5 + Added ByteBuffer PMC to allow direct byte manipulation
6 + Modified some PMC vtable functions to reduce complexity, simplifying coverage.
7 + Modified PAST to generate symbolic PASM constants in PIR output.
8 + General STRING API cleanups
9 + Increased test coverage of core PMCs
10 + Fixed up 'exit' opcode, added CONTROL_EXIT exception type.
11 + Experimental 'unroll' opcode renamed to 'finalize'
13 + Added proper support for multisubs and multimethods
14 + Fixed sigspace handling ** quantifier in regexes
16 + Added use of inversion lists for charclass lists in regexes
18 + EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) packages for RHEL6.beta are available
19 - Begin moving towards Lorito, the ops refactor to enable pervasive self-hosting and JIT compilation.
20 + All ops are now built with the self-hosted opsc compiler.
21 + For more Information about Lorito see:
22 http://trac.parrot.org/parrot/wiki/Lorito
23 http://trac.parrot.org/parrot/wiki/LoritoRoadmap
27 + Various long-standing bugs in IMCC were fixed
28 + STRINGs are now immutable.
29 + use STRINGNULL instead of NULL when working with strings
30 + Fixed storage of methods in the NameSpace PMC
31 + Added :nsentry flag to force method to be stored in the NameSpace
32 + Added StringBuilder and PackfileDebug PMCs
33 + Added experimental opcodes find_codepoint and unroll
35 + Fixed reporting of line numbers in IMCC
36 + Removed deprecated NQP compiler, replaced with new NQP-RX
37 + Removed NCIGen compiler
39 + Tools to distribute on CPAN were removed
40 + Deprecated dynpmcs have been removed to external repositories
41 + Removed RetContinuation PMC
42 + Removed CGoto, CGP, and Switch runcores
44 + Many tests for the extend/embed interface were added
45 + done_testing() is now implemented in Test::More
47 + The fakexecutable tapir is renamed parrot-prove
48 + Performance fixes to the pbc_to_exe tool
49 + Fix data_json to work outside of trunk
50 + The dynpmc GzipHandle (zlib wrapper) was added
51 + The library Archive/Tar.pir was added.
52 + The library Archive/Zip.pir was added.
53 + The libraries LWP.pir, HTTP/Message.pir & URI.pir were added.
55 + Six Parrot-related projects accepted to GSoC
56 + Improve use of const and other compiler hints
60 + Allow passing parameters to the dynamic linker ('dlopen' improved)
61 + loadlib opcode added
62 + Calling conventions are now much more consistent, and follows natural
63 semantics of handling arguments and return values
64 + Recursive make for src/dynpmc removed
65 + Datatype STRINGNULL for a single Null STRING added
66 + config_lib.pasm replaced with config_lib.pir
68 + Improved handling of new compilers
69 + Cygwin packages will be updated again with Parrot releases
70 + Fedora packages add desktop files
71 + gzip and bzip2 compressed tar files for releases
73 + tapir executable added; tapir is a TAP test harness
74 + Added TAP options --merge --ignore-exit
76 + 3 month cycle for supported releases
77 + Review and vote of GSoC applications
81 + Most internal allocations now use the GC
82 + RNG non-randomnes fixes
83 + Elimination of much dead code
85 + PMCs can now be initialized from an int
86 + Many legacy ops are removed
88 + Sun cc and Intel icc support have been restored
89 + Compiler invocation no longer goes through a Perl script
91 + NCI thunks are now generated by self-hosted PIR code
95 + GC performance and encapsulation were greatly improved.
96 + PMC freeze refactored.
97 + More Makefile and build improvements.
99 + The Array PMC was removed.
100 + Several deprecated vtables were removed.
101 + The OrderedHash PMC was substantialy improved.
103 + Packaging improvements on some operating systems.
105 + Some cases in pbc_merge are now handled.
106 + Improvements were made to the dependency checker.
107 + New tool nativecall.pir added.
111 + Context PMCs now support attribute-based introspection
112 + Context and CallSignature PMCs merged into CallContext
113 + .lex directive throws exceptions when used with incorrect register types
115 + Packaging improved for free OS distributions
116 + PPC, PPC64, and ARM now tested when running Linux
118 + Minor improvements to the profiling runcore
119 + Improvements from the CallContext PMC merge
121 + In/out parameters in STRING modification functions
122 + Void handling in NCI signatures
123 + Parameter passing opcodes order in PBC
125 + Continued migration of core tests from Perl 5 to PIR
127 + dependency checker improved
129 + Deprecation cycle length changed to three months from six
130 + GC accuracy improved
131 + PMC freeze improvements; much more reliable
132 + Makefile improvements for dependency handling
136 + Made profiling runcore output format configurable and extensible
137 options include "pprof" and "none" ("binary" and "callgrind" are planned)
138 + Added environment variables to specify profiling output type and filename
139 (PARROT_PROFILING_OUTPUT and PARROT_PROFILING_FILENAME)
140 + Began merging Freeze/Thaw and Bytecode generator/loader
142 + Included latest nqp-rx compiler, with many improvements
143 - GLOBAL:: package identifier
144 - dynamic variables look in global namespace
145 - $obj."$method" syntax
146 - :p(os) and :c(ontinue) option on regexes
147 - try/CATCH/CONTROL handling
148 - support leading & on subroutine declarations
149 - allow "category:<symbol>" names (for builtin operators)
150 - simple version of smartmatch operator
151 - simple regex matches
152 - updated HLL::Compiler with new import/export methods
154 + Portability updates for RTEMS, and Intel architectures with GNU compilers
155 + Completed conversion of ticket tracking system from RT to Trac
156 + New draft of PDD31 for HLL export API and import implementation
157 + Several (build time, runtime) performance improvements
158 + Converted many tests to PIR, reducing test execution time
159 + Various bugfixes, code cleanups, and coding standard fixes
163 + The FileHandle PMC now exposes the exit code of child process that was run as pipe.
164 + Experimental support for overriding VTABLE invoke in PIR objects was added.
165 + The method 'type' was added to the PackfileAnnotations PMC.
166 + The internals of the parrot calling conventions, PCC, were reworked.
167 All call paths now use a CallSignature object for passing arguments and return values.
168 + The new API-function 'Parrot_ext_call' was added for calling into C-land.
169 + The fixed-size allocator was improved.
170 + The files installed by 'make install-dev' are now covered by 'make install' as well.
171 + The experimental ops 'fetch' and 'vivify' were added.
172 + The -I option to the command 'parrot' now prepends items to the search path.
173 + The Context struct was substituted with auto attributes (context_auto_attrs branch).
174 + Use the osname determined in auto::arch in subsequent configuration steps (convert_OSNAME branch).
175 + Eliminated dependence on Perl 5 '%Config' in auto::format (auto_format_no_Config branch).
176 + MultiSub PMCs now stringify to the name of their first candidate,
177 instead of the number of candidates.
178 + The platform detection at the start of the configuration process was improved.
179 + The 'lineof' method on CodeString objects now precomputes line number information
180 to be more efficient on variable-width encoded strings.
181 + P6object now supports .WHO and .WHERE methods on protoobjects.
183 + A shiny new self-hosting implementation of NQP has been added in ext/nqp-rx.
184 - New NQP available as nqp-rx.pbc or parrot-nqp fakecutable.
185 - NQP includes direct support for grammars and regexes, including protoregexes.
186 - NQP has a new PAST-based regex engine (intended to replace PGE).
187 - Regexes may contain code assertions, parameters, lexical declarations, and more.
188 - Double-quoted strings now interpolate scalar variables and closures.
189 - Subroutine declarations are now lexical by default.
191 - PAST::Block now supports an 'nsentry' attribute.
192 - PAST::Var allows 'contextual' scope.
193 - Attribute bindings now return the bound value.
195 + Fixes for the port of Parrot to RTEMS were applied. Yay, first port to a real time OS!
196 + On NetBSD, shared libs are now used.
198 + Use the the fixed-sized allocator in the Context and the CallSignature PMC.
199 + Many small speed improvements.
201 + MT19937, the Mersenne twisted pseudorandom number generator, is now hosted on github and
202 will be removed from the Parrot core. (eligible in 2.1)
203 + The 'Parrot_call_*' functions for invoking a sub/method object from C are
204 deprecated. They are replaced by 'Parrot_ext_call'. (eligible in 2.1)
205 + All bitwise VTABLE functions are deprecated. (eligible in 2.1)
206 + All bitwise ops will become dynops. (eligible in 2.1)
207 - Realized deprecations
208 + The slice VTABLE entry was removed.
209 + The last traces of the 'malloc' garbage collector were removed.
210 + Parrot_pcc_constants() was renamed to Parrot_pcc_get_constants().
211 + The deprecated functions from the Embedding/Extension interface were removed.
212 + The library YAML/Parser/Syck.pir was removed.
213 + The VTABLE function instantiate_str() was removed.
214 + Building of parrot_nqp was removed.
216 + The test coverage of the time-related ops was much improved.
217 + New testing functions in Test::More: lives_ok() and dies_ok().
218 + The Perl 5 based test scripts t/op/bitwise.t, t/op/comp.t, t/op/inf_nan.t,
219 t/op/literal.t, t/op/number.t, t/op/sprintf2.t, and t/op/00ff-dos.t were converted to PIR.
220 + The test scripts t/op/annotate.t and t/op/time.t have begun
221 to be translated from Perl 5 to PIR.
222 + In some tests the dependency on %Config from Perl 5 was eliminated.
224 + The meaning of 'p' means in NCI function call signatures was clarified.
