VERSION.txt

0.1.6

######

0.1.5

This is the 14th release of ATS2, the successor of the ATS
programming language. The compiler for ATS2 is given the name
ATS/Positats, ATS2/Postiats or simply Postiats.

The official website for ATS is:

http://www.ats-lang.org

ATS-Postiats is hosted at github:

https://github.com/githwxi/ATS-Postiats

Major releases of ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang/

Major releases of external packages for ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang-contrib/

Here is a list of major additions and changes since the last release:

1. Supporting %(...) in macro definitions
   #define N 10
   #define N2 %(N + 1) // it is the same as: #define N1 11
   #define N2 %(N * N1) // it is the same as: #define N2 110
2. Issuing an error message if the size of a stack-allocated array
   cannot be determined at compile-time.
3. Fixing bug-2014-10-29 (see doc/BUGS), which caused an error in
   compiling embedded function templates.
4. Improving ats2langweb/Implements.html
5. Fixing bug-2014-11-14 (see doc/BUGS), which caused an error in
   compiling mutually tail-recursive functions
6. Fixing bug-2014-11-14-2 (see doc/BUGS), which caused an error in
   compiling inner functions defined inside mutually tail-recursive
   functions
7. Improving the implementation of ATSLIB/prelude/list_vt_mergesort
8. Supporting compilation from ATS to Perl: atscc2pl
9. Issuing the special comment #LINCONSTATUS==i to show the kind of
   an allocated constructor:
   i=0 => linear data constructor
   i=1 => nonlinear data constructor
   i=2 => nonlinear tuple constructor

######

0.1.4

<pre>

This is the 13th release of ATS2, the successor of the ATS
programming language. The compiler for ATS2 is given the name
ATS/Positats, ATS2/Postiats or simply Postiats.

The official website for ATS is:

http://www.ats-lang.org

ATS-Postiats is hosted at github:

https://github.com/githwxi/ATS-Postiats

Major releases of ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang/

Major releases of external packages for ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang-contrib/

Here is a list of major additions and changes since the last release:

1. Fixing the initialization of stacked allocated arrays:
   var A0 = @[int][4]() // A0 = ?,?,?,?
   var A1 = @[int][4](1) // A1 = 1,1,1,1
   var A2 = @[int][4](1,2) // A2 = 1,2,1,2
   var A3 = @[int][4](1,2,3) // A3 = 1,2,3,1
   var A4 = @[int][4](1,2,3,4) // A4 = 1,2,3,4
   var A5 = @[int][4](1,2,3,4,5) // A5 = 1,2,3,4
2. Fixing hidexp_is_lvalue:
   handling sequencing-expressions is supported
3. Support for lazy-evaluation is added to atscc2js 
4. ATStmpdec_void(...) is commented out in the generated C code
5. [patscc] is given a flag '-verbose' for controlling verbosity
(*
# HX: it is dropped:
6. [patscc] now passes the flag -Wl,warn-common to [gcc] by default
*)

</pre>

######

0.1.3

<pre>

This is the 12th release of ATS2, the successor of the ATS
programming language. The compiler for ATS2 is given the name
ATS/Positats, ATS2/Postiats or simply Postiats.

The official website for ATS is:

http://www.ats-lang.org

ATS-Postiats is hosted at github:

https://github.com/githwxi/ATS-Postiats

Major releases of ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang/

Major releases of external packages for ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang-contrib/

Here is a list of major additions and changes since the last release:

1. Adding support for dot-notation overloading in assignments.
   This feature is mostly for interacting ATS with other languages.
   See ATS2TUTORIAL/CHAP_DOTOVERLD for a short article of explanation.
2. Adding support for functional style o dot-notation overloading.
   This feature makes it very convenient for ATS to interact with OOP.
3. Generally improving level-2 jsonization (pats_dynexp2_jsonize)
4. Adding support for extvar decl. (which is different from $extval):
   extval "external_name" = internal_value
5. ATS_DYNLOADFLAG is set to 1 by default only for DATS-files. So
   dynloading SATS-files is no longer necessary (but it is still harmless).
6. Adding support for $extmcall(ret_type, obj, "method", arglst),
   which translates into the method invocation: obj.method(arglst)
7. Adding -D_ATS_ARRAY_FIELD to safe-guard using array fields in records

</pre>

######

0.1.2

<pre>

This is the 11th release of ATS2, the successor of the ATS
programming language. The compiler for ATS2 is given the name
ATS/Positats, ATS2/Postiats or simply Postiats.

