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NEWS
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NEWS
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# $Id$
New in 2.5.0
- Core
+ Added ByteBuffer PMC to allow direct byte manipulation
+ Modified some PMC vtable functions to reduce complexity, simplifying coverage.
+ Modified PAST to generate symbolic PASM constants in PIR output.
+ General STRING API cleanups
+ Increased test coverage of core PMCs
+ Fixed up 'exit' opcode, added CONTROL_EXIT exception type.
+ Experimental 'unroll' opcode renamed to 'finalize'
- NQP-rx
+ Added proper support for multisubs and multimethods
+ Fixed sigspace handling ** quantifier in regexes
+ Added \e strings
+ Added use of inversion lists for charclass lists in regexes
- Platforms
+ EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) packages for RHEL6.beta are available
- Begin moving towards Lorito, the ops refactor to enable pervasive self-hosting and JIT compilation.
+ All ops are now built with the self-hosted opsc compiler.
+ For more Information about Lorito see:
http://trac.parrot.org/parrot/wiki/Lorito
http://trac.parrot.org/parrot/wiki/LoritoRoadmap
New in 2.4.0
- Core
+ Various long-standing bugs in IMCC were fixed
+ STRINGs are now immutable.
+ use STRINGNULL instead of NULL when working with strings
+ Fixed storage of methods in the NameSpace PMC
+ Added :nsentry flag to force method to be stored in the NameSpace
+ Added StringBuilder and PackfileDebug PMCs
+ Added experimental opcodes find_codepoint and unroll
- Compilers
+ Fixed reporting of line numbers in IMCC
+ Removed deprecated NQP compiler, replaced with new NQP-RX
+ Removed NCIGen compiler
- Deprecations
+ Tools to distribute on CPAN were removed
+ Deprecated dynpmcs have been removed to external repositories
+ Removed RetContinuation PMC
+ Removed CGoto, CGP, and Switch runcores
- Tests
+ Many tests for the extend/embed interface were added
+ done_testing() is now implemented in Test::More
- Tools
+ The fakexecutable tapir is renamed parrot-prove
+ Performance fixes to the pbc_to_exe tool
+ Fix data_json to work outside of trunk
+ The dynpmc GzipHandle (zlib wrapper) was added
+ The library Archive/Tar.pir was added.
+ The library Archive/Zip.pir was added.
+ The libraries LWP.pir, HTTP/Message.pir & URI.pir were added.
- Miscellaneous
+ Six Parrot-related projects accepted to GSoC
+ Improve use of const and other compiler hints
New in 2.3.0
- Core
+ Allow passing parameters to the dynamic linker ('dlopen' improved)
+ loadlib opcode added
+ Calling conventions are now much more consistent, and follows natural
semantics of handling arguments and return values
+ Recursive make for src/dynpmc removed
+ Datatype STRINGNULL for a single Null STRING added
+ config_lib.pasm replaced with config_lib.pir
- Platforms
+ Improved handling of new compilers
+ Cygwin packages will be updated again with Parrot releases
+ Fedora packages add desktop files
+ gzip and bzip2 compressed tar files for releases
- Tools
+ tapir executable added; tapir is a TAP test harness
+ Added TAP options --merge --ignore-exit
- Miscellaneous
+ 3 month cycle for supported releases
+ Review and vote of GSoC applications
New in 2.2.0
- Core changes
+ Most internal allocations now use the GC
+ RNG non-randomnes fixes
+ Elimination of much dead code
- API changes
+ PMCs can now be initialized from an int
+ Many legacy ops are removed
- Platforms
+ Sun cc and Intel icc support have been restored
+ Compiler invocation no longer goes through a Perl script
- Tools
+ NCI thunks are now generated by self-hosted PIR code
New in 2.1.0
- Core changes
+ GC performance and encapsulation were greatly improved.
+ PMC freeze refactored.
+ More Makefile and build improvements.
- API Changes
+ The Array PMC was removed.
+ Several deprecated vtables were removed.
+ The OrderedHash PMC was substantialy improved.
- Platforms
+ Packaging improvements on some operating systems.
- Tools
+ Some cases in pbc_merge are now handled.
+ Improvements were made to the dependency checker.
+ New tool nativecall.pir added.
