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NEWS
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NEWS
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New in 3.5.0
- Core
+ Parrot_PMC_destroy and Parrot_PMC_mark were removed from the public extension API
- Languages
- Tests
+ The Parrot test suite harness now understands the HARNESS_TIMER environment
variable. Setting it to a true value will show timing results for a test run.
+ IPv6 tests are now parallel testing friendly
New in 3.4.0
- Core
+ The Generational Mark and Sweep garbage collector is the new default.
+ The --gc-nursery-size command line argument was added.
+ Parrot now gets entropy from the underlying OS.
+ The NCI subsystem now supports 8, 16, 32 and 64 bit integers.
+ The NCI subsystem now supports "long long" and "long double" signatures.
Not all platforms/compilers support these non-standard types, so developers
are cautioned to take note that using them reduces portability.
+ Many more OpenGL functions in the Parrot OpenGL bindings are available,
which required the above-mentioned signatures.
+ Bytecode-related embedding api functions moved to src/embed/bytecode.c.
- Languages
+ Winxed
- Use 'using extern' for module imports.
- Improved stage 0 prefix ++ and -- operators.
- Allow 'null' in conditional operator.
- Several examples are updated.
- Community
+ Google Summer of Code Bonding period is going well. Students are mostly done
with their classes and much code will flow soon.
- Documentation
+ More PCT introductions are available at: http://github.com/benabik/cish
New in 3.3.0
- Core
+ The isa and isa_pmc vtables can now be overridden from PIR
+ IMCC has a new improved external interface
+ A new IMCCompiler PMC adds prototype PDD31-alike functionality for the PIR and PASM compilers
+ New --with-llvm option to Configure.pl, which will link to LLVM if it is available
- Community
+ Parrot Virtual Machine was accepted into Google Summer of Code 2011
- Ecosystem
+ Rosella adds a stable "Event" library to implement a publish/subscribe mechanism
- Tests
+ The test coverage of the extend_vtable subsystem was greatly increased
New in 3.2.0
- Core
+ Full support for Unicode filenames on Linux and Win32
+ The configuration option --cxx is gone
+ New Generational GC implemented. To enable it run Configure.pl --gc=gms
+ Now op definitions are semantically parsed. It opens possibilities for
future optimizations of parrot core.
+ A statement convert the '.param' PIR systax
+ A PMC is implemented for low-level buffer access which separate the
representation from the pointers
+ Support added for 'long double', 'long long', and 64-bit to StructView
+ In math.h are tools available for Inf/NaN
+ Signature PMCs are used pervasively
- Languages
+ A few tests in Cardinal are fixed
+ A binary .dmg is created of Rakudo Star for OS X
+ Winxed
- Minor fixes, refactors and cleaning
- New predefs replace, push and provide a way to access multiple return
values
- Operators exits, class and .* (indirect method call) added
- $loadlib directive
- -o option to installable driver added
- Indent generated PIR is added to improve clarity and avoid imcc pitfalls
with non indented sub bodys
- Community
+ M0 roadmap is in progress
- Documentation
+ 'make docs' target, which was serving only to generate superfluous POD
files, has been removed.
+ Svn remnants from PDDs are removed
- Tests
+ Added 'make release_check' target so that Release Manager can double-check
tarball
+ Probes added for 'long long' and 64-bit C types
- Rosella (https://github.com/Whiteknight/Rosella)
Rosella is a collection of tools and building blocks for Parrot
+ A working proxy library is created, that make mostly-transparent custom
proxies for many types of Parrot PMCs
+ A mockobject testing library is created, using the new proxy library
+ The PLA test suite is updated to use the new Rosella testing tools,
including the new mockobjects to test callbacks
New in 3.1.0
- Core
+ Exception PMCs are now subclassable from PIR
+ IPv6 is now supported and tested
+ Added Parrot_ext_try function to extend API (experimental), to allow
implementation of try .. catch construct in C extensions.
+ We now have a YAML library called YAML::Tiny, a port of YAML::Tiny from Perl 5
+ Deprecated/experimental features are now stored in api.yaml in an easy-to-parse
format, which will allow automated tools easy access to this data. This replaces
DEPRECATED.pod, which no longer exists.