226 + The stub for a new language, as created by mk_language_shell.pl,
227 now relies on the PIR-based tools, which are replacing the Perl 5-based tools.
228 + The library Configure.pir was added.
229 + The library distutils.pir was added.
231 + The mailing list parrot-users and a corresponding google group was created,
232 http://groups.google.com/group/parrot-users.
233 + Many bugfixes, code cleanups, and coding standard fixes.
237 + Parrot_capture_lex has been added to the PARROT_EXPORT API
238 + PARROT_MAX_ARGS has been increased from 8 to 16 to allow for ops that take more than 8 args
240 + The profiling runcore now caches metadata for improved performance
241 - Maintenance and cleanup
242 + Expanded the Parrot debugger documentation
243 + Parrot debugger now uses the new Parrot STRING API
244 + Continue to port rest of internals to use the STRING API
246 + The JIT subsystem has been removed and is being written from the ground up. More
247 information can be found at https://trac.parrot.org/parrot/wiki/JITRewrite
248 + Implicit optional named parameters (eligible in 2.1)
249 + Continuation-based ExceptionHandlers (eligible in 2.1)
250 + Use of undocumented variables in class_init (eligible in 2.1)
251 + Parrot_oo_get_namespace (eligible in 2.1)
253 + Improved line number tracking in IMCC
255 + Converted many more Perl 5 tests to PIR
256 + Expanded test coverage of the CallSignature, Namespace, FixedPMCArray,
257 ResizeableIntegerArray and ExceptionHandler PMCs
261 + Added a fixed-size structure allocator to the Garbage Collector
262 + Added a "lazy" mode to the PObj and Fixed-Size memory allocators
263 + Added a profiling runcore, which generates Callgrind-compatible output
264 + Added lexical subsystem opcodes: find_dynamic_lex, store_dynamic_lex
265 + Converted Contexts to garbage-collectable PMC structures
266 + Created a new Context API
267 + Enhanced the PMC allocator to automatically allocate ATTR structures
269 + Optimized opcodes to cache the current Context for subsequent lookups
270 + Reduced string comparisons in VTABLE_isa
271 - Maintenance and cleanup
272 + Began proper encapsulation of STRING API
273 + Unified all PMC destruction functions
274 + Unified Continuation PMC and Parrot_cont structure
275 + Unified Sub PMC and Parrot_sub structure
276 + Removed PMC_EXT structure
277 + Removed PMC_Sync from PMC
278 + Removed UnionVal from PMC structure
280 + Fixed several stack-walking bugs in Garbage Collector code
281 + Fixed bug when copying a NULL STRING, now returns empty STRING struct
283 + Converted several Perl5 tests to PIR
284 + Expanded test coverage of NameSpace PMC
286 + Made Parrot Compiler Toolkit available in the base install
290 + Removed several deprecated functions and features
291 + Removed bsr, jsr, branch_cs, and ret opcodes
292 + Removed global stacks system
293 + Changed OPS file format to include explicit preamble
294 + Changed all "new 'Iterator'" instructions into 'iter' instructions
295 + Removed Configure.pl options for specifying non-working GC cores
296 + Removed unexecuting code as found by Coverity
297 + Improvements to the Parrot Debugger
298 + Added experimental fixed-size structure allocator to the GC
299 + Added experimental lazy arena allocation to the GC
300 + Refactored hashes, keys, and iterators
301 + Added "corevm" make target to build Parrot without all the supporting libraries
302 + Removed Random PMC type and added in a "rand" dynop
303 + Optimization and Improvements to the NCI thunk generator
304 + New include file libpaths.pasm
306 + Multiple .local with same name and different type is now an error on IMCC.
308 + Improved support for detecting Fink and Macports
309 + Updated search directories for libraries
311 + "Parrot Developers Guide: PIR" released to publisher and available to purchase
312 + Improved documentation about Parrot Debugger
313 + Update PGE Documentation
315 + Deprecate 'PASM1' compiler object, update to warn instead of segfault
317 + Fixes to code, documentation, and standards
321 + Key and Iterator refactor
322 + Major pbc_to_exe generated code speed improvement
323 + New "Infinite Memory" GC core for demonstration purposes
324 + gc_debug runcore and GC-related heisenbug fixes
325 + Elimination of variable expansion in parrot_config
326 + CLI arguments are processed as Unicode by default
327 + Substantial optimizations in NCI
328 + Parrot builds on Win64
329 + Hashes can use native types as keys and values
330 + Fixed installed pbc_to_exe
331 + Simplification of PMC generation code
332 + Improved GC encapsulation and API documentation
334 + List of candidates for embedding API (docs/embed.pod)
335 + PIR book sent to publisher
337 + Several conversions of Perl test to pure PIR.
338 + C indentation coding standards test improvement
339 + Improved test coverage of example code
341 + Removal of PGE rules: <null> <fail> <sp> <lt> <gt> <dot>
342 + Removal of PGE methods: .text .item .result_object
343 + Deprecation of most dynops
345 + Beginnings of OpenGL::Math library; OpenGL bindings and library marked experimental
346 + Localizing and consting fixes
347 + Many memory and thread-related leaks plugged
351 + Optimized parts of the IO system
352 + Fixed inheritance hierarchy of FileHandle and Socket PMC types
353 + Fixed leaks involving subroutines and Parrot_Context
354 + Cleaned up and refactored GC internals, including fixes and optimizations
355 + Optimized PMC class manipulations to use type numbers instead of string names
356 + Fixed problems involving hashval calculations in strings
357 + Removed unnecessary MULTI dispatches in built-in PMCs
358 + Fixed memory leaks involving PMCs that were not properly destroyed
359 + Fixed creation of PMCProxy PMCs in correct namespaces
360 + Added preliminary Pipe support
361 + Fixed cloning of Object PMCs
362 + Added root_new opcode
363 + Added initial versions of Packfile PMCs with read/write capabilities
365 + Fixed several memory leaks in IMCC
366 + Updated PCT to use root_new opcode
367 + Added support for keyword "self" in NQP
369 + Improved and expanded /docs/book
370 + Updated project documentation
371 + Defined 'experimental' status and procedures in DEPRECATED.pod
373 + Cleaned code and improved code-level documentation
374 + Various bugfixes, code cleanups, and coding standard fixes
375 + Added an experimental compiler library to help use PIR libraries from HLLs
376 + Updated OpenGL library and examples to support experimental HLL import
380 + Fixes for pir classes inheriting from core pmcs.
381 + Cleaned up headers and reorganized some sources into subsystem directories.
382 + Clean up PMCs so libparrot.so exports far fewer vtable/method symbols.
383 + Clean up the GC API.
384 + Several unicode identifier improvements in IMCC.
386 + Protoobject stringification is gone.
388 + Rewrite several core documents.
389 + Many reworks, improvements & additions to the Parrot Book.
390 + Installation PDD is launched out of draft.
392 + Fixes for running the language shell generator outside the parrot tree.
393 + Several fixes for developing and building HLLs from an installed parrot.
394 + Configure.pl now has a --no-line-directives option to ease source level debugging.
396 + Portability updates for macports, netbsd, mingw32, hpux.
397 + Several (build time, runtime) performance improvements.
398 + Lots of updates to examples and tests.
399 + Various bugfixes, code cleanups, and coding standard fixes.
403 + Added op: load_language, find_caller_lex
404 + Socket IO are back as PMC
405 + Refactor some PMC: Hash, ManagedStruct
409 - Allow \x, \c, and \o in enumerated character classes (incl ranges)
410 - Add initial greedy-only version of ** <exp> quantifier
412 - Add HLL source line bytecode annotations
413 - Add another dumper format to assist syntax highlighters
414 - Revise mk_language_shell.pl to updated create_language.pl
416 + Removed ops: gcd, exec, classname, need_finalize, runinterp, substr_r
417 + Removed dynamic op: mul
418 + Removed .HLL_map directive; use interp's .hll_map() instead
419 + Removed PMCs: slice, bound_nci, ref
420 + Removed Configure.pl option: --pmc
421 + Removed PMC union struct
424 - Reorganization and many improvements & additions
426 + Add a parrot-fuzzer
428 + Improve Debian/Ubuntu package
429 + various bugfixes, code cleanups, and coding standard fixes
434 + New user documentation for exceptions.
435 + Updates to Chapters 4 & 5 of the Parrot book.
436 + Improved and expanded generated HTML documentation, as the input for
437 http://docs.parrot.org.
438 + Added Compiled HTML Help (.chm) version of documentation.
439 + Cleanups and fixes.
442 - left the nest and is now at http://pynie.googlecode.com/
444 - left the nest and is now at http://github.com/cardinal
446 - left the nest and is now at http://paraplegic.googlecode.com/
447 + ABC, Squaak, and Befunge moved to examples/.
448 + All remaining languages moved to https://svn.parrot.org/languages/
450 + Support for language builds from an installed Parrot.
451 + Expanded language shell generator for new languages.
452 + 'parrotbug' utility repurposed for the Trac interface.
454 + Removed deprecated Tqueue and Closure PMCs.
455 + String, Key, NCI, LexPad, Iterator, Sub, Continuation, RetContinuation,
456 ExceptionHandler, ParrotLibrary, ParrotInterpreter, ParrotThread,
457 ParrotRunningThread, Rational, FixedPMCArray, ResizablePMCArray, and
458 GDBMHash PMCs now use declared attributes (ATTR), in place of the
464 + Support for portable 'Inf', 'NaN' and -0.0
465 + pbc_disassemble prints constants in constants table
466 + New experimental BigNum implementation
467 + Pair is now a dynamic loadable PMC
468 + Various function name sanification
469 + New implementation of Strings component
470 + Replace various PMC value union access code by VTABLE method invocations
471 + Replace various PMC value unions by ATTRibutes
472 + Removed SArray PMC. Use FixedPMCArray instead.