New in 2.0.0
- Features
+ Context PMCs now support attribute-based introspection
+ Context and CallSignature PMCs merged into CallContext
+ .lex directive throws exceptions when used with incorrect register types
- Platforms
+ Packaging improved for free OS distributions
+ PPC, PPC64, and ARM now tested when running Linux
- Performance
+ Minor improvements to the profiling runcore
+ Improvements from the CallContext PMC merge
- New deprecations
+ In/out parameters in STRING modification functions
+ Void handling in NCI signatures
+ Parameter passing opcodes order in PBC
- Tests
+ Continued migration of core tests from Perl 5 to PIR
- Tools
+ dependency checker improved
- Miscellaneous
+ Deprecation cycle length changed to three months from six
+ GC accuracy improved
+ PMC freeze improvements; much more reliable
+ Makefile improvements for dependency handling
New in 1.9.0
- Core
+ Made profiling runcore output format configurable and extensible
options include "pprof" and "none" ("binary" and "callgrind" are planned)
+ Added environment variables to specify profiling output type and filename
(PARROT_PROFILING_OUTPUT and PARROT_PROFILING_FILENAME)
+ Began merging Freeze/Thaw and Bytecode generator/loader
- Compilers
+ Included latest nqp-rx compiler, with many improvements
- GLOBAL:: package identifier
- dynamic variables look in global namespace
- $obj."$method" syntax
- :p(os) and :c(ontinue) option on regexes
- try/CATCH/CONTROL handling
- support leading & on subroutine declarations
- allow "category:<symbol>" names (for builtin operators)
- simple version of smartmatch operator
- simple regex matches
- updated HLL::Compiler with new import/export methods
- Miscellaneous
+ Portability updates for RTEMS, and Intel architectures with GNU compilers
+ Completed conversion of ticket tracking system from RT to Trac
+ New draft of PDD31 for HLL export API and import implementation
+ Several (build time, runtime) performance improvements
+ Converted many tests to PIR, reducing test execution time
+ Various bugfixes, code cleanups, and coding standard fixes
New in 1.8.0
- Functionality
+ The FileHandle PMC now exposes the exit code of child process that was run as pipe.
+ Experimental support for overriding VTABLE invoke in PIR objects was added.
+ The method 'type' was added to the PackfileAnnotations PMC.
+ The internals of the parrot calling conventions, PCC, were reworked.
All call paths now use a CallSignature object for passing arguments and return values.
+ The new API-function 'Parrot_ext_call' was added for calling into C-land.
+ The fixed-size allocator was improved.
+ The files installed by 'make install-dev' are now covered by 'make install' as well.
+ The experimental ops 'fetch' and 'vivify' were added.
+ The -I option to the command 'parrot' now prepends items to the search path.
+ The Context struct was substituted with auto attributes (context_auto_attrs branch).
+ Use the osname determined in auto::arch in subsequent configuration steps (convert_OSNAME branch).
+ Eliminated dependence on Perl 5 '%Config' in auto::format (auto_format_no_Config branch).
+ MultiSub PMCs now stringify to the name of their first candidate,
instead of the number of candidates.
+ The platform detection at the start of the configuration process was improved.
+ The 'lineof' method on CodeString objects now precomputes line number information
to be more efficient on variable-width encoded strings.
+ P6object now supports .WHO and .WHERE methods on protoobjects.
- Compilers
+ A shiny new self-hosting implementation of NQP has been added in ext/nqp-rx.
- New NQP available as nqp-rx.pbc or parrot-nqp fakecutable.
- NQP includes direct support for grammars and regexes, including protoregexes.
- NQP has a new PAST-based regex engine (intended to replace PGE).
- Regexes may contain code assertions, parameters, lexical declarations, and more.
- Double-quoted strings now interpolate scalar variables and closures.
- Subroutine declarations are now lexical by default.
+ PCT
- PAST::Block now supports an 'nsentry' attribute.
- PAST::Var allows 'contextual' scope.
- Attribute bindings now return the bound value.
- Platforms
+ Fixes for the port of Parrot to RTEMS were applied. Yay, first port to a real time OS!
+ On NetBSD, shared libs are now used.
- Performance
+ Use the the fixed-sized allocator in the Context and the CallSignature PMC.
+ Many small speed improvements.
- New deprecations
+ MT19937, the Mersenne twisted pseudorandom number generator, is now hosted on github and
will be removed from the Parrot core. (eligible in 2.1)
+ The 'Parrot_call_*' functions for invoking a sub/method object from C are
deprecated. They are replaced by 'Parrot_ext_call'. (eligible in 2.1)
+ All bitwise VTABLE functions are deprecated. (eligible in 2.1)
+ All bitwise ops will become dynops. (eligible in 2.1)
- Realized deprecations
+ The slice VTABLE entry was removed.
+ The last traces of the 'malloc' garbage collector were removed.
+ Parrot_pcc_constants() was renamed to Parrot_pcc_get_constants().
+ The deprecated functions from the Embedding/Extension interface were removed.
+ The library YAML/Parser/Syck.pir was removed.
+ The VTABLE function instantiate_str() was removed.
+ Building of parrot_nqp was removed.
- Tests
+ The test coverage of the time-related ops was much improved.
+ New testing functions in Test::More: lives_ok() and dies_ok().
+ The Perl 5 based test scripts t/op/bitwise.t, t/op/comp.t, t/op/inf_nan.t,
t/op/literal.t, t/op/number.t, t/op/sprintf2.t, and t/op/00ff-dos.t were converted to PIR.
+ The test scripts t/op/annotate.t and t/op/time.t have begun
to be translated from Perl 5 to PIR.
