Release of STk-3.99.0

From: Erick Gallesio <eg_at_saxo.essi.fr>
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1998 16:20:40 +0200

This mail announces the the pre-4.0 release.
Why is is not called 4.0? Good question :-)

This version would have been numbered 4.0 if there was not a so long
time between this release and the previous one. Since I take so long
to release, I had time to add a lot of things to my "TODO list".
And this version misses some things that I consider important (even if
not visible from outside) to be called 4.0. Furthermore, there is a big
absent since last release which is the port on Windows. The real 4.0
will have support for Windows.

Here are the main visible changes from previous release:

   About Scheme

   * A module system has been added
   * Integration of the Bigloo MATCH-CASE and MATCH-LAMBDA
     primitives. Furthermore, the file bigloo.stk provide
     some compatibility between STk and bigloo modules.
   * A simple FFI has been added. It allows to access C
     functions without writing C code (works only on a
     limited set of architectures for now).
   * integrates the R5RS VALUES and CALL-WITH-VALUES
   * multi-line comments have been added.
   * The "-file" interpreter option is no more necessary
   * Display of the prompt and of the eval result in the
     REPL are now user definable.
   * report-error mechanism has been enhanced a lot (work
     is not completely achieved).
   * new-primitives: append!, mast-pair, C-string->string,
     remove-file, rename-file, temporary-file-name, ...
   * Numerous bug corrections
   * ...

   About Tk

   * Integration of the Tk8.0 toolkit
   * The old inspector has been adapted to work with
     current release (not completely, but sufficiently
     while the new version is terminated)
   * Buttons, Checkbuttons and Radiobuttons can use a
     :variable and :textvariable in a given environment.
     This environment is given with the new :environment
     option.
   * New metaclass: <Tk-composite-toplevel>. This is
     identical to the class <Tk-composite-widget>, except
     that the widhet lives in its own toplevel window.
   * make-image simplifies the usage of Tk images and uses
     a cache, to speed-up access to already used images.
   * The little square window, which used to appear as soon
     as STk was launched, appears now only when the first
     widget is mapped on screen.
   * ...

   About STklos

   * The MOP of STklos is now very similar to the CLOS one.
     Here are some of the new features:
        o when a slot does not exists, the gf slot-missing
          is called
        o when a unbound slot is read, the gf slot-unbound
          is called
        o new generic functions slot-ref-using-class,
          slot-set-using-class, slot-bound-using-class?,
          slot-exists-using-class?, slot-definition-name,
          slot-definition-options,
          slot-definition-allocation,
          slot-definition-getter, slot-definition-setter,
          slot-definition-accessor, generic-function-name,
          generic-function-methods,
          method-generic-function, method-specializers
          method-procedure, remove-method
          change-object-class
   * New kind of slot allocation: "active". An active slot
     is a slot for which you can put a daemon before or
     after its reading/writing
   * Standard behavior of class slots is now identical to
     CLOS: when a class-slot is inherited, it is shared
     with instances of the superclass. If it is redefined,
     a new slot is created
   * slot initializers are evaluated in the lexical
     environment of the class definition.
   * (Tk-)virtual slots can now have an :initform option.
   * Generic functions can be now traced with the standard
     TRACE function.
   * Composite widgets have now a class slots which
     contains the class of the object. This slot is
     initialized by default to "Composite", but it can be
     overloaded for a particular class. For instance
     labeled entries use the value "LabeledEntry" by
     default. This feature can be used for initializing the
     X11 resource database. for instance you can have
     STk*LabeledEntry*Entry*Background: white in your
     .Xdefaults file to set the default value of background
     of the entry of a <Labeled-entry> widget.
   * New composites widgets: Gauge, Valued-Gauge,
     Balloon-help
   * The HTML-browser has been enhanced to access now the
     web (i.e. you can grab distant texts or images). The
     Web browser admit now applets written in Scheme.
   * New kind of slot allocation: "active". An active slot
     is a slot for which you can put a daemon before or
     after its reading/writing
   * extended types (defined in C) are now automatically
     integrated in the STklos hierarchy.
   * Several new classes for displaying messages boxes
   * New class <Color-box> for choosing colors.
   * New <Tk-Text-inset>. This class is the now the parent
     class of <Text-window> and of (the new) class
     <Text-image>.
   * ...
Received on Fri Apr 10 1998 - 16:15:15 CEST

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