475 - updates to Chapter 2 (getting started)
476 - updates to Chapter 3 (PIR basics)
477 - updates to Chapter 4 (PIR subroutines)
478 - updates to Chapter 10 (HLLs)
479 - updates to Chapter 12 (opcodes)
480 + Function documentation
481 + Pod documentation style modernized; no longer Perl 5 style.
482 + PMC has an additional acronym: Poly Morphic Container
483 + The DOD (Dead Object Detection) acronym is no longer used;
484 use 'GC' to refer to the Garbage Collector component.
487 - :named flag can now take string registers as argument
488 - A single '=cut' directive is now ignored (without initial Pod directive)
489 - :vtable subs now have proper access to 'self' pseudo variable
491 + add new 'Pod' documentation parser
492 + Pipp (PHP implementation):
493 - Pipp is now at http://github.com/bschmalhofer/pipp
494 - support for 'print', 'dirname', 'implode', 'str_replace',
495 - various grammar fixes
497 + add 'quit', 'readline' builtins
498 + fix 'Boolean' type and 'print' builtin
500 - left the nest and is now at http://github.com/fperrad/lua/
502 - left the nest and is now at http://github.com/rakudo/rakudo/
503 - build instructions can be found at http://tinyurl.com/rakudo
505 - left the nest and is now at http://github.com/bschmalhofer/lazy-k.git
507 - left the nest and is now at http://github.com/bschmalhofer/unlambda/
509 - left the nest and is now at http://github.com/fperrad/wmlscript.git
510 + removed Zcode implementation
513 - ATTRs are now inherited automatically in subclassing PMCs
515 + Parrot_readbc, Parrot_loadbc renamed to Parrot_pbc_read, Parrot_pbc_load.
516 + .HLL_map directive in favour of 'hll_map' method on Parrot interpreter
517 + Data::Escape library
519 + pbc_disassemble options added
520 + pbc_dump renamed from pdump
522 + Parrot is now Copyright Parrot Foundation
523 + Parrot's SVN repository is now hosted at https://svn.parrot.org
524 + Various code cleanups, consting, 64-bit incompatibilities and other bug fixes
527 New in January 2009 release (0.9.0)
529 + Implemented bytecode annotations
530 + Role composition is now aware of multi-subs
531 + Unbuffered IO PMCs now autopromote when buffering is necessary
532 + Installation parrot binary and libparrot shared library now supported
533 + Class registry now respects HLLs
536 - removed keyed string indexing, e.g. $S0[1].
537 - removed slice syntax, e.g. $P0[1..2]
538 - removed .namespace <ident>/.endnamespace <ident> pair
539 - fixed 'new $P0, [classname]' syntax
541 - refactoring of various data structures
542 - various bug fixes and updates
543 - complete bytecode generation
544 - add '-x' commandline option to run compiled code
546 - add 'hll' and 'subid' attributes to PAST::Block
547 - refactor loop handling code to handle last/redo/next
548 - add :pasttype('stmts') and :pasttype('null')
549 - improve "scope not found" error message
550 - allow PAST::Val nodes to contain block references
552 - add "skipkey" option to PGE::OPTable
553 - allow spaces before modifiers in regexes
554 - add '(' ~ ')' goal matching syntax
555 - skip creating a class/grammar if it already exists
558 - improved error mesages in multi dispatch
559 - implemented clone method for all objects
560 - implemented MAIN sub
561 - Unicode versions of infix hyper operators
562 - refactored IO.readline
563 - basic support for Inf and NaN
564 - list and array slices with whatever star
566 - implemented last and redo
567 - pointy blocks as terms
568 - refactored variable and parameter passing
569 - improved assignment semantics
570 - improved parsing of type names and subs
571 - mostly implemented parametric roles
572 - separate types for blocks, subs and methods
573 - basic support for submethods
574 - implemented Junction autothreading of user code (not builtins yet)
575 - eval supports :lang attribute
576 - proto makes other subs in scope multis, including in role composition
578 - back to working state
581 - add support for predefined constant __CLASS__ and __METHOD__
582 - add initial support for static members
583 - add support for namespaced constants
584 - constants are now handled as package vars
585 - variables are now lexical variables
586 - add support for superglobals in functions
587 - Call the class __constructor when there is one
588 - added incomplete support for closures
589 - removed support for the alternative parsing strategies
590 - added support for 'elsif'
591 - added support for 'do-while'
593 - left the nest and is now at https://github.com/bschmalhofer/hq9plus/
595 - left the nest and is now at http://github.com/bschmalhofer/eclectus/
597 - left the nest and is now at http://github.com/bschmalhofer/m4/
599 - add a minimalist user back trace
601 - "does" and "morph" VTABLE interfaces are now overridable from PIR
604 - 'make smoke' now generates Smolder reports sent to
605 http://smolder.plusthree.com/app/public_projects/smoke_reports/8
606 + Improved const and null correctness for C function parameters
607 + Sped up STRING manipulation (append, chop), improving PGE about 30%
609 - Added sections about Classes, OO programming, and methods.
610 - Added information about Annotations, Exceptions, and Handlers
612 - Removed non-functional STM subsystem
617 + fixed lexical semantics
618 + added the 'capture_lex' opcode
619 + added automatic resume for nonfatal exceptions
620 + added multidispatch cache
621 + applied miscellaneous performance improvements, including startup time
622 + fixed several bugs and leaks found by Coverity Scan
623 + removed race conditions from parallel testing
626 - removed undocumented .param int <stringc> => <ident> syntax
627 - .line directive now only takes an integer argument
628 - new .file directive to specify the file name being compiled
630 - properly handles lexical generation and closure semantics
631 - uses :subid instead of name lookups to reference PAST::Block nodes
632 - added PAST::Control node type (exception handlers)
634 - add support for <?{{...}}> and <!{{...}}> assertions
635 - Match objects use Capture PMC instead of Capture_PIR
637 - add macro handling to PASM mode
638 - disable vanilla register allocation in PASM mode, but do allow optimization
639 - add tests and bug fixes
640 - first bits of bytecode generation. No sub calling/returning yet.
643 - fixed lexical handling and recursion
644 - refactored subtypes implementation
645 - support for quotes with multi-character delimiters
646 - implemented list slices (Positional role)
648 - reduction meta operators
649 - hyper meta operators
650 - cross meta operators
651 - more builtin functions
653 - basic support for protos
654 - iterator on filehandle objects
655 - basic support for exception handlers
658 - added complex & mathx libraries
659 - merged LuaClosure & LuaFunction PMC
661 - added support for a return value from user defined functions
662 - added incomplete implemention of 'require_once'
664 - parser fixes, parses spidermonkey's top level test/shell.js
666 + PARROT_API is now PARROT_EXPORT
668 - :lexid is now :subid
669 - .arg is now .set_arg
670 - .result is now .get_result
671 - .yield (in .begin/end_yield) is now .set_yield
672 - .return (in .begin/end_return) is now .set_return
673 - .namespace x / .endnamespace x syntax is removed
674 + Capture_PIR (runtime/parrot/library/Parrot/Capture_PIR.pir)
678 + added CPAN module Storable 2.12 as a configuration and build dependency
679 + removed the pseudo PIR opcode 'addr'
680 + added the 'box' opcode
681 + fixed 'pop_eh' handling in PIR libraries and examples
682 + removed usage of .return for tailcalls (use .tailcall instead)
683 + removed 'get_hash' and 'get_array' from Capture PMC and Capture_PIR
684 + improved debugger and HLL coordination
685 + allowed MMD primitive autoboxing
686 + fixed all known memory leaks in PIR "Hello, world!"