+ In some tests the dependency on %Config from Perl 5 was eliminated.
- Documentation
+ The meaning of 'p' means in NCI function call signatures was clarified.
- Tools
+ The stub for a new language, as created by mk_language_shell.pl,
now relies on the PIR-based tools, which are replacing the Perl 5-based tools.
+ The library Configure.pir was added.
+ The library distutils.pir was added.
- Miscellaneous
+ The mailing list parrot-users and a corresponding google group was created,
http://groups.google.com/group/parrot-users.
+ Many bugfixes, code cleanups, and coding standard fixes.
New in 1.7.0
- Functionality
+ Parrot_capture_lex has been added to the PARROT_EXPORT API
+ PARROT_MAX_ARGS has been increased from 8 to 16 to allow for ops that take more than 8 args
- Performance
+ The profiling runcore now caches metadata for improved performance
- Maintenance and cleanup
+ Expanded the Parrot debugger documentation
+ Parrot debugger now uses the new Parrot STRING API
+ Continue to port rest of internals to use the STRING API
- Deprecations
+ The JIT subsystem has been removed and is being written from the ground up. More
information can be found at https://trac.parrot.org/parrot/wiki/JITRewrite
+ Implicit optional named parameters (eligible in 2.1)
+ Continuation-based ExceptionHandlers (eligible in 2.1)
+ Use of undocumented variables in class_init (eligible in 2.1)
+ Parrot_oo_get_namespace (eligible in 2.1)
- Bugfix
+ Improved line number tracking in IMCC
- Tests
+ Converted many more Perl 5 tests to PIR
+ Expanded test coverage of the CallSignature, Namespace, FixedPMCArray,
ResizeableIntegerArray and ExceptionHandler PMCs
New in 1.6.0
- Functionality
+ Added a fixed-size structure allocator to the Garbage Collector
+ Added a "lazy" mode to the PObj and Fixed-Size memory allocators
+ Added a profiling runcore, which generates Callgrind-compatible output
+ Added lexical subsystem opcodes: find_dynamic_lex, store_dynamic_lex
+ Converted Contexts to garbage-collectable PMC structures
+ Created a new Context API
+ Enhanced the PMC allocator to automatically allocate ATTR structures
- Performance
+ Optimized opcodes to cache the current Context for subsequent lookups
+ Reduced string comparisons in VTABLE_isa
- Maintenance and cleanup
+ Began proper encapsulation of STRING API
+ Unified all PMC destruction functions
+ Unified Continuation PMC and Parrot_cont structure
+ Unified Sub PMC and Parrot_sub structure
+ Removed PMC_EXT structure
+ Removed PMC_Sync from PMC
+ Removed UnionVal from PMC structure
- Bugfix
+ Fixed several stack-walking bugs in Garbage Collector code
+ Fixed bug when copying a NULL STRING, now returns empty STRING struct
- Tests
+ Converted several Perl5 tests to PIR
+ Expanded test coverage of NameSpace PMC
- Compilers
+ Made Parrot Compiler Toolkit available in the base install
New in 1.5.0
- Core
+ Removed several deprecated functions and features
+ Removed bsr, jsr, branch_cs, and ret opcodes
+ Removed global stacks system
+ Changed OPS file format to include explicit preamble
+ Changed all "new 'Iterator'" instructions into 'iter' instructions
+ Removed Configure.pl options for specifying non-working GC cores
+ Removed unexecuting code as found by Coverity
+ Improvements to the Parrot Debugger
+ Added experimental fixed-size structure allocator to the GC
+ Added experimental lazy arena allocation to the GC
+ Refactored hashes, keys, and iterators
+ Added "corevm" make target to build Parrot without all the supporting libraries
+ Removed Random PMC type and added in a "rand" dynop
+ Optimization and Improvements to the NCI thunk generator
+ New include file libpaths.pasm
- Compilers
+ Multiple .local with same name and different type is now an error on IMCC.
- Platforms
+ Improved support for detecting Fink and Macports
+ Updated search directories for libraries
- Documentation
+ "Parrot Developers Guide: PIR" released to publisher and available to purchase
+ Improved documentation about Parrot Debugger
+ Update PGE Documentation
- Miscellaneous
+ Deprecate 'PASM1' compiler object, update to warn instead of segfault
+ Added tests
+ Fixes to code, documentation, and standards
New in 1.4.0
- Core
+ Key and Iterator refactor
+ Major pbc_to_exe generated code speed improvement
+ New "Infinite Memory" GC core for demonstration purposes
+ gc_debug runcore and GC-related heisenbug fixes
+ Elimination of variable expansion in parrot_config
+ CLI arguments are processed as Unicode by default
+ Substantial optimizations in NCI
+ Parrot builds on Win64
+ Hashes can use native types as keys and values
+ Fixed installed pbc_to_exe
+ Simplification of PMC generation code
+ Improved GC encapsulation and API documentation
- Documentation
+ List of candidates for embedding API (docs/embed.pod)
+ PIR book sent to publisher
- Testing
+ Several conversions of Perl test to pure PIR.
