From 4e92f1d7cca5b52c7ac5dbba04d489879db211ca Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Andy Wingo Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2022 20:53:46 +0100 Subject: Update NEWS * NEWS: Update. --- NEWS | 179 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------- 1 file changed, 161 insertions(+), 18 deletions(-) (limited to 'NEWS') diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS index 0a8b771f7..17a4c3961 100644 --- a/NEWS +++ b/NEWS @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes. -Copyright (C) 1996-2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc. +Copyright (C) 1996-2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc. See the end for copying conditions. Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org. @@ -7,24 +7,62 @@ Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org. Changes in 3.0.8 (since 3.0.7) -* Bug fixes - -** Fix compilation of (ash x N), where N is a literal, at -O1 and below -** Texinfo and XML parsers are now thread-safe - () - -* New deprecations - -** Vector functions require vector arguments - -Passing arrays that are not vectors (arrays for which `(vector? array)' -returns false) to functions `vector-move-left!', `vector-move-right!', -`vector->list', and `vector-copy' is deprecated. Use `array-copy!', -`array-copy', and `array->list' for such arguments. - -** `scm_from_contiguous_typed_array' is deprecated +* Notable changes -This function was undocumented. +** Cross-module inlining + +Although historically Guile has treated modules as glorified hash +tables, most modules are actually _declarative_ -- they just define +functions and variables and provide them for other modules to use, and +don't manipulate modules as first-class objects. See "Declarative +Modules" in the manual. + +Since version 3.0.0, Guile has taken advantage of declarative semantics +to allow a top-level definition to be inlined within its uses in the +same compilation unit, provided the binding is never assigned and +defined exactly once. Guile 3.0.8 extends this to allow some +exported declarative definitions to be inlined into other modules. + +This facility is mostly transparent to the user and is enabled at the +default -O2 optimization level. "Small" definitions are available for +cross-module inlining (-Oinlinable-exports, included at -O2). The +actual inlining decision is performed by Guile's partial evaluation pass +(-Ocross-module-inlining, included at -O2 also), subject to effort and +size growth counters. + +Note however that as with macros, when a definition changes in module A, +a separately compiled module B that uses that definition doesn't +automatically get recompiled. This is a limitation in Guile that we +would like to fix. + +As another limitation, cross-module inlining is only available for +imports from modules which have already been compiled at -O2 (or +otherwise with -Oinlinable-exports). + +When determining whether to enable this facility by default, we weighed +the usability problems of stale inlined bindings against the benefit of +allowing module boundaries to no longer be optimization boundaries, we +ended up on the "let's do it!" side of the equation. However we welcome +feedback from users as to what should be the default behavior, until +such a time as we have a proper notion of when a compiled file is stale +or not. + +** Avoid the need for a custom GMP allocator + +In Guile 3.0.6, we fixed a longstanding bug in Guile's use of the +library that Guile uses to implement bignums, GMP. See the Guile 3.0.6 +release notes. However this left us with a suboptimal Guile, in which +each large integer had to have a finalizer. Finalizers take time and +space, and so they limit allocation rate, causing bignum performance to +drop. Though you could set an environment variable to go back to the +older, faster behavior, it wasn't the default. + +In Guile 3.0.8 we fix this problem comprehensively by avoiding embedding +GMP's mpz_t values in Guile bignums. Instead we embed the bignum bits +digits directly, avoiding the need for finalizers or custom allocators. +This removes the need for the GUILE_INSTALL_GMP_MEMORY_FUNCTIONS +environment variable mentioned in the Guile 3.0.6 release notes. We +also deprecate the scm_install_gmp_memory_functions variable. * New interfaces and functionality @@ -62,6 +100,111 @@ See "Bit vectors" in the manual. The types `complex-float' and `complex-double' stand for C99 `float _Complex' and `double _Complex` respectively. +* Other new optimizations + +** Better optimization of "let" in right-hand-side of "letrec" + +** Allow constant-folding for calls to "expt" + +Thanks to Maxime Devos. + +** Add ,optimize-cps REPL meta-command + +This meta-command is like ,optimize, but at a lower level. + +** Improve alias analysis in CSE + +** Avoid argument-count checks for well-typed calls to known procedures + +This speeds up calls to lexically bound procedures. + +** Avoid return-value-count checks for calls to known-return-arity procedures + +This new optimization, enabled at -O2, speeds up returns from calls to +lexically bound procedures. + +* Build system changes + +** Update Gnulib (bugs.gnu.org/49930) + +Update gnulib to 8f4538a53d64054ae2fc8b86c0f87c418c6176e6. + +** Compile libguile with -flto if available + +By default, if the compiler supports link-time optimization via the +-flto flag, Guile will add it to CFLAGS. This results in a libguile +that is approximately 15% smaller. Pass --disable-lto to configure to +inhibit this behavior. + +** Trim set of prebuilt .go files shipped in the tarball + +Guile includes built Scheme files in its tarball to speed up the build, +for casual builders that are less concerned with reproducibility. +However they took a lot of space and we have now trimmed these down to a +more minimal set. As always, you can remove them and build entirely +from source via a `make -C prebuilt clean`. + +* New deprecations + +** Vector functions require vector arguments + +Passing arrays that are not vectors (arrays for which `(vector? array)' +returns false) to functions `vector-move-left!', `vector-move-right!', +`vector->list', and `vector-copy' is deprecated. Use `array-copy!', +`array-copy', and `array->list' for such arguments. + +** `scm_from_contiguous_typed_array' is deprecated + +This function was undocumented. + +** Deprecate the "simple vector" concept + +This concept meant to indicate "vectors which aren't array slices". +Deprecate scm_is_simple_vector; instead use scm_is_vector. + +** Deprecate `scm_from_contiguous_typed_array' + +This function was added during the Guile 2.x series and was not +documented and is no longer used in Guile itself. + +** Deprecate internal contiguous array flag + +We still reserve space for the flag to preserve ABI but it has no +effect. As such we also remove the internal SCM_I_ARRAY_CONTIGUOUS, +SCM_SET_ARRAY_CONTIGUOUS_FLAG, SCM_CLR_ARRAY_CONTIGUOUS_FLAG, +SCM_I_ARRAY_CONTP preprocessor interfaces, as they were internal and +there is no longer a sensible way of using them. + +* Bug fixes + +** Fix compilation of (ash x N), where N is a literal, at -O1 and below +** Texinfo and XML parsers are now thread-safe (bugs.gnu.org/51264) +** Fix `filename-completion-function' in (ice-9 readline) +** Fix trace-calls-to-procedure (bugs.gnu.org/43102, bugs.gnu.org/48412) +** Fix bug in nftw function (bugs.gnu.org/44182) +** Fix optimization bug in CSE in eq-constant? if both branches same +** Fix readline initialization with invalid keymaps +** Fix crash when reading #nil (bugs.gnu.org/49305) +** Fix read error when reading #{}}#. +** Fix Darwin host detection in foreign-library facility. +** Fix unification of (x ...) patterns in `match' +** Fix scaling floats with leading zeroes in `format' +** Improve support for r7rs-style `(srfi N)' and r6rs-style `(srfi :N) + module names (bugs.gnu.org/39601, bugs.gnu.org/40371) +** Add support for the ARC architecture (bugs.gnu.org/48816) +** Build fix for const strerror result (bugs.gnu.org/43987) +** Fix typos in SRFI documentation (bugs.gnu.org/50127) +** Fix bounds check in `recvfrom!' (bugs.gnu.org/45595) +** Add support for riscv32 +** Limit `ash' to left-shift by 2^32 bits (bugs.gnu.org/48150) +** Fix type confusion in heap-numbers-equal? calls from VM + +Hearty thanks to Jakub Wojciech, Robin Green, Daniel Llorens, Matija +Obid, RhodiumToad, Rob Browning, Maxime Devos, Aleix Conchillo Flaqué, +Timothy Sample, d4ryus, Fabrice Fontaine, Taylan Kammer, Vineet Gupta, +Philipp Klaus Krause, Arun Isaac, and Alex Shinn. + + Changes in 3.0.7 (since 3.0.6) -- cgit v1.2.1