From: bonzini@my-dejanews.com
Subject: GNU Smalltalk 1.6 beta testing started
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 16:34:20 GMT

Hi everybody. I am the unofficial mantainer of GNU Smalltalk and I am
currently starting beta testing of GNU Smalltalk 1.6 (the betas are called
1.5.betaXX). You are welcome to download betas from
ftp://alpha.gnu.org/smalltalk and mail me bug reports at bonzini@gnu.org

Here is a summary of the new version's features:

- (Much) bigger class library: exception handling, File, Directory, 100%
Smalltalk LargeIntegers, 100% Smalltalk ObjectDumper for binary output to
files, RunArrays, ability to derive classes from nil, etc. In some cases, I
corrected the semantics of incorrectly implemented methods.

- (Much) faster interpreter (120-400% of gst 1.1.5!), and in some cases
I tried to employ faster algorithms.

- (Slightly) better error handling, e.g. no access violations when
evaluating a block with the wrong number of arguments

- New version of Blox which interfaces to Tcl/Tk, which gives a
better framework GUI and, almost for free, cross-platform GUIs from a
single source base, with native look and feel.

- Blocks are real closures, i.e. each execution of a block lies in a
different execution context, and they support temporaries.

- Better documentation, including an automatically generated Smalltalk class
reference (of course source code for the generator is included!!)

- Other minor changes: for example, GST now allows _ in identifiers for
compatibility with other Smalltalks, and literals are now read-only.

Paolo Bonzini

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