4 ** non-x86 ports now pass irrat.pure.lisp
5 ** ports with less than 256Mb of heap (sparc, ppc and mips)
6 now don't fail bit-vector.impure-cload.lisp
7 * faster bootstrapping (both make.sh and slam.sh)
8 ** added mechanisms for automatically finding dead code, and
9 used them to remove dead code
10 ** moved stuff from warm init into cold init where possible
11 (so that slam.sh will run faster and also just because
12 ideally everything would be in cold init)
13 ** profiled and tweaked
14 * fixed (TRACE :REPORT PROFILE ...) interface to profiling
15 * more EVAL/EVAL-WHEN/%COMPILE/DEFUN/DEFSTRUCT cleanup:
16 ** made %COMPILE understand magicality of DEFUN FOO
17 w.r.t. e.g. preexisting inlineness of FOO
18 ** used %COMPILE where COMPILE-TOP-LEVEL used to be used
19 ** removed now-redundant COMPILE-TOP-LEVEL and
20 FUNCTIONAL-KIND=:TOP-LEVEL stuff from the compiler
21 ** (ideally, but perhaps too hard, given what I've discovered
22 about the godawful internals of function debug names):
23 made FUNCTION-NAME logic work on closures, so that
24 various public functions like CL:PACKAGEP which
25 are now implemented as closures (because
26 they're structure slot accessors) won't be so
28 * outstanding embarrassments
29 ** :IGNORE-ERRORS-P cruft in stems-and-flags.lisp-expr. (It's
30 reasonable to support this as a crutch when initially
31 bootstrapping from balky xc hosts with their own
32 idiosyncratic ideas of what merits FAILURE-P, but it's
33 embarrassing to have to use it when bootstrapping
35 * fixups now feasible because of pre7 changes
36 ** ANSIfied DECLAIM INLINE stuff (deprecating MAYBE-INLINE,
37 including e.g. on the man page)
38 ** (maybe) allow INLINE of a recursive function, so that the
40 * miscellaneous simple refactoring
42 ** renamed %PRIMITIVE to %VOP
43 ** A few hundred things named FN and FCN should be
44 named FUN (but maybe not while drichards is
45 working on a Windows port).
46 * These days ANSI C has inline functions, so..
47 ** redid many cpp macros as inline functions:
48 HeaderValue, Pointerp, CEILING, ALIGNED_SIZE,
49 GET_FREE_POINTER, SET_FREE_POINTER,
50 GET_GC_TRIGGER, SET_GC_TRIGGER, GetBSP, SetBSP,
51 os_trunc_foo(), os_round_up_foo()
52 ** removed various avoid-evaluating-C-macro-arg-twice
54 * Either get rid of or at least rework the fdefinition/encapsulation
55 system so that (SYMBOL-FUNCTION 'FOO) is identically equal to
57 * Make the system sources understandable to the system, so that
58 searching for sources doesn't error out quite so often
59 (e.g. in error handlers)
60 ** provided a suitable readtable for reading in the source
61 files when necessary, and a mechanism for activating
62 this readtable rather than the standard one.
63 * Some work on conditions emitted by the system
64 ** eliminated COMPILER-WARN and COMPILER-STYLE-WARN, which
65 were simply limited versions of WARN and STYLE-WARN.
66 ** made STYLE-WARN parallel WARN more closely (by accepting
67 a condition type, which should be a subtype of
68 STYLE-WARNING, and initargs, as well as a format
69 string and format arguments for SIMPLE-STYLE-WARNING.
70 (WARN can also be used to signal STYLE-WARNINGs, but
71 STYLE-WARN helps to document the code)
72 ** eliminated use of INHIBIT-WARNINGS by code emitted by the
73 system from user code.
74 ** caused use of INHIBIT-WARNINGS to signal a STYLE-WARNING.
75 ** eliminated use of INHIBIT-WARNINGS within the system
76 ** deprecated INHIBIT-WARNINGS, causing its use to signal a
78 ** began work on developing a class hierarchy of conditions
80 ** annotated conditions emitted by the system to have
81 references to documentation where applicable, so that
82 users can easily find an explanation for the
83 conditions they're seeing.
