Thanks everyone!

-- 
Regards,

Austin Seipp, Haskell Consultant
Well-Typed LLP, http://www.well-typed.com/