+ C indentation coding standards test improvement
+ Improved test coverage of example code
- Deprecations
+ Removal of PGE rules: <null> <fail> <sp> <lt> <gt> <dot>
+ Removal of PGE methods: .text .item .result_object
+ Deprecation of most dynops
+ Miscellaneous
+ Beginnings of OpenGL::Math library; OpenGL bindings and library marked experimental
+ Localizing and consting fixes
+ Many memory and thread-related leaks plugged
New in 1.3.0
- Core
+ Optimized parts of the IO system
+ Fixed inheritance hierarchy of FileHandle and Socket PMC types
+ Fixed leaks involving subroutines and Parrot_Context
+ Cleaned up and refactored GC internals, including fixes and optimizations
+ Optimized PMC class manipulations to use type numbers instead of string names
+ Fixed problems involving hashval calculations in strings
+ Removed unnecessary MULTI dispatches in built-in PMCs
+ Fixed memory leaks involving PMCs that were not properly destroyed
+ Fixed creation of PMCProxy PMCs in correct namespaces
+ Added preliminary Pipe support
+ Fixed cloning of Object PMCs
+ Added root_new opcode
+ Added initial versions of Packfile PMCs with read/write capabilities
- Compilers
+ Fixed several memory leaks in IMCC
+ Updated PCT to use root_new opcode
+ Added support for keyword "self" in NQP
- Documentation
+ Improved and expanded /docs/book
+ Updated project documentation
+ Defined 'experimental' status and procedures in DEPRECATED.pod
- Miscellaneous
+ Cleaned code and improved code-level documentation
+ Various bugfixes, code cleanups, and coding standard fixes
+ Added an experimental compiler library to help use PIR libraries from HLLs
+ Updated OpenGL library and examples to support experimental HLL import
New in 1.2.0
- Core
+ Fixes for pir classes inheriting from core pmcs.
+ Cleaned up headers and reorganized some sources into subsystem directories.
+ Clean up PMCs so libparrot.so exports far fewer vtable/method symbols.
+ Clean up the GC API.
+ Several unicode identifier improvements in IMCC.
- Deprecations
+ Protoobject stringification is gone.
- Documentation
+ Rewrite several core documents.
+ Many reworks, improvements & additions to the Parrot Book.
+ Installation PDD is launched out of draft.
- Tools
+ Fixes for running the language shell generator outside the parrot tree.
+ Several fixes for developing and building HLLs from an installed parrot.
+ Configure.pl now has a --no-line-directives option to ease source level debugging.
- Miscellaneous
+ Portability updates for macports, netbsd, mingw32, hpux.
+ Several (build time, runtime) performance improvements.
+ Lots of updates to examples and tests.
+ Various bugfixes, code cleanups, and coding standard fixes.
New in 1.1.0
- Core
+ Added op: load_language, find_caller_lex
+ Socket IO are back as PMC
+ Refactor some PMC: Hash, ManagedStruct
+ Refactor GC API
- Compiler
+ PGE
- Allow \x, \c, and \o in enumerated character classes (incl ranges)
- Add initial greedy-only version of ** <exp> quantifier
+ PCT
- Add HLL source line bytecode annotations
- Add another dumper format to assist syntax highlighters
- Revise mk_language_shell.pl to updated create_language.pl
- Deprecations
+ Removed ops: gcd, exec, classname, need_finalize, runinterp, substr_r
+ Removed dynamic op: mul
+ Removed .HLL_map directive; use interp's .hll_map() instead
+ Removed PMCs: slice, bound_nci, ref
+ Removed Configure.pl option: --pmc
+ Removed PMC union struct
- Documentation
+ Book
- Reorganization and many improvements & additions
- Tools
+ Add a parrot-fuzzer
- Miscellaneous
+ Improve Debian/Ubuntu package
+ various bugfixes, code cleanups, and coding standard fixes
New in 1.0.0
- Documentation
+ New user documentation for exceptions.
+ Updates to Chapters 4 & 5 of the Parrot book.
+ Improved and expanded generated HTML documentation, as the input for
http://docs.parrot.org.
+ Added Compiled HTML Help (.chm) version of documentation.
+ Cleanups and fixes.
- Languages
+ Pynie
- left the nest and is now at http://pynie.googlecode.com/
+ Cardinal
- left the nest and is now at http://github.com/cardinal
+ APL
- left the nest and is now at http://paraplegic.googlecode.com/
+ ABC, Squaak, and Befunge moved to examples/.
+ All remaining languages moved to https://svn.parrot.org/languages/
- Tools
+ Support for language builds from an installed Parrot.
+ Expanded language shell generator for new languages.
+ 'parrotbug' utility repurposed for the Trac interface.
