diff --git a/GHC/RTS/Events.hs b/GHC/RTS/Events.hs
--- a/GHC/RTS/Events.hs
+++ b/GHC/RTS/Events.hs
@@ -17,10 +17,15 @@
        Data(..),
        Timestamp,
        ThreadId,
+
        -- * Reading an event log from a file
        readEventLogFromFile,
+
        -- * Utilities
-       CapEvent(..), sortEvents, groupEvents
+       CapEvent(..), sortEvents, groupEvents, sortGroups,
+
+       -- * Printing
+       showEventTypeSpecificInfo, showThreadStopStatus
   ) where
 
 {- Libraries. -}
@@ -37,6 +42,7 @@
 import Data.Function
 import Data.List
 import Data.Either
+import Text.Printf
 
 #define EVENTLOG_CONSTANTS_ONLY
 #include "EventLogFormat.h"
@@ -126,6 +132,7 @@
   | StartGC            { }
   | EndGC              { }
   | Message            { msg :: String }
+  | UserMessage        { msg :: String }
   | UnknownEvent
   deriving Show
 
@@ -283,6 +290,11 @@
   bytes <- replicateM (fromIntegral num) getE 
   return Message{ msg = map (chr . fromIntegral) (bytes :: [Word8]) }
 
+ EVENT_USER_MSG -> do -- (msg)
+  num <- getE :: GetEvents Word16
+  bytes <- replicateM (fromIntegral num) getE 
+  return UserMessage{ msg = map (chr . fromIntegral) (bytes :: [Word8]) }
+
  other -> do -- unrecognised event, just skip it
   etypes <- ask
   case M.lookup (fromIntegral other) etypes of
@@ -305,7 +317,7 @@
               getEvents events = do
                 mb_e <- getEvent
                 case mb_e of
-                  Nothing -> return (Data events)
+                  Nothing -> return (Data (reverse events))
                   Just e  -> getEvents (e:events)
 
 getEventBlock :: GetEvents [Event]
@@ -342,11 +354,15 @@
                ce_event :: Event
              }
 
+sortEvents :: [Event] -> [CapEvent]
+sortEvents = sortGroups . groupEvents
+
 -- | Sort the raw event stream by time, annotating each event with the
 -- capability that generated it.
-sortEvents :: [Event] -> [CapEvent]
-sortEvents raw = mergesort' (compare `on` (time . ce_event)) $
-                  [ map (CapEvent cap) es | (cap, es) <- groupEvents raw ]
+sortGroups :: [(Maybe Int, [Event])] -> [CapEvent]
+sortGroups groups = mergesort' (compare `on` (time . ce_event)) $
+                      [ [ CapEvent cap e | e <- es ] 
+                      | (cap, es) <- groups ]
      -- sorting is made much faster by the way that the event stream is
      -- divided into blocks of events.  
      --  - All events in a block belong to a particular capability
@@ -360,7 +376,7 @@
 
