From: Eric Marsden
Subject: please help test the CMUCL 19b prerelease
Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2005 20:59:28 +0000
Message-ID: <87fyvt51e7.fsf@free.fr>

CMUCL version 19b will be released in July. We would appreciate help
in testing the prerelease binaries that are available for various
platforms. Here's how you can help test:

   - download the pre-release binaries for your platform
   - read the release notes 
   - try to compile and run your favorite applications (note that FASL
     files from this release are binary-incompatible with previous
     CMUCL releases; you will need to recompile all source files)
   - report any problems you encounter to the cmucl-help mailing list
     (see <URL:http://www.cons.org/cmucl/support.html> for details of our
     mailing lists)

This release will include a number of significant changes from CMUCL 19a,
that are detailed in the release notes:

   - a port to the MacOS X platform
   - a port to NetBSD on x86 systems
   - improved bignum performance
   - fixes to the simple-streams implementation, and implementation of
     bivalent streams
   - many ANSI compliance problems identified by Paul Dietz's test suite
     have been fixed
   - many bugfixes

Prerelease binaries for x86/Linux, x86/FreeBSD, SPARC/Solaris and
PowerPC/Darwin (MacOS X) can be downloaded from the following URLs
(x86/NetBSD should also be available shortly). Documentation for this
new release is also available in the same directory, in the file
"cmu-user.pdf".

  <URL:ftp://ftp.common-lisp.net/pub/project/cmucl/release/19b/pre-release/>
  <URL:http://www.pmsf.de/pub/cmucl/release/19b/pre-release/>


=== Things to test

Some aspects of CMUCL are platform-dependent, so would be particularly
useful to test:

   - try loading shared object files and ".o" object files using the
     function EXT:LOAD-FOREIGN, and check that you can resolve symbols
     in these libraries and call the corresponding functions. For
     example:

     ,----
     | CL-USER> (ext:load-foreign "/usr/lib/libcrypt.so")
     | ;;; Opening shared library /usr/lib/libcrypt.so ...
     | ;;; Done.
     | nil
     | CL-USER> (alien:alien-funcall
     |           (alien:extern-alien "crypt"
     |                               (function c-call:c-string c-call:c-string c-call:c-string))
     |           "key" "salt")
     | ; Compiling lambda (#:g1469 #:g1470 #:g1471): 
     | ; Compiling Top-Level Form: 
     | "sacA7YLUSAodg"
     `----

   - try dumping an customized CMUCL image (using the function
     EXT:SAVE-LISP) and restarting it.


If you have installed the "extra" tarball for your platform, you can
help test the CLX support, the Motif interface and the Hemlock editor. 

   - try connecting to your X11 display:

     ,----
     | CL-USER> (require :clx)
     | ; Loading #p"/opt/cmucl-19b-pre/lib/cmucl/lib/subsystems/clx-library.x86f".
     | ("CLX")
     | CL-USER> (ext:open-clx-display)
     | #<xlib:display :0 (The XFree86 Project, Inc R40300001)>
     | #<xlib:screen :0 1400x1050x24 true-color>
     `----

   - try using the Motif debugger and inspector:

     ,----
     | CL-USER> (require :clm)
     | ; Loading #p"/opt/cmucl-19b-pre/lib/cmucl/lib/subsystems/clm-library.x86f".
     | ("CLM")
     | CL-USER> (inspect *package*)
     `----

   - try using the Hemlock editor:

     ,----
     | CL-USER> (require :hemlock)
     | CL-USER> (ed)
     `----

     You can exit Hemlock with the "C-x C-z" key sequence. 
  

Thanks for your help!

-- 
Eric Marsden