The official website for ATS is:

http://www.ats-lang.org

ATS-Postiats is hosted at github:

https://github.com/githwxi/ATS-Postiats

Major releases of ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang/

Major releases of external packages for ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang-contrib/

Here is a list of major additions and changes since the last release:

1. Adding support for complements of char patterns (P2TCcharc)
2. Adding support for a packaging value (#[...|...]) to be used as a funarg
3. Modifying the target language of ATS/Postiats to support ATS-parse-emit
4. Adding support for explicitly naming dynload-functions:
   #define ATS_DYNLOADNAME ...
5. Adding support for attaching a prefix to names of static vars and funs:
   #define ATS_STATIC_PREFIX ...
</pre>

######

0.1.1
<pre>

This is the tenth release of ATS2, the successor of the ATS
programming language. The compiler for ATS2 is given the name
ATS/Positats, ATS2/Postiats or simply Postiats.

The official website for ATS is:

http://www.ats-lang.org

ATS-Postiats is hosted at github:

https://github.com/githwxi/ATS-Postiats

Major releases of ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang/

Major releases of external packages for ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang-contrib/

Here is a list of major additions and changes since the last release:

1. Adding support for checking funarg-pattern exhaustiveness
2. Adding run-time support for handling funarg-pattern matching failure
3. Default namespace is assumed for staloadloc if none is given explicitly.
4. Stopping non-template constants from being implemented in the body of a
   function (during type-checking)
5. Improving/fixing libats/stringbuf
6. Supporting the compilation of list-patterns:
   val+ $list(x1, x2, x3) = $list_t{int}(1, 2, 3)
   val () = assertloc (x1 = 1 && x2 = 2 && x3 = 3)
   val+ $list(x1, x2, x3) = $list_vt{int}(1, 2, 3) // freed
   val () = assertloc (x1 = 1 && x2 = 2 && x3 = 3)
7. Improving/fixing libats/deqarray and libats/dynarray

</pre>

######

0.1.0
<pre>

This is the nineth release of ATS2, the successor of the ATS
programming language. The compiler for ATS2 is given the name
ATS/Positats, ATS2/Postiats or simply Postiats.

The official website for ATS is:

http://www.ats-lang.org

ATS-Postiats is hosted at github:

https://github.com/githwxi/ATS-Postiats

Major releases of ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang/

Major releases of external packages for ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang-contrib/

Here is a list of major additions and changes since the last release:

1. Moving ATS-Postiats/contrib out to ATS-Postiats-contrib
2. Fixing a bug causing embedded template instantiation to fail;
   please see doc/BUGS/bug-2014-05-05.dats for some details on this bug
3. Fixing a bug that may cause fnx-compilation in a template to fail
4. Making atspkgreloc_curl and atspkgreloc_wget available for package
   relocation
5. Fixing the minor bug recorded in doc/BUGS/bug-2014-05-17.dats
6. Implementing libats/hashtbl_linprb (hashtable via linear-probing)
7. Adding some rudimentary support for multi-threaded programming:
   ATS-Positiats-contrib/contrib/libats-hwxi/teaching/mythread/*
   Please see ATS-Positiats-contrib/projects/MEDIUM/SHOOTOUT/ATS2/*

</pre>

######

0.0.8
<pre>

This is the eighth release of ATS2, the successor of the ATS
programming language. The compiler for ATS2 is given the name
ATS/Positats, ATS2/Postiats or simply Postiats.

The official website for ATS is:

http://www.ats-lang.org

ATS-Postiats is hosted at github:

https://github.com/githwxi/ATS-Postiats

Major releases of ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang/

Major releases of external packages for ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang-contrib/

Here is a list of major additions and changes since the last release:

1. Adding libc/signal to support Unix-like signal handling
2. Adding contrib/kernelats to support kernel programming in ATS
3. Adding contrib/libats-hwxi/array_p to support a simpler form of
   static array-bounds checking
4. Fixing a bug/typo in handling stream-based lazy evaluation
5. Improving contrib/GTK significantly
6. Both CFLAGS and LDFLAGS can be defined for building ATS2:
   make CFLAGS=... LDFLAGS=... -f Makefile
7. Adding support for on-line package relocation (atspkgreloc):
   patsopt --pkgreloc ...
8. Adding contrib/openssl into ATS2-contrib for the first time

</pre>

######

0.0.7
<pre>

This is the seventh release of ATS2, the successor of the ATS
programming language. The compiler for ATS2 is given the name
ATS/Positats, ATS2/Postiats or simply Postiats.

