[m-dev.] feature freeze

[Fergus Henderson]

Hi,

In preparation for the release of Mercury 0.9,
I think it is time for a feature freeze.
That means that apart from changes that we have already discussed,
please do not commit any changes which add new features.
If in any doubt, please ask before committing.

Committing bug fixes is fine, of course.

Changes that we have already discussed which I think it makes
sense to include in the next release include

	- RTTI for existential types [dgj]
	- line number support in the debugger [zs]
	- the `collect' feature for Opium-M [jahier]

BTW, here's a status update:

> Here's a list of tasks which I think it would
> be nice to complete before the next release:

> 	- fix the bug with quantification and <=>
> 	- make -DMR_NO_BACKWARDS_COMPAT the default
> 	- fix the bug with --split-c-files & debug grades
> 	- fix the bug with mmake install & --use-subdirs
> 	- fix problems with compound constraints, i.e.
> 		:- pred p(T) <= foo(list(T))
> 	  should at least abort at compile time
> 	  rather than crash at runtime
> 	- document that interactive queries only
> 	  work if you use dynamic linking
> 	- test with gcc 2.95 on sparcs

These are all done.

> 	- fix the bug with --optimize-frames

Zoltan is working on this one.

> 	- deal with mmc name clash (Microsoft Management Console)

I'll deal with that one when I test it on Windows.

> 	- delete tmp* from release tar file

That's a minor one (the tmp* files are harmless).
I've removed them for now, but it is possible that
the same problem may reoccur in future.

> 	- investigate/fix a problem Warwick reported
> 	  with nested modules and intermodule optimization
> 	- fix bug with existential types & type classes
> 	- stop GC from tracing entire Mercury stacks

Still not yet done.

> Here's some other tasks that would also be desirable
> but which are not as essential:
> 
> 	- RTTI for existential types

DJ is working on that one.

> 	- fix minor bugs in string__format

I did a bit of work on that one.
I'm not sure whether it's worth worrying about for
this release.

-- 
Fergus Henderson <fjh at cs.mu.oz.au>  |  "I have always known that the pursuit
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh>  |  of excellence is a lethal habit"
PGP: finger fjh at 128.250.37.3        |     -- the last words of T. S. Garp.
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