 groupEvents :: [Event] -> [(Maybe Int, [Event])]
 groupEvents es = (Nothing, n_events) : 
-                 [ (Just (cap (head blocks)), concat (map block_events blocks))
+                 [ (Just (cap (head blocks)), concatMap block_events blocks)
                  | blocks <- groups ]
   where
    (blocks, anon_events) = partitionEithers (map separate es)
@@ -396,3 +412,52 @@
         GT -> y : merge cmp (x:xs)   ys
         _  -> x : merge cmp    xs (y:ys)
 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- Some pretty-printing support
+
+showEventTypeSpecificInfo :: EventTypeSpecificInfo -> String
+showEventTypeSpecificInfo spec =
+      case spec of
+        Startup n_caps ->
+          printf "startup: %d capabilities" n_caps
+        EventBlock end_time cap _block_events ->
+          printf "event block: cap %d, end time: %d\n" cap end_time
+        CreateThread thread ->
+          printf "creating thread %d" thread
+        RunThread thread ->
+          printf "running thread %d" thread
+        StopThread thread status ->
+          printf "stopping thread %d (%s)" thread (showThreadStopStatus status)
+        ThreadRunnable thread ->
+          printf "thread %d is runnable" thread
+        MigrateThread thread newCap  ->
+          printf "migrating thread %d to cap %d" thread newCap
+        RunSpark thread ->
+          printf "running a local spark (thread %d)" thread
+        StealSpark thread victimCap ->
+          printf "thread %d stealing a spark from cap %d" thread victimCap
+        CreateSparkThread sparkThread ->
+          printf "creating spark thread %d" sparkThread
+        Shutdown ->
+          printf "shutting down"
+        WakeupThread thread otherCap ->
+          printf "waking up thread %d on cap %d" thread otherCap
+        RequestSeqGC ->
+          printf "requesting sequential GC"
+        RequestParGC ->
+          printf "requesting parallel GC"
+        StartGC ->
+          printf "starting GC"
+        EndGC ->
+          printf "finished GC"
+	_ ->
+          printf "unknown event type"
+
+
+showThreadStopStatus :: ThreadStopStatus -> String
+showThreadStopStatus HeapOverflow   = "heap overflow"
+showThreadStopStatus StackOverflow  = "stack overflow"
+showThreadStopStatus ThreadYielding = "thread yielding"
+showThreadStopStatus ThreadBlocked  = "thread blocked"
+showThreadStopStatus ThreadFinished = "thread finished"
+showThreadStopStatus ForeignCall    = "making a foreign call"
diff --git a/ShowGhcEvents.hs b/ShowGhcEvents.hs
--- a/ShowGhcEvents.hs
+++ b/ShowGhcEvents.hs
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
   let imap = M.fromList [ (fromIntegral (Log.num t),t) | t <- etypes ]
 
   let pes = Log.events (Log.dat log)
-      sorted = sortEvents (reverse pes)
+      sorted = sortEvents pes
               -- the events come out reversed, and we want a stable sort
 
   printf "Events:\n"
@@ -57,46 +57,6 @@
       printf (Log.desc (fromJust (M.lookup (fromIntegral ref) imap)))
 
     Message msg -> msg
-
-    other ->
-      case spec of
-        Startup n_caps ->
-          printf "startup: %d capabilities" n_caps
-        EventBlock end_time cap block_events ->
-          printf "event block: cap %d, end time: %d\n" cap end_time
-        CreateThread thread -> 
-          printf "creating thread %d" thread
-        RunThread thread -> 
-          printf "running thread %d" thread
-        StopThread thread status -> 
-          printf "stopping thread %d (%s)" thread (showThreadStopStatus status)
-        ThreadRunnable thread -> 
-          printf "thread %d is runnable" thread
-        MigrateThread thread newCap  -> 
-          printf "migrating thread %d to cap %d" thread newCap
-        RunSpark thread -> 
-          printf "running a local spark (thread %d)" thread
-        StealSpark thread victimCap -> 
-          printf "thread %d stealing a spark from cap %d" thread victimCap 
-        CreateSparkThread sparkThread -> 
-          printf "creating spark thread %d" sparkThread
-        Shutdown -> 
-          printf "shutting down"
-        WakeupThread thread otherCap -> 
-          printf "waking up thread %d on cap %d" thread otherCap
-        RequestSeqGC -> 
-          printf "requesting sequential GC"
-        RequestParGC -> 
-          printf "requesting parallel GC"
-        StartGC -> 
-          printf "starting GC"
-        EndGC -> 
-          printf "finished GC"
+    UserMessage msg -> msg
 
-showThreadStopStatus :: ThreadStopStatus -> String
-showThreadStopStatus HeapOverflow   = "heap overflow"
-showThreadStopStatus StackOverflow  = "stack overflow"
-showThreadStopStatus ThreadYielding = "thread yielding"
-showThreadStopStatus ThreadBlocked  = "thread blocked"
-showThreadStopStatus ThreadFinished = "thread finished"
-showThreadStopStatus ForeignCall    = "making a foreign call"
+    other -> showEventTypeSpecificInfo spec
diff --git a/ghc-events.cabal b/ghc-events.cabal
--- a/ghc-events.cabal
+++ b/ghc-events.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 name:             ghc-events
-version:          0.0.1
+version:          0.1
 synopsis:         Library and tool for parsing .eventlog files from GHC
 description:      Parses .eventlog files emitted by GHC 6.12.1 and later.
                   Includes the show-ghc-events tool to dump an event