[m-rev.] for review: mention .NET & asm back-ends in NEWS

[Fergus Henderson]

The native-code back-end bootstraps and passes all of its tests,
and is based on a released version of GCC (3.2).  So I think it
is time to officially announce it in the NEWS file.

The .NET back-end is not in such good shape, because it is still missing
a lot of library functionality, but I think it is in good enough shape
for people to start using it, so I think it is also ready to be mentioned
in the NEWS file.

Hence the following change.
Any comments/objections?

I need to update the .NET web page, but I will do that separately.

I put the back-ends at the start, even though this is a little bit
inconsistent with our usual ordering, since they seemed to me to be
important.

I did not add the Java back-end since that is still not very usable,
due to the lack of a Java foreign language interface and lack of support
for the standard library, and because it has not been properly tested.

----------

Estimated hours taken: 0.25
Branches: main

NEWS:
	Mention the native-code and .NET back-ends.

Workspace: /mnt/ceres/home/ceres/fjh/ws-ceres2/mercury
Index: NEWS
===================================================================
RCS file: /home/mercury1/repository/mercury/NEWS,v
retrieving revision 1.274
diff -u -d -r1.274 NEWS
--- NEWS	22 Oct 2002 13:10:33 -0000	1.274
+++ NEWS	29 Oct 2002 17:11:03 -0000
@@ -4,6 +4,10 @@
 HIGHLIGHTS
 ==========
 
+New back-ends:
+* Native code back-end.
+* .NET CLR back-end.
+
 Changes to the Mercury language:
 * Support for constrained polymorphic modes.
 * Addition of state variable syntax.
@@ -33,6 +37,29 @@
 
 DETAILED LISTING
 ================
+
+New back-ends:
+
+* Native code back-end.
+
+  There is a `--target asm' option, which generates assembler by
+  interfacing directly with the GCC back-end, rather than going via C.
+  Currently this back-end is only supported on x86 machines running Linux.
+  It passes all the applicable tests in the Mercury test suite,
+  including bootstrapping the Mercury compiler.
+
+  See <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/mercury/download/gcc-backend.html>.
+
+* .NET CLR back-end.
+
+  There is a `--target il' option, which generates MSIL code
+  for Microsoft's new .NET Common Language Runtime.
+  The compiler supports the whole of the Mercury language, but the
+  Mercury standard library implementation for the .NET CLR is still
+  not yet complete.
+
+  See <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/mercury/dotnet.html> and/or
+  <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/mercury/information/dotnet/mercury_and_dotnet.html>.
 
 Changes to the Mercury language:
 

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