  Over the last decade the search for compounds combining the resources of
semiconductors and ferromagnets has evolved into an important field of
materials science. This endeavour has been fuelled by continual demonstrations
of remarkable low-temperature functionalities found for ferromagnetic
structures of (Ga,Mn)As, p-(Cd,Mn)Te, and related compounds as well as by ample
observations of ferromagnetic signatures at high temperatures in a number of
non-metallic systems. In this paper, recent experimental and theoretical
developments are reviewed emphasising that, from the one hand, they disentangle
many controversies and puzzles accumulated over the last decade and, on the
other, offer new research prospects.
