diff --git a/NLP/WordNet.hs b/NLP/WordNet.hs
--- a/NLP/WordNet.hs
+++ b/NLP/WordNet.hs
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@
 import Prelude hiding (catch)
 import Data.Array
 import GHC.Arr (unsafeIndex)
-import GHC.Handle
+import GHC.IO.Handle
 import Data.Tree
 import Data.IORef
 import Data.Dynamic
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@
 -- the environment and returns the results in the 'IO' monad.
 runWordNetWithOptions :: 
     Maybe FilePath ->                          -- word net data directory
-    Maybe (String -> Exception -> IO ()) ->    -- warning function (by default, warnings go to stderr)
+    Maybe (String -> SomeException -> IO ()) ->    -- warning function (by default, warnings go to stderr)
     WN a ->                                    -- what to run
       IO a
 runWordNetWithOptions dd warn wn = do
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@
 -- | Takes a FilePath to the directory holding WordNet and
 -- a function to do with warnings, initializes 
 -- the environment and returns a 'WordNetEnv' as in 'initializeWordNet'.
-initializeWordNetWithOptions :: Maybe FilePath -> Maybe (String -> Exception -> IO ()) -> IO WordNetEnv
+initializeWordNetWithOptions :: Maybe FilePath -> Maybe (String -> SomeException -> IO ()) -> IO WordNetEnv
 initializeWordNetWithOptions = P.initializeWordNetWithOptions
 
 -- | Closes all the handles associated with the 'WordNetEnv'.  Since
diff --git a/NLP/WordNet/PrimTypes.hs b/NLP/WordNet/PrimTypes.hs
--- a/NLP/WordNet/PrimTypes.hs
+++ b/NLP/WordNet/PrimTypes.hs
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@
        vSentHandle :: Maybe (Handle, Handle), -- index, real
        wnReleaseVersion :: Maybe String,
        dataDirectory :: FilePath,
-       warnAbout :: String -> Exception -> IO ()
+       warnAbout :: String -> SomeException -> IO ()
      }
 
 wordNetEnv0 = WordNetEnv { 
diff --git a/NLP/WordNet/Prims.hs b/NLP/WordNet/Prims.hs
--- a/NLP/WordNet/Prims.hs
+++ b/NLP/WordNet/Prims.hs
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
 import Control.Monad (when, liftM, mplus)
 import Data.List (findIndex, find)
 import Data.Maybe (isNothing, fromJust, isJust, fromMaybe)
-import GHC.Handle -- (openFileEx, BinaryMode(..))
+import GHC.IO.Handle -- (openFileEx, BinaryMode(..))
 
 import NLP.WordNet.PrimTypes
 import NLP.WordNet.Util
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@
 -- place on your machine and you don't have the appropriate env vars set up.
 initializeWordNetWithOptions :: 
     Maybe FilePath ->                          -- word net data directory
-    Maybe (String -> Exception -> IO ()) ->    -- "warning" function (by default, warnings go to stderr)
+    Maybe (String -> SomeException -> IO ()) ->    -- "warning" function (by default, warnings go to stderr)
       IO WordNetEnv
 initializeWordNetWithOptions mSearchdir mWarn = do
   searchdir <- case mSearchdir of { Nothing -> getDefaultSearchDir ; Just d -> return d }
diff --git a/NLP/WordNet/Util.hs b/NLP/WordNet/Util.hs
--- a/NLP/WordNet/Util.hs
+++ b/NLP/WordNet/Util.hs
@@ -7,7 +7,8 @@
 import Data.Char (toLower)
 import Data.List (nub)
 import Data.Maybe (fromMaybe)
-import GHC.Handle
+import GHC.IO.Handle
+import System.IO
 
 data IOModeEx = BinaryMode IOMode | AsciiMode IOMode deriving (Eq, Ord, Show, Read)
 
@@ -47,9 +48,9 @@
 charForPOS (Adv)  = "r"
 
 tryMaybe :: IO a -> IO (Maybe a)
-tryMaybe a = (a >>= return . Just) `catch` (const (return Nothing))
+tryMaybe a = (a >>= return . Just) `catch` (\(_ :: SomeException) -> return Nothing)
 
-tryMaybeWarn :: (Exception -> IO ()) -> IO a -> IO (Maybe a)
+tryMaybeWarn :: Exception e => (e -> IO ()) -> IO a -> IO (Maybe a)
 tryMaybeWarn warn a = (a >>= return . Just) `catch` (\e -> warn e >> return Nothing)
 
 partName :: POS -> String
diff --git a/WordNet.cabal b/WordNet.cabal
--- a/WordNet.cabal
+++ b/WordNet.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 Name:               WordNet
-Version:            0.1.2
+Version:            1.0.0
 Description:
     A pure-Haskell interface to the WordNet lexical database of English.
     Depends on the WordNet database, but not on the WordNet source code.
@@ -11,16 +11,10 @@
 Maintainer:         Max Rabkin <max.rabkin@gmail.com>
 Build-Depends:      base, filepath
 Build-Type:         Simple
-Cabal-Version:      >= 1.2
-
-Flag small_base
-    Description: Choose the new smaller, split-up base package.
+Cabal-Version:      >= 1.8
 
 Library
-    if flag(small_base)
-        Build-Depends:  base >= 3, containers, filepath, array
-    else
-        Build-Depends:  base < 3, filepath
+    Build-depends: base == 4.*, containers, filepath, array
         
     Exposed-Modules:
         NLP.WordNet
@@ -33,6 +27,4 @@
         NLP.WordNet.Prims
         NLP.WordNet.Types
 
-    GHC-Options:    -fglasgow-exts
-
-    Extensions:     CPP
+    Extensions:     CPP, DeriveDataTypeable, ImplicitParams, MultiParamTypeClasses, RankNTypes, ScopedTypeVariables