rust/RELEASES.txt

Version 0.4 (September 2012)
----------------------------

   * ~1500 changes, numerous bugfixes

   * Syntax
      * All keywords are now strict and may not be used as identifiers anywhere
      * Keyword removal: 'again', 'import', 'check', 'new', 'owned', 'send',
        'of', 'with', 'to', 'class'.
      * Classes are replaced with simpler structs
      * Method self types
      * `ret` became `return` and `alt` became `match`
      * `import` is now `use`; `use is now `extern mod`
      * `extern mod { ... }` is now `extern { ... }`
      * `use mod` is the recommended way to import modules
      * `pub` and `priv` replace deprecated export lists

   * Semantics
      * Trait implementations are now coherent, ala Haskell typeclasses
      * Trait methods may be static
      * Argument modes are deprecated
      * Borrowed pointers are much more mature and recommended for use
      * Strings and vectors in the static region are stored in constant memory
      * Typestate was removed
      * Resolution rewritten to be more reliable
      * Support for 'dual-mode' data structures (freezing and thawing)
      * Last-use analysis is only used for warnings now. Moves must be explicit
        for lvalues (TODO: confirm)

   * Libraries
      * Most binary operators can now be overloaded via the traits in
        `core::ops'
      * `std::net::url` for representing URLs
      * Sendable hash maps in `core::send_map`
      * `core::task' gained a (currently very unsafe) task-local storage API

   * Concurrency
      * An efficient new intertask communication primitive called the pipe,
        along with a number of higher-level channel types, in `core::pipes`
      * `std::arc`, an atomically reference counted, immutable, shared memory
        type
      * `std::sync`, various exotic synchronization tools based on arcs and pipes
      * Futures are now based on pipes and sendable
      * More robust linked task failure
      * Improved task builder API

   * Other
      * Improved error reporting
      * Preliminary JIT support
      * Preliminary work on precise GC
      * Extensive architectural improvements to rustc
      * Begun a transition away from buggy C++-based reflection (shape) code to
        Rust-based (visitor) code
      * Hash functions improved across the codebase (TODO: need details)
      * New lint checks (TODO: which?)

Version 0.3  (July 2012)
------------------------

   * ~1900 changes, numerous bugfixes

   * New coding conveniences
      * Integer-literal suffix inference
      * Per-item control over warnings, errors
      * #[cfg(windows)] and #[cfg(unix)] attributes
      * Documentation comments
      * More compact closure syntax
      * 'do' expressions for treating higher-order functions as
        control structures
      * *-patterns (wildcard extended to all constructor fields)

   * Semantic cleanup
      * Name resolution pass and exhaustiveness checker rewritten
      * Region pointers and borrow checking supersede alias
        analysis
      * Init-ness checking is now provided by a region-based liveness
        pass instead of the typestate pass; same for last-use analysis
      * Extensive work on region pointers

   * Experimental new language features
      * Slices and fixed-size, interior-allocated vectors
      * #!-comments for lang versioning, shell execution
      * Destructors and iface implementation for classes;
      	type-parameterized classes and class methods
      * 'const' type kind for types that can be used to implement
        shared-memory concurrency patterns

   * Type reflection

   * Removal of various obsolete features
      * Keywords: 'be', 'prove', 'syntax', 'note', 'mutable', 'bind',
                 'crust', 'native' (now 'extern'), 'cont' (now 'again')

      * Constructs: do-while loops ('do' repurposed), fn binding,
      	            resources (replaced by destructors)

   * Compiler reorganization
      * Syntax-layer of compiler split into separate crate
      * Clang (from LLVM project) integrated into build
      * Typechecker split into sub-modules

   * New library code
      * New time functions
      * Extension methods for many built-in types
      * Arc: atomic-refcount read-only / exclusive-use shared cells
      * Par: parallel map and search routines
      * Extensive work on libuv interface
      * Much vector code moved to libraries
      * Syntax extensions: #line, #col, #file, #mod, #stringify,
      	#include, #include_str, #include_bin

   * Tool improvements
      * Cargo automatically resolves dependencies

Version 0.2  (March 2012)
-------------------------

   * >1500 changes, numerous bugfixes

   * New docs and doc tooling

   * New port: FreeBSD x86_64

   * Compilation model enhancements
      * Generics now specialized, multiply instantiated
      * Functions now inlined across separate crates

   * Scheduling, stack and threading fixes
      * Noticeably improved message-passing performance
      * Explicit schedulers
      * Callbacks from C
      * Helgrind clean

   * Experimental new language features
      * Operator overloading
      * Region pointers
      * Classes

   * Various language extensions
      * C-callback function types: 'crust fn ...'
      * Infinite-loop construct: 'loop { ... }'
      * Shorten 'mutable' to 'mut'
      * Required mutable-local qualifier: 'let mut ...'
      * Basic glob-exporting: 'export foo::*;'
      * Alt now exhaustive, 'alt check' for runtime-checked
      * Block-function form of 'for' loop, with 'break' and 'ret'.

   * New library code
      * AST quasi-quote syntax extension
      * Revived libuv interface
      * New modules: core::{future, iter}, std::arena
      * Merged per-platform std::{os*, fs*} to core::{libc, os}
      * Extensive cleanup, regularization in libstd, libcore

Version 0.1  (January 2012)
---------------------------

   * Most language features work, including:
      * Unique pointers, unique closures, move semantics
      * Interface-constrained generics
      * Static interface dispatch
      * Stack growth
      * Multithread task scheduling
      * Typestate predicates
      * Failure unwinding, destructors
      * Pattern matching and destructuring assignment
      * Lightweight block-lambda syntax
      * Preliminary macro-by-example

   * Compiler works with the following configurations:
      * Linux: x86 and x86_64 hosts and targets
      * MacOS: x86 and x86_64 hosts and targets
      * Windows: x86 hosts and targets

   * Cross compilation / multi-target configuration supported.

   * Preliminary API-documentation and package-management tools included.

Known issues:

   * Documentation is incomplete.

   * Performance is below intended target.

   * Standard library APIs are subject to extensive change, reorganization.

   * Language-level versioning is not yet operational - future code will
     break unexpectedly.