687 + NCI signatures now JITted on x86-32 platforms (Windows and Linux)
688 + made the .const directive take a quoted type name instead of a constant
689 + made IMCC more re-entrant
692 - refactored Junctions implementation
693 - added "fire and forget" tool to rebase/rebuild/test Parrot and Rakudo
694 - updated container/reference semantics
695 - added more builtin methods and functions
696 - improved support for multilevel namespaces
697 - added support for .Str, .succ, .pred in user-defined classes
698 - implemented pointy blocks on if/loops
699 - increased STD.pm convergence
701 - improved MMD candidate sorting
702 - improved integration of Num and Int
703 - implemented increment on protoobjects
704 - added initial support for MAIN subs
705 - added .PARROT method
707 - added some predefined constants
708 - added implemention of the function basename()
710 - Added initial support for the classes Proc, Continuation, Queue, Dir, File, and FileStat
711 - fixed various minor bugs
712 - fixed broken Regexes
715 - added '.isa' method to PCT::Node
716 - cleaned up 'immediate block' handling
717 - allowed arguments to immediate blocks in loops/conditionals
718 - metaclass objects can now 'add_method'
720 - integrated macro processing in PIRC's lexer
721 - integrated heredoc lexer in PIRC executable
722 - added preprocess and heredoc-preprocess commandline options
723 - integrated the PASM grammar into PIRC
724 - added a register allocator to optimize the built-in vanilla allocator
725 - code cleanups and documentation
726 - added 'make test' target
728 - updated to work with new namespace/classname syntax
730 + PARROT_API will become PARROT_EXPORT
731 + :lexid will become :subid
734 - updates and additions to the Parrot book (see docs/book/)
736 - minor fixes to Parrot's base OpenGL bindings
737 - converted OpenGL PIR examples to Perl 6 (two complete, one WIP)
738 - added simplified OpenGL PIR example for NCI JIT testing
740 - further improvements to parallel tests
741 - tests no longer leave filesystem breadcrumbs
742 - more thorough testing of Parrot::Test itself
746 + float precision expanded to 15 significant digits from 6
747 + large integers autopromoted in PIR so as not to lose precision
748 + improved precision of complex square root
749 + exception handlers can register types of exceptions they catch
752 - implemented gather, take, and yield builtins
753 - Range, Time, Math, GC, Kernel classes
755 - added a new committer
756 + Markdown : new lightweight markup language
757 - start implementation with PCT/NQP
759 - Moved to its own repository: http://code.google.com/p/partcl/
761 - split() works with regexes
762 - implemented Str.comb
763 - ord() and chr() builtins
764 - improved parsing of literal numbers
765 - support for hyphens and dashes in identifiers
766 - next() on for-loops
767 - fixed floating point constant precision
768 - improved namespace handling, closer to STD.pm model
769 - support for exporting symbols
772 - now generates classes in nested namespaces instead of :: names
773 - supports class creation in caller's HLL namespace
775 - now using true nested namespaces instead of :: names
776 - cleaned up HLLCompiler interactive prompts and readline mode
777 - updated to use typed exception handler registration
778 - added initial support for loop control exceptions
780 - fixed Heredoc preprocessor
781 - cleaned up Macro preprocessor
782 - many code clean-ups, warning fixes and consting
783 - updated Makefile for easier compilation
785 - Added .tailcall syntax to replace .return in tailcall context
788 - an old style line numbered Basic interpreter able to use parrot objects
789 - example connecting to mysql via nci
790 - example using classes to write and run an embedded Basic program
793 - Added chapters for PCT, PMCs, and Opcodes/Runcores
794 - Expanded and improved formatting in various chapters
795 - Renumbered chapters
800 + add -I and -L command line options
801 + support for null strings in NCI calls
802 + preliminary support for resumable exceptions
803 + add '.hll_map' method for dynamic HLL type mapping
804 + more parrot_debugger fixes
805 + remove obsolete '.past' extension
808 - now over 3300 passing spectests
809 - precompiled modules
810 - precompiled scripts (--target=pir can now be executed standalone)
811 - Support for @*INC and %*INC varialbes
812 - additional builtin methods and subs
813 - added 'fail' function, warnings on use of undefined values
815 - qq, qw, q quoting forms
816 - run tests in parallel
820 - 'require' and precompiled modules
822 - all Array tests pass
824 - default arguments to functions
828 - add :loadinit attribute for PAST::Block
830 - major refactoring to allow all PIR keywords as identifiers
831 - links to libparrot now, so all Parrot ops are recognized as such
832 - implemented .loadlib, .HLL_map, .HLL
834 + add Xlib and Mysql modules and test programs to NCI examples
835 + many updates and cleanups to PDD documents
839 + PDD27: add multisub lookup
841 + new concurrency implementation (see PDD25)
842 + Exception PMC now captures a return continuation
843 + improved PMC encapsulation (Iterator, Key, Pair)
847 - parsing improvements
848 - minor additions to class builtins
849 - add support for block parameters to functions
851 - various language fixes
852 - refactor all libraries (namespace, method registration)
853 - add a OpenGL binding (still incomplete)
854 - lost user back trace (see ppd25 & pushaction)
856 - add support for while- and for-loops
857 - add support for increment and decrement
858 - designate PHP 5.3 as the reference implementation
859 - improve support for string literals
861 - removed due to bit rot
863 - now over 2200 passing spectests
864 - updated the Rakudo roadmap
865 - Perl 6 multi dispatch
866 - dispatch with slurpies
867 - class attributes ("my $.x")
869 - OO and metaclass improvements (.WHAT, .WHICH, .WHENCE)
870 - additional builtin methods and subs
871 - improved make test targets and harness
873 - implement [lreverse], [lsort -command]
874 - allow [incr] to autovivify
875 - update tclsh spec target to 8.5.3
876 - fix bug in TclDict PMC, allowing ~200 more [dict] spec tests to pass
877 - update 'make spectest' fudging, using TODO instead of SKIP if possible
880 - :scope('register') for PAST::Var nodes
881 - allow invocant specification in attribute scope PAST::Var nodes
882 - correct ordering of sub generation from POST
883 - add 'loadinit' attribute to PAST::Block for block initialization
885 - PIR registers now use the vanilla register allocator
886 - all PASM output now uses PASM registers
887 - all .locals and $registers are mapped
888 - clean-up of grammar, back-end and documentation
889 - implemented constant folding
890 - implemented instruction selection
892 + tests now clean up after themselves
893 + improved parallel test support
895 + Darwin problems fixed
897 + parrot_debugger renamed from pdb, numerous tweaks
900 + :vtable implies self in PIR
901 + modest core speed improvements
902 + Cygwin support improved
903 + "say" now an opcode (was dispatched to a method; see Deprecations)
905 + ".pragma n_operators" is deprecated
906 + old PASM register syntax (without "$") is deprecated
907 + bare (unquoted) method names are deprecated
908 + "#line" will be replaced with ".line"
909 + ".HLL_map" syntax will change
910 + ".loadlib" is now separate from ".HLL"
911 + mmdvtregister and mmdvtablefind opcodes are deprecated
912 + removed getfd, getclass opcodes
913 + removed IMCC syntax that treated some methods as builtins
914 + removed numeric get_attr and set_attr vtable entries
918 + removed a lot of old information from the FAQ
919 + improved function level documentation
921 + removed the configuration item 'has_gnu_m4'
922 + refactored ICU-detection
925 - improved the Smalltalk implementation
927 - renamed Plumhead to Pipp
928 - support for a lot of builtin functions.
929 - Pipp now uses PHP specific data types.
930 - converted from PCT with TGE to PCT with NQP actions
931 - improvements in the PCT variant by using optok parsing
932 - start of object support
934 - simple assignments work
936 - added a PCT-based implementation of JSON parsing
938 - improved handling of symbols
939 - added support for block handling
940 - added support for globals
944 - updated Range implementation
946 - added generic type declarations (::T)
947 - added runtime mixing of roles with 'does' and 'but'
948 - fixed handling of implicit lexicals ($_, $!, and $/)
949 - fixed implicit method calls on $_
950 - improved complex math builtins, added Complex
951 - moved many builtins to class Any
952 - declaration of lists of variables now work
953 - improved test infrastructure
954 - 910 additional passing spec tests since last release
955 - more convergence with STD.pm grammar
956 - added named 0-ary parsing and ops
959 - allowed subroutine and method names to be a PAST tree that produces the name
960 - Improved lexical handling
962 + pbc_disassemble renamed from disassemble
964 + allowed .macro_const in PIR
965 + added the flag :lexid(...) for subroutines
966 + made multiple dispatch work for sub types
967 + fixed garbage collection bug related to the metadata attached to a PMC_EXT structure
968 + added a warning when using deprecated opcodes
969 + simplified the stacks implementation
971 + improved closure and lexical support
972 + improved IMCC register allocator
973 + added cache for all runtime-constant strings, reducing memory usage
975 + improved OpenGL/GLU/GLUT bindings
976 + added a standard profile for Perl::Critic coding standard testing
977 + added support for smoke testing with Smolder
978 + enabled use of Test::Harness 3.0 if available, but don't require it for 'make test'
979 + added the executable 'parrot_config' to query Parrot configuration
983 + updated pdd09_gc.pod
986 - dramatically improved parsing speed
987 - added support for defining and instantiating classes
988 - started fleshing out the builtin class hierarchy
989 - added support for hashes and arrays
990 + Chitchat: added the start of a smalltalk compiler
991 + Pheme: updated to match PGE changes
992 + Pynie: return statement, other minor updates
994 - added working list and hash contexts
995 - added 'return' statements
996 - added => pair constructor
997 - added ?? !! ternary
998 - added Range, range operators, Complex
999 - added common List, Hash methods
1000 - refactored base classes
1001 - added Mutable, Perl6Scalar classes
1002 - added type-checking, is readonly/rw/copy for parameters
1003 - added make localtest, docs/spectest-progress.csv
1005 + Squaak: implement return statement
1006 + Tcl: updated control flow exceptions to use new builtin types
1008 + All tools converted to P6object metamodel
1010 - <?foo> is now a zero-width match
1011 - reduced backtracking to improve parsing speed
1013 - added "return" PAST.op node type for subroutine returns
1014 - added "keyed_int" scoping to PAST::Var
1015 - fixed calls to closures
1016 - automatically transcode 7-bit unicode to ascii for faster processing
1017 + NQP: added "return" statement, ?? !! ternary operator
1019 + expanded step gen::opengl
1021 + updated function and macro names to match pdd09_gc.pod
1023 + add ".namespace []" as alternative to ".namespace"
1024 + "make codetest" target runs standard coding tests
1026 + added P6object class for Perl 6 interfaces to objects in Parrot
1027 + ported OpenGL/GLU/GLUT bindings to Win32, BSD, and more Mac OS X variants
1028 + generate OpenGL/GLU/GLUT bindings by parsing system headers
1029 + new OpenGL example shapes.pir, covering basic OpenGL 1.1 / GLUT 3 APIs
1030 + new float4.pir structure-packing benchmark
1031 + reduced memory use for variables
1032 + improved constant string caching
1033 + made code g++ and gcc (with optimizations) safe
1034 + the usual collection of bugfixes and optimizations
1038 + updated and launched pdd28_strings.pod
1039 + updated pdd19_pir.pod
1041 + added implementation of Rational PMC.
