--- gforth/NEWS 2007/06/02 13:22:31 1.22 +++ gforth/NEWS 2008/11/02 17:13:01 1.31 @@ -1,42 +1,61 @@ -User-visible changes between 0.6.2 and 0.6.9 (up to 2006-05-07): +User-visible changes between 0.6.2 and 0.6.9 (up to 2008-07-16): +Requirements: + At run-time requires libtool and gcc (for the libcc C interface) and + gdb (for the disassembler (SEE)) on some platforms. Installation: support for DESTDIR, POST_INSTALL, INSTALL_SCRIPT - report performance and functionality problems at end of "make" + automatic performance tuning on building (--enable-force-reg unnecessary) + report performance and functionality problems at end of "make" + autogen.sh now exists +License: + Changed to GPLv3 Bug fixes Now works with address-space randomization. The single-step debugger works again in some engines. Many others. Ports: AMD64, ARM, IA-64 (Itanium): better performance - PPC: disassembler and assembler (32-bit) - Gforth EC: R8C, Lego NXT (complete?) + PPC, PPC64: disassembler and assembler + Gforth EC: R8C, 4stack, misc, 8086 work + MacOS X: better support Invocation: New flags --ignore-async-signals, --vm-commit (default overcommit) + --print-sequences Forth 200x: - extension queries (produce true for all implemented extensions) - REQUIRED etc. (not new) - [DEFINED] and [UNDEFINED] - PARSE-NAME (new name) - deferred words (new: DEFER@ DEFER! ACTION-OF) -Unicode support (incomplete): - added xchars words for dealing with variable-width multi-byte characters - provide 8bit (ISO Latin 1) and UTF-8 support for xchars + X:extension-query: produce true for all implemented extensions + X:required REQUIRED etc. (not new) + X:defined: [DEFINED] and [UNDEFINED] + X:parse-name: PARSE-NAME (new name) + X:deferred: deferred words (new: DEFER@ DEFER! ACTION-OF) + X:structures: +FIELD FIELD: FFIELD: CFIELD: etc. + X:ekeys: new: EKEY>FKEY K-SHIFT-MASK K-CTRL-MASK K-ALT-MASK K-F1...K-F12 + X:fp-stack (not new) + X:number-prefixes (partially new, see below) Number prefixes: 0x is a hex prefix: 0xff and 0XfF now produces (decimal) 255 # is a decimal prefix: #10 now produces (decimal) 10 + Signs after the number prefix are now accepted, e.g, #-50. ' now only handles a single (x)char: 'ab is no longer accepted, 'a' now produces (decimal) 97 +Unicode support (currently supports only uniform encoding): + added xchars words for dealing with variable-width multi-byte characters + provide 8bit (ISO Latin 1) and UTF-8 support for xchars New words: - \C C-FUNCTION (C interface) + \C C-FUNCTION C-LIBRARY END-C-LIBRARY C-LIBRARY-NAME (libcc C interface) + LIB-ERROR (complements OPEN-LIB) OUTFILE-EXECUTE INFILE-EXECUTE BASE-EXECUTE (limited change of global state) 16-bit and 32-bit memory acces: UW@ UL@ SW@ SL@ W! L! W@ L@ /W /L NEXT-ARG SHIFT-ARGS (OS command-line argument processing) NOTHROW (for backtrace control) FTRUNC FMOD (undocumented) + SEE-CODE SEE-CODE-RANGE (show generated dynamic native code) Improvements/changes of existing words: + S\", .\" now support \l, \m, \z, and limits hex and octal character specs. + OPEN-FILE with W/O no longer creates or truncates files (no compat. file) + OPEN-LIB now understands ~ at the start, like OPEN-FILE. TRY...ENDTRY changed significantly, compatibility files available (see docs). The disassembler (DISCODE) can now use gdb to disassemble code Uninitialized defered words now give a warning when executed @@ -45,16 +64,15 @@ Improvements/changes of existing words: on all platforms. Newly documented words: S>NUMBER? S>UNUMBER? - EKEY keypress names: K-LEFT K-RIGHT K-UP K-DOWN K-HOME K-END K-PRIOR - K-NEXT K-INSERT K-DELETE K1 K2 K3 K4 K5 K6 K7 K8 K9 K10 K11 K12 - S-K1 S-K2 S-K3 S-K4 S-K5 S-K6 S-K7 S-K8 S-K9 S-K10 S-K11 S-K12 + EKEY keypress names: K-LEFT K-RIGHT K-UP K-DOWN K-HOME K-END K-PRIOR + K-NEXT K-INSERT K-DELETE CLEARSTACKS FORM Environment variable GFORTHSYSTEMPREFIX (used by word SYSTEM and friends) C interface: exported symbols now start with "gforth_" (for referencing them from C code) - support for use of libffi (supplied with gcc) and - a C-compiler-based approach (requires C compiler at run-time) (incomplete). + libcc C function call interface (requires libtool and gcc at run-time) + alternative: undocumented libffi-based interface Libraries: depth-changes.fs: report stack depth changes during interpretation ans-report.fs now reports CfV extensions @@ -67,13 +85,17 @@ Libraries: status.fs, show interpreter status in separate xterm (undocumented) profile.fs for profiling (undocumented, incomplete) endtry-iferror.fs, recover-endtry.fs to ease the TRY change transition + test/tester.fs: Now works with FP numbers (undocumented) + test/ttester.fs: Version of tester.fs with improved interface (T{...}T). compat library: compat/execute-parsing.fs Speed improvements: + automatic performance tuning on building static stack caching (good speedup on PPC) mixed-precision division is now faster support for int128 types on AMD64 workarounds for gcc performance bugs (in particular, PR 15242) + branch target alignment (good speedup on Alpha). User-visible changes between 0.6.1 and 0.6.2: @@ -315,13 +337,13 @@ $?) added (SYSTEM) ( c_addr u -- wretva ' and ['] now give an error for compile-only words. ----- -Copyright (C) 1995,1996,1997,1998,2000,2003,2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc. +Copyright (C) 1995,1996,1997,1998,2000,2003,2006,2007,2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This file is part of Gforth. Gforth is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License -as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 +as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, @@ -330,8 +352,7 @@ MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICU GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License -along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software -Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111, USA. +along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/. % Local Variables: