/pub/pike/all/0.6.85/


This is a BETA release, many bugs may still remain!
Note that the beta status is only recorded in this file, if it is
found that this release is sufficiently bug free, this particular
release will be taken out of beta status.

This file will be updated with new information about this release,
please send bug AND success reports to pike@idonex.se so that they
may be recorded in this file.

Successful tests done on:
	Solaris 2.5.1, 2.6, 2.7 (sparc & x86)
	Linux Redhat 4.2
	AIX 4.2
	Digital UNIX 4.0
	FreeBSD 2.2.6
	Windows NT/95 (Pike0685.exe)

Known problems:

o Read hangs has been reported on Solaris 2.6, it is not known whether this
  is a Roxen, Pike or Solaris bug at this time.

o Test 1014 in teststuite.in ( ({1,2,3})/1 ) may fail for some compilers.
  We beleive this is a compiler bug, and are trying to find a workaround.

o for loops using global variables may not re-evaluate the test expression
  properly. To fix this, replace F_GLOBAL on line 1277 in las.c with
  F_IDENTIFIER. Fixed in 0.6.86.

o The configure test for POSIX threads hangs on MkLinux (gravensteiner).
  This is beleived to be a bug in MkLinux.

Changes since 0.6.80:
  o ANNOUNCE fixed
  o crypto testsuite fixed
  o IEEE floating point problems fixed on Solaris
  o Should now compile with gcc on HP-UX
  o catch { return foo(); } should now work
  o A parser-hanging bug fixed
  o Some NT bugfixes included.

  A short summary of changes since 0.5 follows:
	o The compiler is now two-pass, which means that you can access
	  variables and functions declared later in the source without
	  having to use prototypes. The two-pass compiler also makes
	  it possible to use the name of a class from inside itself.

	o It is now possible to access variables and functions in the
	  'parent' class. This greatly simplifies coding in many
	  situations.

	o The process handling has been changed to being object-
	  oriented. For this purpose, a new function has been created:
	  Process.create_process. The returned object can be used
	  as an argument to kill, and has methods which will report
	  the status of the child process.

	o Similar to process handling, threads have been changed to use
	  an object-oriented approach.

	o The 'varargs' keyword has been removed.

	o You can now 'import "dirname"'.

	o The module system has been modified so that the current
	  directory is no longer searched for modules. To use a module
	  in the current directory, you must either use 'import "."'
	  or specify the module as '.module' instead of just 'module'.

	o Lots of bugs have been fixed. :)

	o Implicit blocks have been implemented around if, switch, for,
	  do-while and foreach, this means that the scope of variables
	  such as 'x' in 'if(string x)' ends after the if construct.

	o popen, system and spawn in the Process module have been changed
	  to *NOT* execute /bin/sh on the given string. This is to ensure
	  compatibility with Win32 systems.

Binaries
  There is an NT binary available, see 'Known Problems' before using it.
  Binary releases for UNIX  will be made available if this release is
  found to be worthy of more work.

	/Fredrik Hübinette