- Deprecations
+ Removed deprecated Tqueue and Closure PMCs.
+ String, Key, NCI, LexPad, Iterator, Sub, Continuation, RetContinuation,
ExceptionHandler, ParrotLibrary, ParrotInterpreter, ParrotThread,
ParrotRunningThread, Rational, FixedPMCArray, ResizablePMCArray, and
GDBMHash PMCs now use declared attributes (ATTR), in place of the
deprecated UnionVal.
New in 0.9.1
- Implementation
+ Support for portable 'Inf', 'NaN' and -0.0
+ pbc_disassemble prints constants in constants table
+ New experimental BigNum implementation
+ Pair is now a dynamic loadable PMC
+ Various function name sanification
+ New implementation of Strings component
+ Replace various PMC value union access code by VTABLE method invocations
+ Replace various PMC value unions by ATTRibutes
+ Removed SArray PMC. Use FixedPMCArray instead.
- Documentation
+ Book
- updates to Chapter 2 (getting started)
- updates to Chapter 3 (PIR basics)
- updates to Chapter 4 (PIR subroutines)
- updates to Chapter 10 (HLLs)
- updates to Chapter 12 (opcodes)
+ Function documentation
+ Pod documentation style modernized; no longer Perl 5 style.
+ PMC has an additional acronym: Poly Morphic Container
+ The DOD (Dead Object Detection) acronym is no longer used;
use 'GC' to refer to the Garbage Collector component.
- Compilers
+ IMCC
- :named flag can now take string registers as argument
- A single '=cut' directive is now ignored (without initial Pod directive)
- :vtable subs now have proper access to 'self' pseudo variable
- Languages
+ add new 'Pod' documentation parser
+ Pipp (PHP implementation):
- Pipp is now at http://github.com/bschmalhofer/pipp
- support for 'print', 'dirname', 'implode', 'str_replace',
- various grammar fixes
+ ECMAScript
+ add 'quit', 'readline' builtins
+ fix 'Boolean' type and 'print' builtin
+ Lua
- left the nest and is now at http://github.com/fperrad/lua/
+ Rakudo
- left the nest and is now at http://github.com/rakudo/rakudo/
- build instructions can be found at http://tinyurl.com/rakudo
+ lazy-k
- left the nest and is now at http://github.com/bschmalhofer/lazy-k.git
+ unlambda
- left the nest and is now at http://github.com/bschmalhofer/unlambda/
+ WMLScript
- left the nest and is now at http://github.com/fperrad/wmlscript.git
+ removed Zcode implementation
- Tools
+ pmc2C
- ATTRs are now inherited automatically in subclassing PMCs
- Deprecations
+ Parrot_readbc, Parrot_loadbc renamed to Parrot_pbc_read, Parrot_pbc_load.
+ .HLL_map directive in favour of 'hll_map' method on Parrot interpreter
+ Data::Escape library
- Tools
+ pbc_disassemble options added
+ pbc_dump renamed from pdump
- Miscellaneous
+ Parrot is now Copyright Parrot Foundation
+ Parrot's SVN repository is now hosted at https://svn.parrot.org
+ Various code cleanups, consting, 64-bit incompatibilities and other bug fixes
New in January 2009 release (0.9.0)
- Implementation
+ Implemented bytecode annotations
+ Role composition is now aware of multi-subs
+ Unbuffered IO PMCs now autopromote when buffering is necessary
+ Installation parrot binary and libparrot shared library now supported
+ Class registry now respects HLLs
- Compilers
+ IMCC
- removed keyed string indexing, e.g. $S0[1].
- removed slice syntax, e.g. $P0[1..2]
- removed .namespace <ident>/.endnamespace <ident> pair
- fixed 'new $P0, [classname]' syntax
+ PIRC
- refactoring of various data structures
- various bug fixes and updates
- complete bytecode generation
- add '-x' commandline option to run compiled code
+ PCT
- add 'hll' and 'subid' attributes to PAST::Block
- refactor loop handling code to handle last/redo/next
- add :pasttype('stmts') and :pasttype('null')
- improve "scope not found" error message
- allow PAST::Val nodes to contain block references
+ PGE
- add "skipkey" option to PGE::OPTable
- allow spaces before modifiers in regexes
- add '(' ~ ')' goal matching syntax
- skip creating a class/grammar if it already exists
- Languages
+ Rakudo
- improved error mesages in multi dispatch
- implemented clone method for all objects
- implemented MAIN sub
- Unicode versions of infix hyper operators
- refactored IO.readline
- basic support for Inf and NaN
- list and array slices with whatever star
- hash slices
- implemented last and redo
- pointy blocks as terms
- refactored variable and parameter passing
- improved assignment semantics
- improved parsing of type names and subs
- mostly implemented parametric roles
- separate types for blocks, subs and methods
- basic support for submethods
- implemented Junction autothreading of user code (not builtins yet)
- eval supports :lang attribute
- proto makes other subs in scope multis, including in role composition
+ Befunge
- back to working state
- ported to pir
+ Pipp
- add support for predefined constant __CLASS__ and __METHOD__
- add initial support for static members
- add support for namespaced constants
- constants are now handled as package vars
- variables are now lexical variables
- add support for superglobals in functions
- Call the class __constructor when there is one
- added incomplete support for closures
- removed support for the alternative parsing strategies
- added support for 'elsif'
- added support for 'do-while'
+ HQ9+
- left the nest and is now at https://github.com/bschmalhofer/hq9plus/
+ Eclectus
- left the nest and is now at http://github.com/bschmalhofer/eclectus/
+ m4
- left the nest and is now at http://github.com/bschmalhofer/m4/
+ Lua:
- add a minimalist user back trace
+ PIR
- "does" and "morph" VTABLE interfaces are now overridable from PIR
- Miscellaneous
+ Infrastructure
- 'make smoke' now generates Smolder reports sent to
http://smolder.plusthree.com/app/public_projects/smoke_reports/8
+ Improved const and null correctness for C function parameters
+ Sped up STRING manipulation (append, chop), improving PGE about 30%
+ BOOK
- Added sections about Classes, OO programming, and methods.
