Release schedule for GHC 5.02

[Julian Seward (Intl Vendor)]

Greetings, GHC users and developers.

We're hoping to ship GHC 5.02 in about three weeks.  The plan is
as follows:

* Fri 17 Aug (end of this week): feature freeze.

* Monday 20 Aug - Friday 31 Aug: stabilise, bug fix.

* Fri 31 Aug: release.

GHC USERS: Soon after the feature freeze, maybe around 20 Aug, we plan=20
to put out a release candidate.  If you reported bug(s) in the past
couple of months and are hoping that they are fixed in 5.02, please=20
download and try the release candidate.  We're making this candidate=20
available early in the stabilisation period so as to give us a chance=20
to fix issues before the final release.  Do take this opportunity to=20
work with us to improve the quality of the 5.02 release.

GHC DEVELOPERS: please try and check in any final changes before Friday
(or at least advise us of your intentions).  Given that we're trying to
stabilise GHC, the fewer changes you check in, the better.

Below is a list of changes in 5.02 relative to 5.00.X.

As ever, we welcome your feedback.

J (the 5.02 release coordinator)

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5.02 will be released for x86-Linux, Sparc-Solaris and Win32.

Compared to the 5.00.X series, 5.02 will contain the following
user-visible major changes:

* Many bug fixes and stabilisations in the interactive system.
  Includes a clone of the :i (info) command.

* New compacting garbage collector, which reduces the total amount
  of memory needed to run progs at the expense of being a bit slower.
  The old GC is still there and still used by default.

* Partial FFI implementation for the interpreter:=20
  foreign import {static, dynamic}.  No foreign export or label.

* Win32: simple one-click-install package.  No requirement for
  Cygwin any longer, and you don't need to install any other
  supporting stuff either.

Internal changes:

* New demand analyser, hopefully generating better code.

* Majorly rewritten I/O library.

* Much heroic hacking by Ken Shan to revive the Alpha port.

Probably lots of other stuff I've forgotten.