nhc13 current status

Status of various components

The basic, stable, components.

Newer components. The tracing compiler, trace browser, and time profiler are all new additions since 1998-06-24 (pre-release v0.9.2).

Distribution packages

In addition to the hypertext links below, the packages are also available by anonymous FTP from

Also known to compile for: mips-Ultrix-4.5, sparc-SunOS-5.[3456], i[3456]86-Linux-2.0.xx, i[56]86-CYGWIN32-NT-4.0.

All the documents available on the web are included in all the packages. (* Please note that the installation instructions for out-of-date packages often differ slightly from the ones on the web. Always follow the instructions from the package itself.)

The C source tree contains bootstrapping C sources for the compiler, prelude, and libraries, in addition to all the usual Haskell sources, including the York binary library, GreenCard, hp2graph, hmake, and the trace browser. The bootstrapping C sources were generated by nhc13 from the Haskell sources.

The Haskell source tree contains the complete sources for the compiler, runtime system, standard prelude, and libraries for nhc13, including the York Binary library, and current versions of GreenCard, hp2graph, hmake, and the trace browser.

The binary packages contain just the executables, interface files, and object files for the compiler, runtime system, standard prelude, libraries (including the York Binary library, GreenCard, hp2graph, hmake and the trace browser). In most cases these compilers were built by hbc.

The installation instructions should be comprehensive, but if you have any problems, please mail Malcolm.Wallace@cs.york.ac.uk

Release 0.9.4 (981105) features

• Addition: Various aspects of the trace browser have been updated.
• Bugfix: Haskell code which called C code which in turn called Haskell code crashed with 'Unknown instruction 199'. Fixed.
• Bugfix: various small changes are required to enable nhc13 to compile for mips-Ultrix-4.5.
• Bugfix: hmake did not collect import dependencies correctly from literate files. Fixed.
• Bugfix: not just SunOS, but also FreeBSD, has a too-small limit on the number of open files a process can hold. This can cause problems when compiling nhc13comp with hmake. The work-around from 0.9.3 is now applied universally, regardless of operating system.
• Bugfix: At last, the nhc13 version of GreenCard has parse error messages! Previously, it simply failed silently, with truncated output files.
• Bugfix: installed version of hmake referred to temp include directory instead of installed directory.

Release 0.9.3 (980706) features

• Bugfix: Compiling for tracing under SunOS no longer requires an explicit -lsocket.
• Bugfix: SunOS has a very small limit on the number of open files a process can hold. This caused problems when compiling nhc13comp with hmake. It now has a work-around.
• Bugfix: there was a GC bug in the Binary library, rarely causing a segmentation fault.
• Bugfix: the Prelude definition of product was wrong.
• Bugfix: GreenCard now permits limited use of the Word type.

Release 0.9.2 (980624) features

• Major addition: the tracing compiler and trace browser are now available!
• Major addition: source-level time profiling is now available.
• Addition: a new compile-time option: -d objdir
• Addition: the nhc13make and hbcmake tools have been replaced by hmake. (New features: it generates build scripts using any of hbc, nhc13, or ghc; it knows about cpp directives; it knows about separate objdirs.)
• Bugfix: object files are now built in separate directories from the source tree. This means you can build simultaneously on different architectures sharing the same sources.
• Bugfix: the binary library is no longer tied into the Prelude.
• Addition: class Binary has a new operation sizeOf.

Previous release history

The latest updates to these pages are available on the WWW from http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/fp/nhc13/

1998.11.05
York Functional Programming Group
Malcolm.Wallace@cs.york.ac.uk