- Added information about Annotations, Exceptions, and Handlers
+ STM
- Removed non-functional STM subsystem
New in 0.8.2
- Implementation
+ fixed lexical semantics
+ added the 'capture_lex' opcode
+ added automatic resume for nonfatal exceptions
+ added multidispatch cache
+ applied miscellaneous performance improvements, including startup time
+ fixed several bugs and leaks found by Coverity Scan
+ removed race conditions from parallel testing
- Compilers
+ IMCC
- removed undocumented .param int <stringc> => <ident> syntax
- .line directive now only takes an integer argument
- new .file directive to specify the file name being compiled
+ PCT
- properly handles lexical generation and closure semantics
- uses :subid instead of name lookups to reference PAST::Block nodes
- added PAST::Control node type (exception handlers)
+ PGE
- add support for <?{{...}}> and <!{{...}}> assertions
- Match objects use Capture PMC instead of Capture_PIR
+ PIRC
- add macro handling to PASM mode
- disable vanilla register allocation in PASM mode, but do allow optimization
- add tests and bug fixes
- first bits of bytecode generation. No sub calling/returning yet.
- Languages
+ Rakudo
- fixed lexical handling and recursion
- refactored subtypes implementation
- support for quotes with multi-character delimiters
- implemented list slices (Positional role)
- list assignment
- reduction meta operators
- hyper meta operators
- cross meta operators
- more builtin functions
- added Nil type
- basic support for protos
- iterator on filehandle objects
- basic support for exception handlers
- warn
+ Lua
- added complex & mathx libraries
- merged LuaClosure & LuaFunction PMC
+ Pipp
- added support for a return value from user defined functions
- added incomplete implemention of 'require_once'
+ Ecmascript
- parser fixes, parses spidermonkey's top level test/shell.js
- Deprecations
+ PARROT_API is now PARROT_EXPORT
+ PIR
- :lexid is now :subid
- .arg is now .set_arg
- .result is now .get_result
- .yield (in .begin/end_yield) is now .set_yield
- .return (in .begin/end_return) is now .set_return
- .namespace x / .endnamespace x syntax is removed
+ Capture_PIR (runtime/parrot/library/Parrot/Capture_PIR.pir)
New in 0.8.1
- Implementation
+ added CPAN module Storable 2.12 as a configuration and build dependency
+ removed the pseudo PIR opcode 'addr'
+ added the 'box' opcode
+ fixed 'pop_eh' handling in PIR libraries and examples
+ removed usage of .return for tailcalls (use .tailcall instead)
+ removed 'get_hash' and 'get_array' from Capture PMC and Capture_PIR
+ improved debugger and HLL coordination
+ allowed MMD primitive autoboxing
+ fixed all known memory leaks in PIR "Hello, world!"