1042 + simplified ops control flow syntax
1043 + enabled backtrace on non-glibc platforms too
1044 + improved some PIR error reporting
1045 + removed user stack opcodes
1046 (save, restore, lookback, entrytype, depth, rotate_up)
1047 (NOTE: This was scheduled to occur after 0.7.0, moved up to this release)
1048 + removed register stack, saveall, and restoreall opcodes
1049 + removed various deprecated features and unused code
1052 + C99: grammar updated
1053 + Cardinal: resurrected, method calls and do blocks work now
1054 + Eclectus: use NQP as PAST generating code
1056 - added big number library
1057 - updated to match PGE changes
1058 - added a bytecode disassembler & a Lua 5.1 VM bytecode translator
1059 + Pheme: updated to match PGE/PCT changes
1061 - use NQP as PAST generating code
1062 - use riaxpander for macro expansion
1065 - conditional and loop statement modifiers
1066 - lots of class, object, role, and method improvements
1067 - Str increment and decrement
1068 - improved spectest reporting
1069 - type checking on assignment
1070 - regexes and grammars
1074 + Squaak: added to repository
1077 + PGE: updated to match Synopsis 5, deprecated features removed
1079 - improve handling of register types, conversion between registers
1080 - improved error diagnostics
1081 - add 'arity' to for loops
1083 + added step auto::opengl
1084 + added step gen::opengl
1085 + added step gen::call_list
1087 + still more optimizations and performance improvements, especially in GC
1088 + new libraries: OpenGL/GLU/GLUT bindings (small subset working)
1089 + new dump_pbc.pl utility: PBC disassembly/source code weaver
1090 + improved C++ compiler support
1091 + optimized builds work again
1096 + drafted pdd29_compiler_tools.pod
1097 + updated pdd28_character_sets.pod draft
1098 + updated pdd19_pir.pod draft
1100 + c99: added independent C pre-processor
1101 + HQ9+: reimplemented with PCT
1103 . reimplementation with PCT, using PAST and POST
1104 . behavior aligned wih 5.1.3
1106 . implemented basic I/O, including '$*IN', '$*OUT', '$*ERR', 'prefix:='
1107 . implemented simple typing and runtime type checking
1108 . added basic multi-method dispatch
1109 . expanded named argument handling, including Pair and colonpairs
1110 . added 'Whatever' and 'Capture' classes
1111 . implemented 'handles' trait verb
1112 . added 'loop' statement
1113 . implemented 'given', 'when', 'for', 'while', 'until' statement modifiers
1114 . implemented Hash methods '.keys' and '.values'
1115 . fixed bug to get '.WHAT' working correctly
1116 . initial implementation of 'eval'
1119 . created a bootstrapped build, see 'make boot'
1120 . added 'infix:<', 'infix:<=', 'infix:>', 'infix:>=' relational operators
1121 . added 'postfix:++', 'postfix:--' operators
1123 . added methods specifying default behaviors in PAST, reducing repeated code
1124 . improved symbol table lookup
1126 . removed deprecated code including: P6Regex, P6Grammar, PAST-pm
1128 + notable speedups during compilation and execution of parrot and HLLs
1129 + pdb (the parrot debugger) can now catch parrot exceptions
1130 + better detection of glibc and gettext during configuration
1131 + various bugfixes, code cleanups, deprecations, and coding standard fixes
1136 + launched pdd18_security.pod
1137 + updated pdd17_pmc.pod
1138 + launching draft of pdd28_character_sets.pod
1140 + cleanup of IMCC documentation
1142 + add step auto::gettext
1143 + add step auto::crypto
1147 . Phase out P6Regex in favor of Perl6Regex
1149 '.local Array my_arr' is illegal now
1151 + C99: reimplementation with PCT
1154 . add support for functions with params
1155 . add math functions
1158 . first cut at smart matching
1159 . indirect method calls
1161 . added methods 'grep' and 'first'
1162 . implement auto{increment,decrement}
1163 . initial implementation of 'perl6doc'
1166 . add base64 library
1167 + Cardinal: basic support for functions with parameters
1168 + Pheme: various updates
1169 + Ecmascript: various updates
1170 + Tcl: now targeting tcl 8.5.1, no more expected failures in test suite.
1171 (No, this doesn't mean everything's implemented. =-)
1172 + Eclectus: various updates
1173 + WMLScript: various updates
1176 + Add library YAML::Dumper
1177 + Add the MD2, MD4, MD5, RIPEMD160, SHA & SHA1 PMC, as a wrapper
1180 + various bugfixes, code cleanups and coding standard fixes
1182 + remove external Perl 5 modules from the Parrot distribution
1186 + PDD09 (garbage collection) - approved
1187 + PDD28 (character sets) - draft started
1188 + added function documentation to some core functions
1189 + PCT beginners guide, optable guide and PAST nodes guide, bug fixes
1191 + IMCC: plugged various memory leaks and other cleanups
1193 . add "attribute" as a scope variant to PAST::Var nodes
1194 . add 'shift' and 'pop' methods to PAST:: nodes
1195 + NQP: add '=:=' op, tests for scalar and list contextualizers, \x escapes
1197 + APL: reimplementation with PCT
1198 + Cardinal (Ruby): reimplemention with PCT
1199 + Ecmascript: reimplementation with PCT
1200 + lolcode: improved expression parsing, ifthen, IT, YARN
1202 . aligned with Lua official release 5.1.3.
1203 . added initial PCT-based implementation.
1204 + Punie (Perl 1): refactor to use standard PCT-based filenames
1205 + Pynie (Python): add functions
1207 . rebranded, formerly known as 'perl6'
1208 . passes many more official Perl 6 Specification tests
1209 . added 'perl6doc' utility
1210 . oo including meta?classes, objects, methods, attributes, role composition
1211 . match variables, while/until statements, traits
1212 . many new methods for Str, List, Hash, Junction
1215 + PCCINVOKE syntax for named arguments using []; use () instead.
1216 + see DEPRECATED.pod for details
1218 + pbc_to_exe refactored for code reduction, portability, and maintainability
1220 + #line directives added to generated JIT files, improving debugging
1221 + consting, attribute marking, refactoring, warnings cleanup
1225 + PDD27 (multiple dispatch) - debut of new design
1226 + Numerous small updates to glossary.pod, etc
1228 + NQP: optional, named, and named/required parameters
1230 + PAST: "defined-or"
1232 + New mk_language_shell.pl script creates language stubs
1235 + Eclectus: start with support for local variables and procedures,
1236 use SXML as intermediate representation
1237 + Perl 6: list builtins, compiler directives, command-line options, etc.
1238 + "make perl6" now builds a Perl 6 executable
1239 + punie: more builtins, control structures, code refactoring
1240 + pynie: builtin stubs, more tests
1242 + New "pbc_to_exe" utility turns bytecode to executables
1243 + New set_outer method for subs
1244 + Further configuration refactoring for testability
1245 + All functions now completely headerized
1246 + Concurrency: interpreter schedulers
1248 + DYNSELF (changes to SELF; SELF to STATICSELF)
1249 + METHOD (replaced by renaming PCCMETHOD)
1250 + pmcinfo op (superseded by 'inspect')
1251 + get_attr, set_attr, and 8 other vtable methods
1252 + See DEPRECATED.pod for details
1255 + Minor speed enhancements with UTF-8 string handling
1257 + consting, attribute marking, warnings cleanup, memory leaks plugged ...
1261 + PDD19 (PIR) - reflect state on the ground; incorporate old IMCC docs
1262 + PDD25 (Concurrency) - launch out of draft
1263 + Improve documentation of deprecated parrot features.
1265 + PCT: Parrot Compiler Toolkit redesigned and updated
1266 + NQP: major updates, including support for namespaces,
1267 module/class declarations, methods
1268 + IMCC: remove .sym as alias for .local. Remove .pcc_
1269 prefix for calling directives (.pcc_begin became .begin_call).
1270 + PIRC: creates an AST during the parse.
1271 + PGE: more updates to match S05 syntax.
1273 + perl6: re-implemented using PCT and NQP, new object subsystem
1274 + abc: re-implemented using PCT and NQP
1275 + eclectus: initial implementation
1276 + plumhead: add PCT variant
1277 + punie: re-implemented using PCT and NQP, extended to handle subroutines
1278 Happy 20th Birthday, Perl!
1279 + pynie: re-implemented using PCT and NQP
1280 + PIR: start conversion to NQP (under construction)
1282 + new opcodes: 'die', 'addhandler', 'copy'
1283 + Initial implementation of Concurrency PDD
1284 + Add 'arity' method to Sub and NCI PMCs
1287 + consting, attribute marking, warnings cleanup, memory leaks, GC...
