[m-dev.] for review: update RELEASE_NOTES

[Fergus Henderson]

Estimated hours taken: 0.5

RELEASE_NOTES:
	Update for release 0.9.

Workspace: /usr/hg2/fjh/mercury
Index: RELEASE_NOTES
===================================================================
RCS file: /home/mercury1/repository/mercury/RELEASE_NOTES,v
retrieving revision 1.23
diff -u -d -r1.23 RELEASE_NOTES
--- RELEASE_NOTES	1998/11/11 07:07:27	1.23
+++ RELEASE_NOTES	1999/12/11 16:06:15
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 
-We are pleased to announce the release of version 0.8 of the Mercury system.
+We are pleased to announce the release of version 0.9 of the Mercury system.
 
 Mercury is a new general-purpose programming language, designed and
 implemented by a small group of researchers at the University of
@@ -33,10 +33,7 @@
 	Mercury handles dynamic data structures not through Prolog's
 	assert/retract but by providing several abstract data types in
 	the standard Mercury library that manage collections of items
-	with different operations and tradeoffs.  Being a compiled
-	language, Mercury does not have any means for altering the
-	program at runtime, although we may later provide facilities
-	for adding code to a running program.
+	with different operations and tradeoffs.
 
      o  Mercury is a strongly typed language.  Mercury's type system is
 	based on many-sorted logic with parametric polymorphism, very
@@ -128,10 +125,12 @@
 	provide the compiler with the information it needs to generate
 	very efficient code.
 
-The Mercury compiler is written in Mercury itself.  It was bootstrapped
-using NU-Prolog and SICStus Prolog.  This was possible because after
-stripping away the declarations of a Mercury program, the syntax of the
-remaining part of the program is mostly compatible with Prolog syntax.
+The Mercury compiler is written in Mercury itself.  It was originally
+bootstrapped using NU-Prolog and SICStus Prolog.  This was possible
+because if you stick to an appropriate subset of Mercury, then
+after stripping away the declarations of a Mercury program,
+the syntax of the remaining part of the program is mostly compatible
+with Prolog syntax.
 
 The Mercury compiler compiles Mercury programs to C, which it uses as a
 portable assembler.  The system can exploit some GNU C extensions to the
@@ -152,8 +151,8 @@
 The current source distribution uses gcc as the compiler.  We require gcc
 version 2.6.3 or higher.  You will also need GNU make version 3.69 or higher.
 
-The Mercury distribution contains:
-
+The Mercury distribution is split into three parts.
+The "mercury-compiler" distribution contains:
      o  an autoconfiguration script
      o  the Mercury source for the compiler
      o  the Mercury source for the standard library
@@ -171,26 +170,32 @@
      o  the Mercury frequently asked questions list
      o  the Prolog to Mercury transition guide
      o  some sample Mercury programs
+
+The "mercury-extras" distribution contains:
      o  some extra libraries for
 	- processing HTML forms using the CGI interface
 	- arithmetic on complex and imaginary numbers
 	- graphics using Tk and OpenGL
-	- exception handling
+	- lazy evaluation
+	- dynamic linking
+	- POSIX interface
 	- backtrackable (trailed) destructive update
 	- an ODBC database interface
 	- a CLP(R) interface, i.e. constraint solving over real numbers
-     o  a test suite
+     o  the OPIUM-M trace analysis system
 
-The Mercury distribution is available via anonymous ftp or WWW
-from the following locations:
+The "mercury-tests" distribution contains a test suite.
+
+The three components of the Mercury distribution are available
+via anonymous ftp or WWW from the following locations:
 
 	Australia:
-		ftp://turiel.cs.mu.oz.au/pub/mercury
+		ftp://ftp.mercury.cs.mu.oz.au/pub/mercury
 
 We hope to be able to make it available at the following sites
 too, eventually:
 
-	Sunsite and mirrors: (source distribution only)
+	Sunsite and mirrors: (mercury-compiler source distribution only)
 		ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/Incoming
 		ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/linux/devel/lang/mercury
 
@@ -200,8 +205,9 @@
 	Europe:
 		ftp://ftp.csd.uu.se/pub/Mercury
 
-The home page of the project on the Web is <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/mercury>.
+The home page of the project on the Web is <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/mercury/>.
 
 --
 The Mercury Team <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/mercury/people.html>
-Department of Computer Science, The University of Melbourne, Australia
+Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering
+The University of Melbourne, Australia

-- 
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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