85 =======================================================================
88 [ note: much of the below refers to preparation for merging SB-PCL:FOO
89 and CL:FOO. However, it turned out to be surprisingly
90 straightforward to do this notional end goal without doing many of
91 the preparatory operations. That doesn't mean that plenty of the
92 goals below aren't worthwhile, but the motivation is somewhat
95 * refactored in preparation for moving CLOS into cold init and merging
96 SB-PCL:FOO with CL:FOO (for FOO=CLASS, FOO=CLASS-OF, etc.)
97 ** systematized support for MOP (more regression tests, maybe)
98 to try to make sure things don't get mislaid in the
99 upcoming CLOS restructuring
100 ** extracted type system (and maybe CLASSOIDs) from SB-KERNEL
101 into new SB-TYPE package
102 ** reimplemented GENERIC-FUNCTION as a primitive object (or
103 maybe made SB-MOP:FUNCALLABLE-STANDARD-OBJECT the
104 primitive object, and then let GENERIC-FUNCTIONs
105 inherit from that) instead of structures with
106 :ALTERNATE-METACLASS and funcallableness. Now
107 FUNCALLABLE-INSTANCE can go away. (And now the new
108 funcallable primitive objects need to go into
109 collections like *FUN-HEADER-WIDETAGS* where
110 FUNCALLABLE-INSTANCE objects used to be.)
111 ** reimplemented CONDITIONs as primitive objects instead of
112 structures with :ALTERNATE-METACLASS. Now (between
113 this and the change to GENERIC-FUNCTIONs)
114 DEFSTRUCT :ALTERNATE-METACLASS can go away.
115 ** (maybe) Now INSTANCE_POINTER_LOWTAG can become just
116 STRUCTURE_POINTER_LOWTAG, and the concept of
117 SB-KERNEL:INSTANCE (including INSTANCEP,
118 (SPECIFIER-TYPE 'INSTANCE), etc.) can go away.
119 * moved CLOS into cold init, in order to allow CLOS to be used in the
120 implementation of the core system (e.g. the type system and the
121 compiler) and in order to support merger of CL:CLASS with
123 * (maybe) eliminated warm init altogether in favor of cold init
124 * (maybe, especially if warm init can be eliminated) rationalized
125 the build process, fixing miscellaneous pre-0.5.0 stuff that's
126 transparently not the right thing
127 ** removed separate build directories, now just building in
128 place with .sbclcoldfasl extensions
129 * (maybe) more refactoring in preparation for merging SB-PCL:FOO
130 into CL:FOO: reimplemented type system OO dispatch
131 (!DEFINE-TYPE-METHOD, etc.) in terms of CLOS OO dispatch
132 * added some automatic tests for basic binary compatibility, in hopes
133 that it might be practical to maintain binary compatibility
134 between minor maintenance releases on the stable branch (but no
135 promises, sorry, since I've never tried to do this before, and
136 have no idea how much of a pain this'll be)
137 ========================================================================
138 for 1.0 (fixes of lower priority which I'd nonetheless be embarrassed
139 to leave unfixed in 1.0):
140 * all too many BUGS entries and FIXMEs
141 =======================================================================
142 other priorities, no particular time:
144 * bug fixes, especially really annoying bugs (ANSI or not) and any
145 ANSI bugs (i.e. not just bugs in extras like the debugger or
146 "declarations are assertions", but violations of the standard)
147 * better communication with the outside world (scratching WHN's
148 personal itch): I don't want socket-level stuff so much as I
149 want RPC-level or higher (CORBA?) interfaces and (possibly
150 through RPC or CORBA) GUI support
151 * Especially when ldb is not compiled in, the default "assertion failed"
152 behaviour in many parts of the runtime is unfriendly. It may
153 be appropriate to look at some of these and see if they can be
154 handled in some less abrupt way than aborting
155 =======================================================================
156 important but out of scope (for WHN, anyway: Patches from other people
157 are still welcome!) until after 1.0:
159 * sadly deteriorated support for ANSI-style block compilation
160 (static linking of DEFUNs within a single file or
161 WITH-COMPILATION-UNIT)
162 * various GC issues (exuberant cut-and-paste coding,
163 possibly dangerously over-conservative handling
164 of neighbors of function objects, general GC efficiency)
165 * package issues other than SB!TYPE, SB!MOP, and dead exported
167 * Any systematic effort to fix compiler consistency checks is
168 out of scope. (However, it still might be possible to
169 determine that some or all of them are hopelessly stale
171 =======================================================================
172 other known issues with no particular target date:
174 bugs listed on the man page
176 hundreds of FIXME notes in the sources from WHN
178 various other unfinished business from CMU CL and before, marked with
179 "XX" or "XXX" or "###" or "***" or "???" or "pfw" or "@@@@" or "zzzzz"
180 or probably also other codes that I haven't noticed or have forgotten.
182 (Things marked as KLUDGE are in general things which are ugly or
183 confusing, but that, for whatever reason, may stay that way
185 =======================================================================
186 "There's nothing an agnostic can't do as long as he doesn't know
187 whether he believes in anything or not."
190 "God grant me serenity to accept the code I cannot change, courage to
191 change the code I can, and wisdom to know the difference."
194 "Accumulation of half-understood design decisions eventually chokes a
195 program as a water weed chokes a canal. By refactoring you can ensure
196 that your full understanding of how the program should be designed is
197 always reflected in the program. As a water weed quickly spreads its
198 tendrils, partially understood design decisions quickly spread their
199 effects throughout your program. No one or two or even ten individual
200 actions will be enough to eradicate the problem."
201 -- Martin Fowler, in _Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing
204 "I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then."