From 0b3357f151904630a729a2a0f2d49b75fd8db86c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Ben Gamari Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2025 19:09:17 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] Add 9.14.1-alpha1 release blog post --- content/ghc-9.14.1-alpha1/index.md | 66 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 66 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/ghc-9.14.1-alpha1/index.md diff --git a/content/ghc-9.14.1-alpha1/index.md b/content/ghc-9.14.1-alpha1/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d9df35 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/ghc-9.14.1-alpha1/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,66 @@ +--- +authors: ["Ben Gamari"] +title: "GHC 9.14.1-alpha1 is now available" +date: 2025-08-19 +categories: ["GHC"] +tags: ["Release"] +--- + +The GHC developers are very pleased to announce the availability of the +first alpha prerelease of GHC 9.14.1. Binary distributions, source +distributions, and documentation are available at [downloads.haskell.org][]. + +GHC 9.14 will bring a number of new features and improvements, including: + +* Significant improvements in specialisation: + + * The `SPECIALISE` pragma now allows use of type application syntax + + * The `SPECIALISE` pragma can be used to specialise for expression arguments + as well as type arguments. + + * Specialisation is now considerably more reliable in the presence of + `newtype`s + + * the specialiser is now able to produce specialisations with + polymorphic typeclass constraints, considerably broadening its scope. + +* Significant improvements in the GHCi debugger + +* Record fields can be defined to be non-linear when `LinearTypes` is enabled. + +* `RequiredTypeArgments` can now be used in more contexts + +* SSE/AVX support in the x86 native code generator backend + +* A major update of the Windows toolchain + +* ... and many more + +A full accounting of changes can be found in the [release notes][]. Given the +many specialisation improvements and their potential for regression, we would +very much appreciate testing and performance characterisation on downstream +workloads. + +Due to unexpected complications, this initial prerelease comes a bit later than +expected. Consequently, we expect to have three condensed alphas prior to the +release candidate. We expect the next alpha +will come the week of 9 Sept. 2025, while the third will come 23 Sept. 2025, +with the release candidate coming 7 Oct. 2025. + +We would like to thank the Zw3rk stake pool, +Well-Typed, Mercury, Channable, Tweag I/O, Serokell, SimSpace, the Haskell +Foundation, and other anonymous contributors whose on-going financial +and in-kind support has facilitated GHC maintenance and release +management over the years. Finally, this release would not have been +possible without the hundreds of open-source contributors whose work +comprise this release. + +As always, do give this release a try and open a [ticket][] if you see +anything amiss. + + +[downloads.haskell.org]: https://downloads.haskell.org/ghc/9.14.1-alpha1 +[release notes]: https://downloads.haskell.org/ghc/9.14.1-alpha1/docs/users_guide/9.14.1-notes.html +[ticket]: https://gitlab.haskell.org/ghc/homepage/-/issues/new +