1288 + dead code removal (includes some defunct languages)
1292 + PDD15 (OO) branch merged with trunk; this release contains a working,
1293 tested implementation of the latest OO model
1294 + Added pop_eh/push_eh_p/count_eh opcodes
1295 + Add --runcore command line option
1296 + Add gcdebug runcore to help track down GC bugs
1297 + minor improvements to IA-32 JIT
1299 + PDD19 (PIR): updates to macros, .pcc* directives
1300 + PDD25 (Concurrency): updated
1301 + PDD26 (AST): draft approved
1302 + PDD23 (Exceptions): draft approved
1303 + Copyright cleanups
1304 - Languages/Compilers
1305 + languages/APL: minor updates, PDD15 conformance
1306 + languages/dotnet: minor updates
1307 + languages/lua: minor updates, PDD15 conformance
1308 + languages/lisp: minor updates
1309 + languages/perl6: minor updates, PDD15 conformance
1310 + languages/plumhead: minor updates
1311 + languages/punie: minor updates, PDD15 conformance
1312 + languages/nqp: minor updates
1313 + languages/scheme: many updates, PDD15 conformance, improved tests, use
1314 PMCs instead of primitive registers to represent values
1315 + languages/tcl: bugfixes, PDD15 conformance
1316 + languages/WMLScript: minor updates
1317 + compilers/pirc: updates from PDD19, PDD06
1318 + compilers/pct: minor updates, PDD15 conformance
1319 + compilers/pge: PDD15 conformance
1320 + compilers/tge: PDD15 conformance
1322 + Improve test coverage
1323 + Improve reporting when a step fails; allow abort on failure
1325 + More coding standard conformance, tests, cleanup, speedups,
1327 + Bug cleanup, esp. GC bugs
1328 + Eliminate .imc extension (use .pir)
1329 + Simplify some core config steps to not allow interactive prompting
1335 + Bug fixes (including Coverity IDs 20, 22, 30, 119-122, 124-126, 129-131)
1336 Also various GC, memory, and segfault issues
1337 + Fix & reenable CGP core
1338 + Parrot's -r flag now works again (compile to and execute bytecode)
1339 + Updates to pmc2c & PIR syntaxes
1341 + Minor performance improvements, especially in PGE
1343 + PDD02 "Vtables" - superceded by PDD17
1344 + PDD06 "PASM" - minor updates
1345 + PDD17 "PMC" - add VTABLE syntax, update core PMC struct, restore UnionVal
1346 + PDD19 "PIR" - early review started
1347 + PDD21 "Namespaces" - cleanup
1348 + PDD24 "Events" - draft approved
1349 + PDD25 "Concurrency" - minor updates
1350 + PDD26 "AST" - draft version begun
1351 + PIR tutorials updated
1352 - Languages/Compilers
1353 + Make scheme work with the current calling conventions, other major work.
1354 + Updates to m4, lua, compilers/pirc, languages/PIR, dotnet, tcl
1356 + make -j functional again
1357 + Code cleanup (refactoring, optimizations)
1361 + Performed code review on every PMC
1362 + Modified PMC code generation to use Storable, reducing compile times
1363 + Added a makefile target to generate test coverage data of C sources
1365 + NQP: added lists, for loops, operators, comparison and multiplicative operators
1366 + Announced Kea-CL, Kea Common Lisp, an ANSI Common Lisp implementation
1367 The repository is available at https://rgrjr.dyndns.org/svn/kea-cl/trunk/
1369 + PDD17 "PMCs" - draft approved, the design is complete
1370 + Added more PIR tutorials, see examples/tutorial/00_README.pod
1372 + Many bugfixes, enhancements, documentation, and coding standard updates
1373 + Deprecated PMC constants and other crufty syntax, see DEPRECATED.pod
1374 + Improved icc compiler compatibility for error line reporting
1378 + Lots of code review, many bugs fixed
1379 + Many more code cleanups and compiler warning levels
1380 + Started a new jit engine for 64-bit processors
1381 + Refactored configure process, with tests and new diagnostic options
1382 + Added new CodeString PMC for dynamic generation of PIR code
1383 + More pdd15 support for object metamodel.
1385 + Added NQP ("Not Quite Perl"), a very lightweight Perl 6-like language
1386 + Significant improvements and refactors to PCT (Parrot Compiler Toolkit)
1387 + perl6 passes more spec tests
1388 + Lua works now with a PGE/TGE/PAST-pm based compiler, lives in one pbc,
1389 and the interpreter has same behavior as original.
1391 + Added a committers' HOWTO
1392 + More PIR tutorial examples
1396 - Now, with Seat Belts!
1397 + added makefile targets for Sun lint, BSD lint, and splint
1398 + corrected many errors picked up by these tools
1399 + decorated source code with compiler hints, assertions, and attribute macros
1400 + automated creation of function declarations to prevent common errors
1401 + increased compiler warnings levels
1402 + converted more exceptions to a recoverable form
1404 + updated Lisp, Lua, Perl 6, tcl, regex, Scheme ("Pheme")
1405 + Perl 6 now fetches selected tests from pugs, and even passes some
1406 + PGE modified to handle {*} action subs for top-down and bottom-up parsers,
1407 and to allow grammar subclassing
1408 + HLLCompiler now has better exception, eval, and exit support
1409 + Introduced PCT, a refactor of HLLCompiler and PAST-pm
1411 + PDD15 "Objects" - details added to 'new' and 'getattribute' opcodes
1412 + PDD17 "PMCs" - notes added on instantiation and dynamic extention in PIR
1414 + added Parrot-related text from "Perl 6 and Parrot Essentials" book,
1415 tutorial examples from "Learning PIR" talk, and PDD15 metamodel diagrams
1417 + reduced memory footprint when using named registers
1418 + implemented overridding of vtable methods by PDD15 classes
1419 + improved PDD15 support for 'new', 'instantiate', and others
1420 + added makefile targets to ease core and HLL makefile regeneration
1421 + updated parrot dubugger, "pdb", to allow loading of commands from file
1423 + many bugfixes, enhancements, documentation, and coding standard updates
1427 + Updated Lisp, Lua, PHP ("Plumhead"), Python ("Pynie"), ABC,
1428 WMLScript, and Tcl ("ParTcl").
1429 + Perl 6 passes all of the sanity tests.
1430 + PGE supports latest Perl 6 grammar syntax. Perl 6, Python
1431 ("Pynie"), and ABC parsers updated to match.
1432 + Updated PHP ("Plumhead") to Antlr 3.0.
1433 + Lua added the beginnings of a PGE/TGE based compiler (not yet
1434 replacing the Perl/Yapp compiler).
1435 + Lisp updated for current features, added a test suite.
1436 - Core Implementation:
1437 + Filled in features and backward compatibility for PDD 15 objects.
1438 New object metamodel passes 85% of old test suite.
1439 + GCC API symbols are visible externally only when explicitly exported.
1440 + Added generated GCC compiler attributes to increase warnings, and
1441 cleaned up resulting warnings.
1442 + Code cleanup efforts and fixed memory leaks by the cage cleaners,
1443 resulting in notable speed increases.
1445 + Updated Parrot distribution to Artistic License 2.0, from dual
1446 Artistic 1/GPL license.
1447 + SDL examples brought up-to-date with current features.
1451 + even more refactorings and improvements in configuration system
1452 + improved tests and documentation for configuration system
1454 + Updated abc, PHP ("Plumhead"), Lua, Tcl
1457 + new PMC PDD draft partially completed
1459 + continued implementation of PDD 15 (Objects)
1460 + minor garbage collector and memory management improvements
1461 + several memory leaks resolved
1462 + extended support for compilers other than GCC
1463 + improved C++ compiler compatibility
1464 + enhanced support for Solaris, non-MSVC Win32, and other platforms
1469 + IMCC: added documentation for C-based Parrot Calling Conventions,
1470 refactorings and bug fixes
1471 + PGE: new perl6regex front end reflecting recent S05 syntax changes
1472 + PIRC: new prototype PIR parser
1474 + Updated Lua, PHP ("Plumhead"), BASIC, pynie
1475 + Lua implements environment
1477 + PDD15 "Objects" - details added, and draft approved
1479 + Added guidelines for PMC documentation
1481 + PDD15 implementation is largely complete, including role-based composition,
1482 introspection, and C3 method resolution order
1483 + new Exporter PMC for importing globals between namespaces
1484 + new string utilities for radix conversion
1485 + PCCINVOKE and Parrot_PCCINVOKE allow calling using the full Parrot Calling
1486 Conventions from PMCs and C code respectively
1488 + Refactorings and improvements in test coverage for 'Configure.pl'
1490 + many bugfixes, enhancements, and code cleanup
1491 + added example subversion config file
1492 + extended support for gcc, icc, and other compilers
1493 + extended support for Solaris and other platforms
1499 + IMCC: Parrot calling conventions now available between two C PMCs (PMINVOKE)
1500 + PGE: Match object improvements
1501 + smop: added Attribute and Class PMCs
1502 + HLLCompiler: improvements for interactive mode
1504 + extended binding to a list of variables
1506 + Updated Lua, PHP ("Plumhead"), Tcl ("ParTcl"), Ruby ("Cardinal")
1507 + Update PIR, regex, Zcode
1508 + New language: Pynie - a Python compiler for Parrot
1509 + Lua implements require and many other ops, improved regex support
1512 + PDD01 "Overview" - updated architecture and platform information
1513 + PDD15 "Objects" - details on roles, objects, and classes added
1514 + PDD22 "I/O" - added async ops and Status PMC details
1516 + Added guides for Metacommitter, Relase Manager, and Cage Cleaner roles
1518 + Object, Class, Role, and Attribute PMC implementation has begun
1519 + Perl 5 module "Parrot::Embed" now compiles and links on all platforms
1521 + Major improvements in test coverage for 'ops2c.pl'
1523 + New utility: Crow, a template processor
1524 + New library module: Config/JSON for reading/writing JSON files
1525 + many bugfixes, enhancements, and coding standard updates, code cleanup
1530 + IMCC: Parrot calling conventions now available in C PMCs, allowing
1531 named, optional, slurpy, and flat parameter passing
1532 + PGE: extended support for Perl 5 Regexes
1533 + smop: prototype object model implementation
1534 + hllcompiler: refactored to run a configurable set of compilation stages
1536 + redesigned assign/binding to support Perl 6 binding semantics
1538 + Updated Lua, PHP ("Plumhead"), Tcl ("ParTcl"), perl6, perl5
1539 + New language: PIR - a PGE-based implementation of Parrot PIR
1540 + perl6 now supports binding (':=') and 'join'
1541 + lua generates tail calls, and supports its own regex flavor (PGE-based)
1542 + Pheme still works, huzzah!
