CMUCL version 19a will be released at the end of July. We would
appreciate help in testing the prerelease binaries that are available
for various platforms. Here's how you can help test:
- download the pre3 binaries for your platform
- read the release notes
- try to compile and run your favorite applications (note that FASL
files from this release are binary-incompatible with previous
CMUCL releases; you will need to recompile all source files)
- report any problems you encounter to the cmucl-help mailing list
(see <URL:http://www.cons.org/cmucl/support.html> for details of our
mailing lists)
This release will include a number of significant changes from CMUCL 18e,
that are detailed in the release notes:
- significant improvements to the CLOS implementation
- a package locking mechanism has been added
- overflows of the lisp control stack are detected
- a precise generational garbage collector for SPARC
- compile-time format-string checking
- modular arithmetic on x86 and SPARC
- many ANSI compliance problems identified by Paul Dietz's test suite
have been fixed
Prerelease binaries for x86/Linux, x86/FreeBSD and SPARC/Solaris can
be downloaded from the following URLs (the "pre3" binaries are the
ones you want). Documentation for this new release is also available
in the same directory, in the file "cmu-user.pdf".
<URL:ftp://ftp.common-lisp.net/pub/project/cmucl/release/19a/>
<URL:ftp://ftp.tepus.com/pub/project/cmucl/release/19a/>
=== Things to test
Some aspects of CMUCL are platform-dependent, so would be particularly
useful to test:
- try loading shared object files and ".o" object files using the
function EXT:LOAD-FOREIGN, and check that you can resolve symbols
in these libraries and call the corresponding functions. For
example:
,----
| CL-USER> (ext:load-foreign "/usr/lib/libcrypt.so")
| ;;; Opening shared library /usr/lib/libcrypt.so ...
| ;;; Done.
| nil
| CL-USER> (alien:alien-funcall
| (alien:extern-alien "crypt"
| (function c-call:c-string c-call:c-string
c-call:c-string))
| "key" "salt")
| ; Compiling lambda (#:g1469 #:g1470 #:g1471):
| ; Compiling Top-Level Form:
| "sacA7YLUSAodg"
`----
- try dumping an customized CMUCL image (using the function
EXT:SAVE-LISP) and restarting it.
If you have installed the "extra" tarball for your platform, you can
help test the CLX support, the Motif interface and the Hemlock editor.
- try connecting to your X11 display:
,----
| CL-USER> (require :clx)
| ; Loading #p"/opt/cmucl-19a-pre3/lib/cmucl/lib/subsystems/clx-library.x86f".
| t
| CL-USER> (ext:open-clx-display)
| #<xlib:display localhost:10 (The XFree86 Project, Inc R40300001)>
| #<xlib:screen localhost:10.0 1152x864x15 true-color>
`----
- try using the Motif debugger and inspector:
,----
| CL-USER> (require :clm)
| ; Loading #p"/opt/cmucl-19a-pre3/lib/cmucl/lib/subsystems/clm-library.x86f".
| t
| CL-USER> (inspect *package*)
`----
- try using the Hemlock editor:
,----
| CL-USER> (require :hemlock)
| CL-USER> (ed)
`----
Thanks for your help!
--
Eric Marsden <URL:http://www.laas.fr/~emarsden/>
