The first release candidate of the Scala 2.8 distribution is now available.

Scala 2.8.0 RC features a redesigned collection library, and specialised type parameters, which allow the compiler to generate multiple versions of a given definition. Besides classes and objects, packages can also contain methods, fields or type aliases; nested Java annotations are also supported.

For a full run-through of the new features and bug fixes, please see the Release Notes. It can be downloaded from the Scala website.