1544 + PDD21 "Objects" - rewritten
1545 + PDD22 "I/O" - updated and 'TODO' tests added
1547 + Interface stability classification standards approved
1548 + Roles and Responsibilities documented approved
1549 + Official 'drafts' directory created (was 'clip')
1551 + More NameSpace and OS PMC methods implemented
1552 + Parrot executable fullname and basename now available in PIR/PASM code
1553 + new 'chomp' library function
1555 + Major improvements in test coverage for 'ops2pm.pl'
1557 + many bugfixes, enhancements, and coding standard updates
1558 + extended support for Sun Workshop Compilers
1559 + Parrot now builds on PocketPC platform
1564 + HLLCompiler: added tracing options, modified api
1565 + PGE & TGE bugfixes and updates
1567 + added global and lexical variable support
1568 + added looping constructs, arrays, hashes
1570 + Updated PHP ("Plumhead"), Tcl ("ParTcl"),
1571 forth, perl6, lua, abc, APL, WMLScript, punie
1572 + ParTcl is passing > 24.9% of Tcl cvs-latest test suite
1573 + perl6 now supports hashes, arrays, method calls, arity-based
1574 multisubs, quoted terms, ranges (non-lazy), try blocks, $!
1576 + PDD01 "Overview" - updated
1577 + PDD22 "I/O" - rewritten and approved
1579 + Converted Perl 5 Regex tests to PIR, with notable speedup
1580 + Added tests for opcodes, compilers, languages, and coding standards
1582 + Major improvements in test coverage for 'pmc2c.pl'
1584 + many bugfixes, enhancements, and coding standard updates
1585 + extended support for non-core platforms including Cygwin, Tru64
1589 - New languages: PHP ("Plumhead"), Forth
1590 - Updated languages: Ruby ("Cardinal"), Tcl, Lua
1591 - Remove old Python implementation from Parrot repository; the new Python
1592 language code is hosted at http://pirate.tangentcode.com
1594 + PGE updated with more expressions, latest changes to S05
1595 + new Perl 6 grammar compiler
1597 + Perl 5 module "Parrot::Embed" allows easy embedding of a Parrot
1598 runtime into a Perl 5 program
1600 + new :init pragma for subs that must run before the main function
1601 + new :vtable pragma to identify subs that override PMC vtable methods,
1602 eliminating the need for special subroutine names
1603 + PIR parser/compiler does not stop on first syntax error
1604 + Vanilla register allocator ("register alligator") greatly improves
1605 performance compiling large functions
1606 + Eliminated limit on number of PIR macros
1608 + hash lookups return null instead of None for missing keys
1610 + PDD13 "Bytecode files: format and manipulation" - new
1611 + PDD10 "Embedding" - new
1612 + PDD25 "Concurrency" - rewritten
1613 + PDD15 "Objects" - new section on redesign requirements
1614 + PDD07 "Coding standards" - significant updates and automated tests
1616 + Many many more new tests
1618 + autoconf compatible install options
1620 + Namespace refinements
1621 + Coroutine improvements
1622 + An impressive swarm of other bugfixes and enhancements
1626 - New languages: Ruby ("Cardinal"), Javascript ("ecmascript")
1627 - Updated languages: Tcl, dotnet, bc, Pheme, Punie, WMLScript
1628 - Updated compilers: PGE, TGE
1630 + ".loadlib" directive expresses dependencies
1631 + ".namespace" with no parameter goes to HLL root
1632 + lexer is reentrant (reentrant grammar in progress)
1633 - Namespace improvements:
1634 + new suite of opcodes to access namespaces and globals
1635 ("find_global" and "store_global" will be phased out)
1636 + namespace '' no longer means HLL root
1637 - Design document updates:
1638 namespaces (pdd23), basic types (pdd17), embedding
1639 - Updated tool requirements for developers:
1640 flex 2.5.33, bison 2.1, perl 5.6.1
1641 - New to-do list for people new to Parrot:
1643 - The usual plethora of bugfixes and enhancements
1647 - unicode subroutine names
1648 - hierarchical class names finished including MMD support
1649 - new dotnet CLI to PIR translator
1650 - improved TGE code and compiler
1651 - APL: vector handling
1652 - new STM branch in the svn repository
1653 - the usual bugfixes and enhancements
1657 - hierarchical class names
1660 - understands simple vector ops, strings
1661 - demonstrates use of Unicode in Parrot
1662 - pgc, a compiler for rules and operator precedence parsers
1663 - Major redesign and improvements for PGE
1664 - compilers understand named parameter options
1665 - :ratchet option implemented to support non-backtracking quantifiers
1666 - TGE (tree grammar engine) for tree transformations
1667 - tgc, tree grammar compiler
1669 - support for many operators, lexical scalars, regex matches
1670 - new pheme (Parrot scheme) compiler
1674 - namespaces partially implemented
1675 - rulec, Perl 6 rule compiler
1676 - PGE improvements including return values for closure
1677 - parts of a Perl 6 parser based on PGE
1678 - complex trigonometric methods
1679 - type of Sub PMC is now overridable by HLL
1681 - many bug fixes and improvements
1685 - improved PPC and x86 JIT support including JIT compilation
1686 of very simple PASM/PIR subroutines
1687 - preliminary libreadline support
1688 - better trace and debug features
1690 - META.yml to support proper indexing on CPAN
1691 - new opcode: hcf (in "my_ops" in dynamic op library)
1692 - new File pmc for file specific ops (is_dir, is_file, copy, rename...)
1693 - named arguments and parameters (both :named("") and => syntaxes)
1694 - ongoing config improvements
1695 - tons of bug fixes and other small improvements - too much to list all
1699 - Installation: 'make install' is using standard locations now
1700 (/usr/local is the default --prefix)
1701 - Produce static and shared libraries on some systems
1702 - Configure system rearragement
1703 - OS pmc started (mkdir,cd,cwd,rm,umask,stat)
1705 - Test files are now testable with 'prove'
1706 - Smoke (and smokej) outputs progress
1707 - PIR supports: I = A < B (>,<=,>=,==,!=)
1708 - Add support for octal number constants
1710 - almost finish [string]; start [file]
1711 - add build tool for generating inline'd tcl builtins from templates.
1712 - Jako updates: NCI, subroutines, global variables and constants all work.
1717 - New lexical handling and closure support including better
1718 introspection for caller and outer
1719 - PGE (Parrot Grammar Engine) provides now compilers for P6Rule,
1720 P6Grammar, P5Regexp, and Glob
1721 - ca. 1000 new tests including 800 for Perl5 regexp
1722 - Improved unicode charset and encoding support
1723 - Calling conventions for exception handlers
1724 - Punie (Perl 1) uses TGE (Tree Grammar Engine) to convert from
1725 PGE match objects to AST via two steps of tree transformation grammars
1726 - New languages: amber and lua
1727 - The usual code fixes, cleanup, and improvements, including an overhaul
1728 of the config and test framework
1732 - Variable sized register frames are finished. Each subroutine gets
1733 the amount of registers that it actually needs. No more spilling.
1734 - Vastly improved PGE (Parrot Grammar Engine) including shift-reduce,
1735 precedence-based expression parser and support for matching of
1736 bracketed text delimited by e.g. ()[]{}'"
1737 - uniccode character classification (is_upper ...)
1738 - support for heredoc syntax in assembler
1739 - improved examples, basic JSON support
1740 - debian packaging support
1741 - the usual improvements, bug fixes, and cleanup
1742 - test count exceeds 3000
1746 - New calling conventions implemented: see PDD03 for details
1747 - Merge multiple Parrot bytecode (PBC) files into a singe PBC file
1748 - 'make smoke' target going beta
1749 - bc now supports if statements, comparison ops, prefix inc/dec
1750 - ParTcl adds [lassign], [switch] (partially); [expr] converted to a compiler
1751 - Many exciting doc updates, tests, and bugfixes, too numerous to mention
1755 - Dynamic classes now compile on Windows (including ParTcl)
1756 - New Super PMC allows easy access to superclass methods
1757 - Implement C3 method resolution order (just like Perl 6 & Python)
1758 - ParTcl has new PIR-based parser and passes more Tcl tests
1759 - added character class support in Globs to PGE
1760 - added language implementations of unlambda, Lazy-k
1761 - many bugfixes, including GC and memory leaks
1762 - the new calling scheme continued to evolve in branches/leo-ctx5
1766 - new call scheme: docs/pdds/pdd03_calling_conventions.pod
1767 - partial implementation of the new calling conventions
1768 PASM only, don't mix PIR foo() call syntax with the new scheme
1769 - grammar and rule support in PGE - the Parrot Grammar Engine
1770 - TCL passes >10% of the tcl test suite
1771 - the usual bugfixes and improvements
1775 - better HLL support (short names for object attributes, and
1776 .HLL and n_operators pragmas)
1777 - string encoding and charset can now be set independently
1778 - experimental mmap IO layer for slurping files
1779 - distinct debug and trace flag settings
1780 - glob support in PGE
1781 - new character classification opcodes and interfaces
1785 - parrot repository is now under subversion
1786 - MMD (Multi Method Dispatch) enhanced
1787 - new unary and infix opcodes that return new result PMCs
1788 - dynamic scalar PMCs inherit now almost all from Parrot core PMCs
1789 - more unification of PMCs and ParrotObjects
1790 - tailcalls for functions and methods
1791 - PGE (Parrot Grammar Engine) reworked
1792 - Pugs creates Parrot code and Pugs is a registered compiler now
1793 - new languages/lisp
1794 - the usual bug fixes and improvements
1798 - New string handling code. Strings now have charset and encoding
1799 - Parts of a generation garbage collector
1800 - Better Python code, separated in dynclasses
1801 - Parrot Grammar Engine
1802 - Improved test coverage and documentation
1806 Parrot 0.1.1 is an intermediate release with tons of updates and fixes.
1807 - Python support: Parrot runs 4/7 of the pie-thon test suite
1808 - Better OS support: more platforms, compiler, OS functions
1809 - Improved PIR syntax for method calls and <op>= assignment
1810 - Dynamic loading reworked including a "make install" target
1811 - MMD - multi method dispatch for binary vtable methods
1812 - Library improvement and cleanup
1813 - BigInt, Complex, *Array, Slice, Enumerate, None PMC classes
1814 - IA64 and hppa JIT support
1815 - Tons of fixes, improvements, new tests, and documentation updates.