+ Improved GC latency
+ Improved GC performance on low-memory systems
+ Improved packfile annotation lookup complexity
+ Removal of unused code and SVN based code
- NQP
+ A repository for a new NQP version which has a new object model is
created at http://github.com/perl6/nqp
- Languages
+ Cardinal (Ruby on Parrot) now compiles and passes it's test suite on master
and is looking for developers : https://github.com/parrot/cardinal
+ Cardinal can send smoke reports with "rake smoke" or "parrot setup.pir smoke"
+ Jaspers, an implementation of Javascript on Parrot, now has a Github repo
and is looking for developers: https://github.com/leto/jaspers
- Community
+ The following Parrot Google Code-In students were grand prize winners:
Fernando Brito, Brazil David Czech, Canada
Nolan Lum, United States Matt Rajca, United States
Tony Young, New Zealand Daniel Kang, United States
We are very proud of them for their fine work and congratulate
them for achieving top finalist status! For more info, see:
http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2011/02/google-code-in-grand-prize-winners.html
- Documentation
+ Many new Parrot-related terms were added to docs/glossary.pod
+ Removal of most remaining references to SVN
+ Internal project documentation is included in html output
- Tests
+ Test suite now passes on NetBSD 5.1
+ Test coverage increased greatly for the Embed/Extend subsystem,
thanks to a TPF grant:
http://leto.net/dukeleto.pl/2011/01/parrot-embed-grant-update-2.html
New in 3.0.0
- Core
+ A new embedding API is available in "parrot/api.h" and documented in
docs/pdd/pdd10_embedding.pod .
+ Packfile PMCs were refactored and can now be used to produce runnable bytecode.
+ Packfile manipulation code now throws embedder-friendly exceptions rather
than printing error details directly to stderr.
+ Unicode support for file IO, environment variables, program names, and
command-line parameters was improved.
+ An experimental gdb pretty-printers in tools/dev for Parrot STRINGs and
PMCs is now available. (gdb 7.2 or later and Python are required)
+ c2str.pl and pmc2c.pl improvements result in a noticably faster build.
+ Bugs in our Digest::sha256 library and bit-related dynamic ops were fixed
by GCI student Nolan Lum. Both now work correctly on 32 and 64 bit systems.
- Languages
+ Ωη;)XD - OMeta for Winxed https://github.com/plobsing/ohm-eta-wink-kzd
- Community
+ tree-optimization by GSoC student Tyler L. Curtis joined the nest and now
lives at http://github.com/parrot/tree-optimization .
+ Plumage now lives at http://github.com/parrot/plumage and is installable.
+ Christmas proceeded as scheduled. The Parrot team does not take credit for
this event.
- Documentation
+ HTML documentation generation has been rewritten and greatly simplified.
+ We have improved documentation in docs/project/git_workflow.pod about
keeping a fork of parrot.git in sync.
+ Translations of our README in various languages are now in the
docs/translation directory, thanks to Google Code-In students.
- Tests
+ A better way to write "todo" tests with Parrot's Test::More was implemented
by GCI student Fernando Brito.
+ Major increases in test coverage of many core PMCs, dynamic PMCs and
dynamic opcodes resulted from GCI and the interpid students it attracted.
+ Jonathan "Duke" Leto set up Debian Linux x86_64 and sparc32 smokers
in the GCC Compile Farm, which continually submit smoke reports with
a variety of configuration options and compilers. Thanks, GCC!
+ Makefile dependency checking is now automatically tested, resulting in a
more reliable parallel build.
+ Coverage tests were improved for platforms with and without Devel::Cover.
New in 2.11.0
- Core
+ Just In Time native call frame generation using LibFFI
+ PIR op find_codepoint is no longer experimental, it is now supported
+ Several public functions in libparrot have been brought up to standard
naming conventions.
+ Improved linked-list implementation in GC
+ set_addr opcode is being replaced with the new set_label opcode in core libraries
+ Removed deprecated CodeString PMC
+ Added close, is_closed, read, readline methods to Socket
+ Added experimental MappedByteArray PMC type
+ Added Parrot_warn_experimental, to warn the user about experimental features
+ Code for frontend executables moved from src/ to frontend/
+ Support for chunked receive in LWP library.
+ Added a "quickcover" make target
- Languages
+ PIRC
- left the nest and is currently at https://github.com/parrot/pirc/
+ Community
- Our README was translated into the following languages
by Google Code-In students and mentors:
Polish README.polski
Spanish README.espanol
German README.deutsch
- Documentation
- Tests
+ Test coverage increase on PMCs: String, Integer, NameSpace, Complex, EventHandler
+ 'make quickcover' target added to speed up most essential
parts of coverage analysis
+ 'tools/dev/headerizer.pl' refactored to improve maintainability
(no change in functionality)
New in 2.10.0
- Core
+ We are on github now! https://github.com/parrot/parrot
+ Configure, build and test subsystems were made Git-aware
+ New parrot_config key 'osvers' which contains
Operating System Version information
+ Updated to the latest nqp-rx
+ A proper exception is now thrown on IO read errors
+ Garbage Collector optimizations and memory leak fixes
+ Deprecated charset ops were removed
+ Configure system learned to detect IPv6
+ The mk_language_shell and create_language scripts have not yet been
ported to Git.