+ NCI signatures now JITted on x86-32 platforms (Windows and Linux)
+ made the .const directive take a quoted type name instead of a constant
+ made IMCC more re-entrant
- Languages
+ Rakudo
- refactored Junctions implementation
- added "fire and forget" tool to rebase/rebuild/test Parrot and Rakudo
- updated container/reference semantics
- added more builtin methods and functions
- improved support for multilevel namespaces
- added support for .Str, .succ, .pred in user-defined classes
- implemented pointy blocks on if/loops
- increased STD.pm convergence
- added %*VM hash
- improved MMD candidate sorting
- improved integration of Num and Int
- implemented increment on protoobjects
- added initial support for MAIN subs
- added .PARROT method
+ Pipp
- added some predefined constants
- added implemention of the function basename()
+ Cardinal (Ruby)
- Added initial support for the classes Proc, Continuation, Queue, Dir, File, and FileStat
- fixed various minor bugs
- fixed broken Regexes
- Compilers
+ PCT
- added '.isa' method to PCT::Node
- cleaned up 'immediate block' handling
- allowed arguments to immediate blocks in loops/conditionals
- metaclass objects can now 'add_method'
+ PIRC
- integrated macro processing in PIRC's lexer
- integrated heredoc lexer in PIRC executable
- added preprocess and heredoc-preprocess commandline options
- integrated the PASM grammar into PIRC
- added a register allocator to optimize the built-in vanilla allocator
- code cleanups and documentation
- added 'make test' target
+ TGE
- updated to work with new namespace/classname syntax
- Deprecations
+ PARROT_API will become PARROT_EXPORT
+ :lexid will become :subid
- Miscellaneous
+ Documentation
- updates and additions to the Parrot book (see docs/book/)
+ OpenGL
- minor fixes to Parrot's base OpenGL bindings
- converted OpenGL PIR examples to Perl 6 (two complete, one WIP)
- added simplified OpenGL PIR example for NCI JIT testing
+ Tests
- further improvements to parallel tests
- tests no longer leave filesystem breadcrumbs
- more thorough testing of Parrot::Test itself
New in 0.8.0
- Implementation
+ float precision expanded to 15 significant digits from 6
+ large integers autopromoted in PIR so as not to lose precision
+ improved precision of complex square root
+ exception handlers can register types of exceptions they catch
- Languages
+ Cardinal (Ruby)
- implemented gather, take, and yield builtins
- Range, Time, Math, GC, Kernel classes
- many more tests
- added a new committer
+ Markdown : new lightweight markup language
- start implementation with PCT/NQP
+ partcl (Tcl 8.5.4)
- Moved to its own repository: http://code.google.com/p/partcl/
+ Rakudo (Perl 6)
- split() works with regexes
- implemented Str.comb
- ord() and chr() builtins
- improved parsing of literal numbers
- support for hyphens and dashes in identifiers
- next() on for-loops
- fixed floating point constant precision
- improved namespace handling, closer to STD.pm model
- support for exporting symbols
- Compilers
+ P6object
- now generates classes in nested namespaces instead of :: names
- supports class creation in caller's HLL namespace
+ PCT / PGE
- now using true nested namespaces instead of :: names
- cleaned up HLLCompiler interactive prompts and readline mode
- updated to use typed exception handler registration
- added initial support for loop control exceptions
+ PIRC
- fixed Heredoc preprocessor
- cleaned up Macro preprocessor
- many code clean-ups, warning fixes and consting
- updated Makefile for easier compilation
+ IMCC
- Added .tailcall syntax to replace .return in tailcall context
- Examples
+ pirric (BASIC)
- an old style line numbered Basic interpreter able to use parrot objects
- example connecting to mysql via nci
- example using classes to write and run an embedded Basic program
- Documentation
+ Book
- Added chapters for PCT, PMCs, and Opcodes/Runcores
- Expanded and improved formatting in various chapters
- Renumbered chapters
New in 0.7.1
- Implementation
+ add -I and -L command line options
+ support for null strings in NCI calls
+ preliminary support for resumable exceptions
+ add '.hll_map' method for dynamic HLL type mapping
+ more parrot_debugger fixes
+ remove obsolete '.past' extension
- Languages
+ Rakudo (Perl 6)
- now over 3300 passing spectests
- precompiled modules
- precompiled scripts (--target=pir can now be executed standalone)
- Support for @*INC and %*INC varialbes
- additional builtin methods and subs
- added 'fail' function, warnings on use of undefined values
- m/.../ regexes
- qq, qw, q quoting forms
- run tests in parallel
- gather/take
- Perl6MultiSub
+ Cardinal (Ruby):
- 'require' and precompiled modules
- many new tests
- all Array tests pass
- regexes
- default arguments to functions
- new committer
- Compilers
+ PCT:
- add :loadinit attribute for PAST::Block
+ PIRC:
- major refactoring to allow all PIR keywords as identifiers
- links to libparrot now, so all Parrot ops are recognized as such
- implemented .loadlib, .HLL_map, .HLL
- Miscellaneous
+ add Xlib and Mysql modules and test programs to NCI examples
+ many updates and cleanups to PDD documents
New in 0.7.0
- Specification
+ PDD27: add multisub lookup
- Implementation
+ new concurrency implementation (see PDD25)
+ Exception PMC now captures a return continuation
+ improved PMC encapsulation (Iterator, Key, Pair)