1816 A lot is unfinished and keeps changing. Nethertheless Parrot is stable
1817 and usable at the surface, while internals are moving.
1820 - "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you... objects!"
1821 - Huge documentation overhaul
1822 - More supported platforms, s. PLATFORMS
1823 - Basic thread support for pthread based architectures
1824 - Basic event handling for timers and signals including:
1825 - PASM callbacks for NCI (native C) functions.
1826 - Improved platform configuration
1827 - COW stacks now working, stacks code redone
1828 - Structure handling vastly improved
1829 - Random PMC and rand primitives
1830 - Better subroutine call syntax in PIR
1831 - Make PIR subroutines compliant with pdd03
1832 - Improved profiling (DOD, GC timings)
1833 - Hash code improvements, incl. random key order support
1834 - Experimental freeze/thaw code for some PMC types
1835 - IO improvements for buffered layer and Win32
1837 - String bitwise vtables
1839 - Support for JIT, where malloced memory isn't executable
1840 - Priority DOD scheme for objects that need timely destruction
1841 - Improved byte code loading (e.g. onLoad functions)
1842 - Language updates: forth, Perl 6/P6C, m4
1843 - Libraries: Getopt_Long, SDL, Dumper, Sort
1845 - Unified imcc and parrot test handling
1846 - Many new tests (make test reports 1386 tests)
1847 - Numerous bug fixes
1850 - The Big Move: Parrot source and build files rearranged into sub dirs
1851 - Build imcc as parrot
1852 - Objects more finished
1853 - Delegate vtable methods to byte code
1854 - Binary multi-method dispatching
1855 - Isa and does methods for PMCs
1856 - Call byte code from C
1857 - Start of extension interface
1858 - Experimental struct handling
1859 - Catch access to NULL PMCs
1860 - Experimental network socket interface code and opcodes
1861 - IO fixes and improvements
1862 - Dynamic opcode libraries
1863 - Fix-assigned opcode numbers
1864 - Argument flattening for function calls
1865 - More native call interface (NCI) signatures
1866 - Ncurses, postgres, and pcre interface libraries
1867 - Forth language is vastly improved
1868 - BSD and Win32 build improvements
1869 - Many new tests and fixes
1872 - This number intentionally left blank
1876 - Dynamic PMC registration
1877 - Trial exception system
1878 - Beginnings of object system
1881 - I/O system improvements
1883 - Documentation for basic PMC types
1884 - IMCC support of Parrot Calling Conventions
1885 - Runtime loading of chartypes (and other string improvements)
1886 - Conditional breakpoints
1887 - Dramatically accelerated sweeps for finalizable objects
1888 - Small PMCs (PMCs split into core and extensions)
1889 - Loadable bytecode packfiles
1891 - Sub variants that deal with the stack correctly
1892 - Switched runops core
1893 - Line numbers in warnings
1894 - Environment access
1895 - Many documentation cleanups
1896 - Conversion to CPS style!
1897 - BASIC debugger and many other wacky features
1898 - Filename, line number parsing support in IMCC
1903 - some more benchmarking
1905 - optimized math ops
1906 - intersegment branches
1907 - more complete use of PObjs
1908 - beefed up packfiles
1909 - sub/continuation/coroutine fixes
1910 - better NCI (native calling interface)
1911 - many imcc improvements
1916 - Native function calling interface (Dan)
1917 - Stack/list aggregate rewrite (Leo)
1918 - Scratchpads (Jonathan Sillito)
1919 - Preliminary DotGNU support -- type conversion ops (Gopal V + Leo)
1920 - Buffer/PMC unification (Leo)
1921 - stabs debugging support for JIT (Leo)
1922 - Jako overhaul (Gregor)
1923 - Optional Lea allocator (Leo)
1924 - Parrot sprintf (Brent)
1926 - PMC Properties (Dan)
1927 - Various JIT improvements (D. Grunblatt + Leo)
1928 - Extensible packfiles (Juergen)
1929 - Restructured PMC hierarchy (Leo)
1930 - Real Scheme (Juergen)
1934 - Several new grammars and a BNF -> perl5 and perl6 converter (Jeff)
1935 - Working Perl 6 REs (Sean)
1936 - Keyed Access (Tom Hughes et al)
1937 - New PMCs (Alberto et al)
1938 - Better Documentation
1940 - GC acceleration (Mike Lambert)
1941 - Lexical scope (Jonathan Sillito)
1947 - Perl 6 Grammar and Compiler (Sean)
1948 - Subroutines, coroutines, and continuations (Melvin)
1949 - GC improvements (Peter Gibbs, Mike Lambert)
1950 - Global variables (Melvin)
1951 - Intermediate bytecode compiler (Melvin, Angel)
1952 - And much, much more.
1956 - New assembler that support keyed types (Jeff)
1957 - New macro layer, allowing constants (Jeff)
1958 - New Configure.pl (Brent)
1959 - Changes to bytecode format, endian issues resolved (Melvin)
1960 - GC improvements and bug fixes (Peter Gibbs, Mike Lambert)
1961 - JIT compiler rewrite (Jason and Daniel)
1962 - Parrot assembler in Parrot (Daniel)
1963 - Parrot debugger (Daniel)
1964 - BASIC polished, Eliza.bas is new (Clint)
1965 - Cola compiler committed and working, with limited OOP (Melvin)
1966 - Keyed aggregates (Steve Fink)
1967 - Global ops (Melvin)
1968 - Compile-time speedup (Melvin)
1969 - Much documentation
1971 - Contributed tetris and lzw files
1972 - And many more, from the cast of thousands
1977 - Perl Scalar support in PMCs
1978 - Array and Hash types almost ready for prime-time
1979 - Internal support for keyed types
1980 - EMACS editing mode
1982 - New Language - BASIC
1983 - Regular expression compiler
1985 - Many, many bug fixes, enhancements, and speedups
1989 - Arena-based memory allocation system
1992 - "Predereferencing" mode - ./parrot -P - 22% speedup
1993 - JIT compiler - ./parrot -j
1994 - Parrot now builds warnings-clean on many platforms
1995 - Many more PMC methods implemented
1996 - Regular expression operations
1998 - Basic support for embedding Parrot in other programs
2000 - Added PDDs to distribution
2004 - Added an assembly optimizer
2005 - Improved string encoding/type support
2007 - Source reformatting
2008 - Major refactoring in packfile library
2009 - More Miniperl functionality
2010 - New PMC "clone" operator
2011 - Beginnings of key-based access to PMCs - arrays and hashes
2012 - MOPS comparisons in examples/mops/
2017 - Perl base scalar types implemented
2018 - A new minilanguage, Scheme
2019 - Much improved documentation
2020 - Register stacks pushing and popping
2021 - User stack pushing, popping and rotating
2022 - Jako updates: subroutines, more example programs, optimizations
2023 - test_prog renamed to 'parrot'
2025 - Added features to the assembler: @ for current location, and global
2027 - Build tweaks for VMS
2028 - Bytecode typing clean-ups
2029 - More platforms: OS X, HPUX, OS/2
2030 - The proliferation of runops cores reduced to one fast and one slow one
2031 - Opcode tracing, bounds checking, profiling
2032 - Vastly improved string support, with separation of encoding and
2035 - Multiple interpreter creation support - the beginnings of threading
2036 - Much better resource handling - the beginnings of GC
2040 - Parrot now works on all core platforms
2041 - A large number of tests, in the standard Perl testing framework
2042 - A new minilanguage (Jako) which compiles to Parrot assembly
2043 - Documentation about the assembly language (docs/parrot_assembly.pod)
2045 - Separate modules for assembly (Parrot::Assemble) and bytecode
2046 manipulation (Parrot::PackFile::*, packfile.c)
2047 - Assembler completely rewritten
2048 - Better operand-type guessing in the assembler
2049 - Assembler support for '\n' etc. in string constants
2050 - Code reformatted to match the coding standards
2051 - New ops for register-constant INTEGER comparisons
2052 - Macro expansion in the assembler
2053 - IVs and NVs renamed to more friendly INTVAL and NUMVAL
2054 - Hard-coded pack("") formats removed
2055 - Better handling of floating-point numbers in assembler
2056 - Moved floats to constant table (fixing many alignment issues)