- Documentation
+ How To Use Git to work on Parrot
https://github.com/parrot/parrot/blob/master/docs/project/git_workflow.pod
+ Git Terminology
https://github.com/parrot/parrot/blob/master/docs/project/git_terminology.pod
- Platforms
- Testing
+ Increased coverage on: String, FixedBooleanArray, PMCProxy, LexPad
- Community
+ Macports portfile updated to 2.6.0
+ A Fedora package for PL/Parrot ( postgresql-plparrot ) was created
This package allows you to write stored procedures for PostgreSQL in
PIR or Rakudo Perl 6 http://pl.parrot.org
+ Parrot Foundation is teaming up with The Perl Foundation and taking
part in Google Code-In 2010. Learn about it and how to get involved here:
http://trac.parrot.org/parrot/wiki/GoogleCodeIn2010Tasks
http://leto.net/perl/2010/11/parrot-foundation-the-perl-foundation-google-code-in.html
New in 2.9.1
- This is a bugfix release. If you run out of memory on a box with < 512 MB physical RAM, please report it to us.
New in 2.9.0
- Core
+ Parrot and Rakudo's build and tests can now be run under the profiling runcore
+ IPv6 is now detected, laying the groundwork for future networking improvements
+ mk_language_shell.pl and create_language.pl no longer require an installed parrot
+ String PMC's 'reverse' method is now faster and supports all encodings
+ improvements and simplifications in internal string processing
+ Added API for adding STRINGs to the gc root set
+ Speed up ord, substr, index and string comparison opcodes
- Testing
+ "make smoke" supports parallel testing by honoring TEST_JOBS
+ Added tests for Socket PMC, StringBuilder PMC, ByteBuffer PMC,
mk_language_shell.pl, create_language.pl
+ Fixed "Configure.pl" about missing tests
+ Parrot and Rakudo Perl 6 now have access to the GCC Compile Farm
+ Testing on Darwin/PPC
- Git Migration
+ Most developer tools have been ported to Git
+ Majority of developer docs have been written for Git
- Platforms
+ Parrot can now be built on Minix
New in 2.8.0
- Core
+ Inlined hashing and comparison functions
+ Hash memory allocation moved from system malloc to lazy allocated
+ Avoided infinite catching of exceptions while dying from exception
+ Some svn fixes
+ Added a check for duplicate vtable entries in PMCs
+ Building Parrot with Perl 5.12 and gcc-4.5 / g++-4.5
+ Eliminated cruft left over after dynops_mapping
+ Improved charset and string encoding
+ Better organisation of programs by reposition it to "tools/build" and "tools/release"
+ Implemented Exception clone vtable function
+ Added experimental function Parrot_getpid and getpid method
+ --gc-threshold command line argument added, which controls the % of memory wasted by the GC
+ Closed a lot of tickets
- Testing
+ Added more core pmc tests
+ Rearranged some tests with C coverage
+ We now have Smolder back, at http://smolder.parrot.org . Submit reports with "make smoke"
+ skip_all implementation in Parrot's Test::More completed
- GitMigration
+ Set up a test site for github trac plugin at http://mksig.org/trac/
+ Code of Trac plugin at github is on http://github.com/cotto/github-trac
+ Parrot is now mirrored on github at http://github.com/parrot/parrot
- Compilers
+ Fixed problem with imcc HLL in load_bytecode difference between loading a pbc and compiling a pir
New in 2.7.0
- Core
+ cleanups in packfile and freeze/thaw handling
+ Hash optimizations that improve HLL startup and run time
+ As always, many bug fixes and other optimizations
- Runtime
+ some runtime library cleanups
- Testing
+ added more tests to improve coverage
+ new codingstd test for documentation in .pmc files
- Documentation
+ added documentation to .pmc files (some still missing but headers in place)
+ general documentation improvements and bringing up-to-date
- NQP-rx
+ Updated version included from http://github.com/perl6/nqp-rx includes
speed improvements
New in 2.6.0
- Core
+ Plug some memory leaks
+ As always, bug fixes and some optimizations
- Runtime
+ added (experimental) URI::Escape
- Testing
+ Improved test coverage of core parrot
- Documentation
+ Updated the Squaak tutorial to use modern NQP-rx and PCT
- Platforms
+ The Fedora package 'parrot-devel' install the files for syntax-highlighting
and automatic indenting for the vim editor
- NQP-rx
+ Updated version included from http://github.com/perl6/nqp-rx includes
new or improved: regex backtracking, named assertions, interactive mode,
and setting (a minimal but useful runtime library)
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 implementation 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'