- Languages
+ Cardinal (Ruby):
- class variables
- parsing improvements
- minor additions to class builtins
- add support for block parameters to functions
+ Lua:
- various language fixes
- refactor all libraries (namespace, method registration)
- add a OpenGL binding (still incomplete)
- lost user back trace (see ppd25 & pushaction)
+ Pipp (PHP):
- add support for while- and for-loops
- add support for increment and decrement
- designate PHP 5.3 as the reference implementation
- improve support for string literals
+ Pugs (Perl 6):
- removed due to bit rot
+ Rakudo (Perl 6):
- now over 2200 passing spectests
- updated the Rakudo roadmap
- Perl 6 multi dispatch
- dispatch with slurpies
- class attributes ("my $.x")
- anonymous classes
- OO and metaclass improvements (.WHAT, .WHICH, .WHENCE)
- additional builtin methods and subs
- improved make test targets and harness
+ Tcl:
- implement [lreverse], [lsort -command]
- allow [incr] to autovivify
- update tclsh spec target to 8.5.3
- fix bug in TclDict PMC, allowing ~200 more [dict] spec tests to pass
- update 'make spectest' fudging, using TODO instead of SKIP if possible
- Compilers
+ PCT:
- :scope('register') for PAST::Var nodes
- allow invocant specification in attribute scope PAST::Var nodes
- correct ordering of sub generation from POST
- add 'loadinit' attribute to PAST::Block for block initialization
+ PIRC:
- PIR registers now use the vanilla register allocator
- all PASM output now uses PASM registers
- all .locals and $registers are mapped
- clean-up of grammar, back-end and documentation
- implemented constant folding
- implemented instruction selection
- Configuration
+ tests now clean up after themselves
+ improved parallel test support
+ ports/cygwin added
+ Darwin problems fixed
- Tools
+ parrot_debugger renamed from pdb, numerous tweaks
- Miscellaneous
+ IMCC cleanups
+ :vtable implies self in PIR
+ modest core speed improvements
+ Cygwin support improved
+ "say" now an opcode (was dispatched to a method; see Deprecations)
- Deprecations
+ ".pragma n_operators" is deprecated
+ old PASM register syntax (without "$") is deprecated
+ bare (unquoted) method names are deprecated
+ "#line" will be replaced with ".line"
+ ".HLL_map" syntax will change
+ ".loadlib" is now separate from ".HLL"
+ mmdvtregister and mmdvtablefind opcodes are deprecated
+ removed getfd, getclass opcodes
+ removed IMCC syntax that treated some methods as builtins
+ removed numeric get_attr and set_attr vtable entries
New in 0.6.4
- Documentation
+ removed a lot of old information from the FAQ
+ improved function level documentation
- Configuration
+ removed the configuration item 'has_gnu_m4'
+ refactored ICU-detection
- Languages
+ ChitChat
- improved the Smalltalk implementation
+ Pipp
- renamed Plumhead to Pipp
- support for a lot of builtin functions.
- Pipp now uses PHP specific data types.
- converted from PCT with TGE to PCT with NQP actions
- improvements in the PCT variant by using optok parsing
- start of object support
+ pir
- simple assignments work
+ json
- added a PCT-based implementation of JSON parsing
+ lolcode
- improved handling of symbols
- added support for block handling
- added support for globals
+ Lua
- more tests
+ Rakudo
- updated Range implementation
- added enums
- added generic type declarations (::T)
- added runtime mixing of roles with 'does' and 'but'
- fixed handling of implicit lexicals ($_, $!, and $/)
- fixed implicit method calls on $_
- improved complex math builtins, added Complex
- moved many builtins to class Any
- declaration of lists of variables now work
- improved test infrastructure
- 910 additional passing spec tests since last release
- more convergence with STD.pm grammar
- added named 0-ary parsing and ops
- Compilers
+ PCT:
- allowed subroutine and method names to be a PAST tree that produces the name
- Improved lexical handling
- Tools
+ pbc_disassemble renamed from disassemble
- Implementation
+ allowed .macro_const in PIR
+ added the flag :lexid(...) for subroutines
+ made multiple dispatch work for sub types
+ fixed garbage collection bug related to the metadata attached to a PMC_EXT structure
+ added a warning when using deprecated opcodes
+ simplified the stacks implementation
+ fixed C++ build
+ improved closure and lexical support
+ improved IMCC register allocator
+ added cache for all runtime-constant strings, reducing memory usage
- Miscellaneous
+ improved OpenGL/GLU/GLUT bindings
+ added a standard profile for Perl::Critic coding standard testing
+ added support for smoke testing with Smolder
+ enabled use of Test::Harness 3.0 if available, but don't require it for 'make test'
+ added the executable 'parrot_config' to query Parrot configuration
New in 0.6.3
- Specification
+ updated pdd09_gc.pod
- Languages
+ Cardinal:
- dramatically improved parsing speed
- added support for defining and instantiating classes
- started fleshing out the builtin class hierarchy
- added support for hashes and arrays
+ Chitchat: added the start of a smalltalk compiler
+ Pheme: updated to match PGE changes
+ Pynie: return statement, other minor updates
+ Rakudo:
- added working list and hash contexts
- added 'return' statements
- added => pair constructor
- added ?? !! ternary
- added Range, range operators, Complex
- added common List, Hash methods
- refactored base classes