_A_b_o_u_t_ _t_h_i_s_ _r_e_l_e_a_s_e

This is Miranda release two of October 1989 rereleased thirty  years  on
as  open source - as historical record and in the hope that it may still
be useful.  Originally released in 1985, Miranda was  the  first  widely
used  non-strict, purely functional language with polymorphic typing and
had a significant influence on the development of the field.

The source code has been revised to the current C standard (C11)  so  it
will  compile  for both 32 and 64 bit platforms.  Various bugs have been
fixed and some features added (see the Changes section  of  the  manual)
but  the  Miranda  language  and  main  features of the system interface
remain unchanged.  The manual has been revised in places for clarity and
to remove out of date material.

The online manual pages are primarily intended to document the system at
the  level  required  by  someone  who  already  knows quite a lot about
programming languages and  has  some  previous  exposure  to  functional
programming.  There is a certain amount of tutorial material, but if you
are a beginner to functional programming  you  may  find  parts  of  the
manual hard to follow, and will need to seek help elsewhere.

The following paper gives a convenient summary of the main  features  of
Miranda:
  D. A. Turner "An Overview of Miranda", SIGPLAN Notices, December 1986.
A copy of this paper is included in the manual pages, but this and other
information about Miranda can be found on the world wide web at
	miranda.org.uk

Miranda has two available text books

1. Simon Thompson "Miranda: the Craft of Functional Programming",
   Addison-Wesley, 470 pages, 1995.
	ISBN 0-201-42279-4 (Paperback)
A webpage for the book by the author is at
	www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/sjt/Miranda_craft/
or follow the link under BOOKS at miranda.org.uk.

2. Chris Clack, Colin Myers & Ellen Poon "Programming with Miranda",
   Prentice Hall, 312 pages, 1995.
	ISBN 0-13-192592-X
The rights in this book have reverted to the authors who  have  made  it
available online - follow link under BOOKS at miranda.org.uk.

There were two other texts, both now out of  print,  but  there  may  be
copies in a library or with second hand book sellers.

  Richard Bird & Philip Wadler "An Introduction to Functional Programming",
  Prentice Hall, 293 pages, March 1988.
  This used a mathematical notation, quite closely based on Miranda but
  equally suitable for use with other functional languages.

  Ian Holyer "Functional Programming with Miranda"
  Pitman, 215 pages, 1991