The official website for ATS is:

http://www.ats-lang.org

ATS-Postiats is hosted at github:

https://github.com/githwxi/ATS-Postiats

Major releases of ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang/

Major releases of external packages for ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang-contrib/

Here is a list of major additions and changes since the last release:

1. Supporting stack-allocated closures
2. Fixing errmsg for a non-template being treated as a template
3. Changing default funclo-kind from FUNCLOptr to FUNCLOref
4. Fixing level-4 errmsg handling
5. Fixing a bug in the handling of lte_cls_cls (see: bug-2014-03-12)
6. Supporting creation of aliases for namespaces:
   staload $UNSAFE // opening the namespace $UNSAFE
   staload UN = $UNSAFE // forming an alias for $UNSAFE
7. Supporting creation of local namespaces // to-be-explained
8. Supporting tcc-0.9.26 for compiling C code generated from ATS source

</pre>

######

0.0.6
<pre>

This is the sixth release of ATS2, the successor of the ATS
programming language. The compiler for ATS2 is given the name
ATS/Positats, ATS2/Postiats or simply Postiats.

The official website for ATS is:

http://www.ats-lang.org

ATS-Postiats is hosted at github:

https://github.com/githwxi/ATS-Postiats

Major releases of ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang/

Major releases of external packages for ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang-contrib/

Here is a list of major additions and changes since the last release:

1. Symbol for overloading no longer require to be declared first.
2. Adding libats-hwxi/cstream for supporting a simple style of lexing
3. Adding a direct API for Simple DirectMedia Layer 2.0 (SDL2).
4. Both static/extern function names are now stamped at the end.
5. Fixing a bug in pattern matching: left-values should be dereferenced!
6. Polymorphic data constructors no longer require explicit type arguments
   (for compilation purpose)
7. Handling of template parameters is greatly improved.

</pre>

######

0.0.5
<pre>
This is the fifth release of ATS2, the successor of the ATS
programming language. The compiler for ATS2 is given the name
ATS/Positats, ATS2/Postiats or simply Postiats.

The official website for ATS is:

http://www.ats-lang.org

ATS-Postiats is hosted at github:

https://github.com/githwxi/ATS-Postiats

Major releases of ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang/

Major releases of external packages for ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang-contrib/

Here is a list of major additions and changes since the last release:

1. Fixing a glitch in initializing flat boxed-singleton records
   (see doc/BUGS/bug-2013-11-29)
2. Adding support for jsonizing level-2 syntax trees; this is planned
   for support tasks like meta-programming, constraint-exporting, etc.
3. Adding support for exporting constraints gathered during typechecking
   (command-line flag for this feature: --constraint-export)
4. Fixing bug-2013-12-04 (erroneous compilation of pattern matching)
5. Adding a direct API for the json-c package
6. Adding a direct API for the jansson package
7. Adding a minimal API for the pcre package
8. Adding support for 'static' dynamic constant declarations:
   static fun foo (...): res // this one is equivalent to the next one
   extern fun foo (...): res = "sta#" // it is equivalent to the above one
9. Improving support for exporting ATS-types to C
10. Requiring that each declared toplevel function be envless; closures
    need to be declared as values.
11. Supporting the flag -CSignore for patscc to ignore constraint-solving.
    Please only use it with proper justification!

</pre>

######

0.0.4
<pre>

This is the fourth release of ATS2, the successor of the ATS
programming language. The compiler for ATS2 is given the name
ATS/Positats, ATS2/Postiats or simply Postiats.

The official website for ATS is:

http://www.ats-lang.org

ATS-Postiats is hosted at github:

https://github.com/githwxi/ATS-Postiats

Major releases of ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang/

Major releases of external packages for ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang-contrib/

Here is a list of major additions and changes since the last release:

1. Fixing a glitch in handling ATS_DYNLOADFLAG (bug-2013-10-11)
2. Adding -D_ATS_EXCEPTION_NONE support for eliminating the code in the
   run-time of ATS2 that are exception-related.
3. Fixing a glitch in proof-assignment compilation (reported by MD)
4. Allowing overloading declarations to permeates OPENED namespace.
5. Fixing a glitch in handling overloading (bug-2013-10-30 reported by WB)
6. Fixing a glitch in handling flat arrays (bug-2013-10-30-2 reported by WB)
7. Fixing a glitch in handling arrays in structs (bug-2013-11-01 reported by WB)
8. Fixing a glitch in handling implementation of values (bug-2013-11-06 reported by HX)
9. All the occurances of LGPL-2.1 in ATS2/Postiats have been changed to GPL-3.
   LGPL-2.1 still occurs in certain packages contained in ats2-lang-contrib   
10. Supporting that ATS-types be exported for use in C (extern typedef ...)
11. Supporting generation of ats-lang-tags via the command-line flag --taggen

</pre>

######

0.0.3
<pre>

This is the third release of ATS2, the successor of the ATS
programming language. The compiler for ATS2 is given the name
ATS/Positats, ATS2/Postiats or simply Postiats.

