[ANNOUNCE] GHC 8.4.1-alpha1 available

[Oleg Grenrus]

I copy & paste Hervert's reddit answer here [1], for ones who don't
follow it:

As the suffix "alpha" implies, this is a very bleeding edge release with
very little guarantees regarding API stability (c.f. new GHC schedule
[2]
<https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/WorkingConventions/Releases/NewSchedule>).

Put differently, a package that works now with GHC 8.4.1-alpha1 may not
necessarily work with the final GHC 8.4.1 release.

In order to support early adopters in testing GHC 8.4.1-alpha, there's a
new Overlay Hackage Package Index <https://github.com/hvr/head.hackage>
[3] which provides packages patched for unreleased GHCs (currently GHC
8.4.1-alpha1 & GHC 8.5/HEAD). See its README
<https://github.com/hvr/head.hackage#README> [4] for instructions on how
to use it; there's also a shell script included which automates common
workflows; finally there's also support for HEAD.hackage in
themake-travis-yml Travis CI script generator
<https://github.com/haskell-hvr/multi-ghc-travis>. [5] Don't hesitate to
ask if you have questions!

As usual, there's already an (incomplete & work-in-progress) GHC 8.4.x
Migration Guide <https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/Migration/8.4>
[6] you can consult and maybe even help complete.


Links:
- [1]:
https://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/7l4b19/announce_ghc_841alpha1_available/drjlc3w/
- [2]:
https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/WorkingConventions/Releases/NewSchedule

- [3]: https://github.com/hvr/head.hackage
- [4]: https://github.com/hvr/head.hackage#README
- [5]: https://github.com/haskell-hvr/multi-ghc-travis
- [6]: https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/Migration/8.4

Cheers, Oleg


On 21.12.2017 22:16, George Colpitts wrote:
> Thanks Ben. I installed the Mac binaries.
>
> For others who are wondering, you need llvm 5 if you want to use llvm
> with this.
>
> Needless to say, many libraries, e.g. haskell-src-exts, primitive, and
> intero won't compile with this even with --allow-newer
>
> I'll notify those libraries about that in case they want to get
> started on 8.4.1
>
> Cheers
> George
>
> On Wed, Dec 20, 2017 at 4:48 PM Ben Gamari <ben at well-typed.com
> <mailto:ben at well-typed.com>> wrote:
>
>
>     The GHC development team is pleased to announce the first alpha
>     release
>     of the 8.4.1 release. The usual release artifacts are available from
>
>         https://downloads.haskell.org/~ghc/8.4.1-alpha1
>     <https://downloads.haskell.org/%7Eghc/8.4.1-alpha1>
>
>     Note that this release drops compatibility with GCC 4.6 and earlier.
>     While we generally try to place as few constraints on system toolchain
>     as possible, this release depends upon the __atomic__ builtins
>     provided
>     by GCC 4.7 and later (see #14244).
>
>
>     === Notes on release scheduling ===
>
>     The 8.4.1 release marks the first release where GHC will be
>     adhering to
>     its new, higher-cadence release schedule [1]. Under this new scheme,
>     major releases will be made in 6-month intervals with interstitial
>     minor
>     releases as necessary.
>
>     In order to minimize the likelihood of schedule slippage and to ensure
>     adequate testing, each major release will be preceeded by a number of
>     regular alpha releases. We will begin issuing these releases roughly
>     three months before the final date of the major release and will issue
>     roughly one every two weeks during this period. This high release
>     cadence will allow us to quickly get fixes in to users hands and allow
>     better feedback on the status of the release.
>
>     GHC 8.4 is slated to be released in mid-February but, due to technical
>     constraints, we are starting the alpha-release cycle a bit later than
>     planned under the above schedule. For this reason, it would be greatly
>     appreciated if users could put this alpha through its paces to make up
>     for lost time.
>
>     As always, do let us know if you encounter any trouble in the
>     course of
>     testing. Thanks for your help!
>
>     Cheers,
>
>     - Ben
>
>
>     [1] https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/blog/2017-release-schedule
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>
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