ANNOUNCE: GHC version 6.10.1

[Lennart Kolmodin]

Hello fellow GHC users,


Ian Lynagh wrote:
>    ==============================================================
>     The (Interactive) Glasgow Haskell Compiler -- version 6.10.1
>    ==============================================================

[snip]

> 
> How to get it
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> The easy way is to go to the web page, which should be self-explanatory:
> 
>         http://www.haskell.org/ghc/

Gentoo Linux users can get it from the gentoo-haskell overlay[1].

If you're not familiar with this overlay (a gold mine for haskell 
hackers using gentoo), you can easily use layman[2] to get access. Make 
sure you have darcs installed, as it is a requirement for our overlay.

Once layman is set up, add the overlay with:

  $ layman -a haskell

Note that ghc-6.10.1 still is masked by keyword, and you need to unmask 
it first. If you're not familiar with how to do this, here's a quick guide:

  # make sure /etc/portage exists
  $ [[ -d /etc/portage ]] || mkdir /etc/portage
  # accept ghc being ~arch
  $ echo "dev-lang/ghc" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords
  # ghc requires the very latest libedit package
  $ echo "dev-libs/libedit" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords

You may then install ghc-6.10.1 by saying:

  # this requires that you already have an older ghc version installed
  $ USE="ghcbootstrap -binary" emerge ghc

The USE flags are required as we don't just yet provide the required 
binaries to bootstrap ghc. The command above requires that you already 
have a ghc version installed to bootstrap with. This version will be 
replaced with ghc-6.10.1 once the installation finishes.

GHC binaries will follow shortly, which will shorten the procedure to:

  $ emerge ghc

The packages from extralibs will also be available from the overlay.

If you run into trouble, reply to the ml, or find us in #gentoo-haskell 
at freenode.

Cheers,
   Lennart Kolmodin -- using his Gentoo Linux Developer hat

  [1] http://code.haskell.org/gentoo/gentoo-haskell/
  [2] http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/overlays/userguide.xml