The official website for ATS is:

http://www.ats-lang.org

ATS-Postiats is hosted at github:

https://github.com/githwxi/ATS-Postiats

Major releases of ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang/

Major releases of external packages for ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang-contrib/

Here is a list of major additions and changes since the last release:

1. Support for stack-allocated array-variables:
   var A = @[int][10]() // A: array(int?, 10) // uninitialized
   var A = @[int][10](0) // A: array(int, 10) // initialized with 0's
   var A = @[int](0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) // A: array(int, 10)

2. Support for ptr-style of stack-allocated variables:
   var !p_x: int = 0
   var !p_x: int with pf_x = @[int](1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

3. Support for fixed-point expressions:
   val fact = fix f (x: int): int => if x > 0 then x * f (x-1) else 1

4. Support for lazy-evaluation: $delay
   See ${PATSHOME}/doc/EXAMPLE/INTRO/sieve_lazy.dats

5. Support for linear lazy-evaluation: $ldelay
   See ${PATSHOME}/doc/EXAMPLE/INTRO/sieve_llazy.dats

6. Fixing a serious bug in closure compilation: the environment of a
   deeply embedded function could be miscomputed, causing the C target
   code generated from ATS source to contain errors.

</pre>

######

0.0.2
<pre>

Date: September 19, 2013

This is the second release of ATS2, the successor of the ATS
programming language. The compiler for ATS2 is given the name
ATS/Positats, ATS2/Postiats or simply Postiats.

The official website for ATS is:

http://www.ats-lang.org

ATS-Postiats is hosted at github:

https://github.com/githwxi/ATS-Postiats

Major releases of ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang/

Major releases of external packages for ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang-contrib/

Here is a list of major additions and changes since the last release:

1. Support for classdec.
   This feature is primarily for building APIs in ATS for external
   packages written in the OOP-style.

2. Support for ATS-package relocation.
   This feature is primarily for renaming and relocating external ATS
   packages (mostly library APIs). It is supposed to work together with
   atspkgreloc, a tool that does the actual package relocation. The tool
   is yet to be implemented.

3. Support for dot-notation overloading:
//
   symintr .x .y
   extern fun point_get_x (p: point): int
   extern fun point_get_y (p: point): int
   overload .x with point_get_x
   overload .y with point_get_y
//
   These declarations enable the following:
   [p.x] translates into [point_get_x(p)]
   [p.y] translates into [point_get_y(p)]

4. Fixing a very serious bug in pattern-matching compilation

5. Relocating contributed packages from ats2-lang to ats2-lang-contrib

6. Improving atslib: adding code, fixing bugs, improving documentation, etc.

</pre>

######

0.0.1
<pre>

September 2, 2013

This is the first release of ATS2, the successor of the ATS
programming language. The compiler for ATS2 is given the name
ATS/Positats, ATS2/Postiats or simply Postiats.

The official website for ATS is:

http://www.ats-lang.org

ATS-Postiats is hosted at github:

https://github.com/githwxi/ATS-Postiats

Major releases of ATS2 are available at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ats2-lang/

The actual implementation of ATS2 started in the March of 2011, and
it took about two and one-half years to reach this stage. As of now,
the code base for the compiler of ATS2 consists of 140,000+ lines of
code (LOC), which are nearly all written in ATS.

When compared to ATS1, the single most important new feature is the
template system of ATS2. This is a feature that could potentially change
the way a programmer writes his or her code. One can certainly feel that
this is a very powerful feature (a bit like feeling that OOP is a very
powerful feature). However, how this feature should be properly and
effectively used in practice needs a lot more investigation.

Another thing about ATS2 is that it is a lot leaner than ATS. One can make
good use of ATS2 without any need for compiled library (libatslib.a). Also,
GC support in ATS1 is now removed; if needed, third-party GC (e.g.,
Bohem-GC) can be readily employed.

I will gradually list differences between ATS and ATS2, helping people
make the transition from ATS1 to ATS2.

</pre>

###### end of [VERSION.txt] ######