[Xsb-development] XSB Version 2.5 released

[Luis F. P. de C. <lu...@cs...>]

The following message is a courtesy copy of an article
that has been posted to comp.lang.prolog as well.

Hi,

Version 2.5 of XSB, a tabled logic programming and deductive database
system has been released. You can find more information, and download
the system from

http://xsb.sourceforge.net/

Included below are the changes for this release.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
--
=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=
=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=
=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=
=20=20
                        Release Notes for Version 2.5=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=
=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20
=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=
=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=
=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=
=20=20
General

This is mostly a transitional release, where the major changes are the move
to use the SLGWAM engine as default, and the introduction of garbage
collection support for this engine. Also, several important memory manageme=
nt
related bugs have been fixed, increasing the system's stability considerabl=
y.

Important Note

This is the last release to support the Chat engine.

News

=A0=A0*=A0SLGWAM stack management has been made the default rather than Cha=
t. Chat
    is still available through a configuration option.
=A0=A0*=A0A new heap garbage collector, called indirect has been made the d=
efault
    garbage collector for SLGWAM. In addition, the Chat sliding and copying
    garbage collectors now also work on the SLGWAM configuration.
=A0=A0*=A0New builtins round/2, ceil/2 and floor/2 for dealing with floatin=
g point
    numbers added.

Bugfixes

=A0=A0*=A0Several memory management related bugs fixed.
=A0=A0*=A0Minor bug in Prolog debugger fixed.
=A0=A0*=A0Fixed problem with NULL values and ODBC

FLORA News

Flora-2 is still a late alpha release, but there have been considerable
improvements in stability and speed. This release fixes many bugs, eliminat=
es
some restrictions, and adds new features.

=A0=A0*=A0The most important new feature is the ability to check for undefi=
ned
    predicates and methods in debug mode (see the manual regarding checking
    undefinedness checks). This feature simplifies debugging considerably.
=A0=A0*=A0Flora compiler now checks if a tabled predicate depends on an upd=
ate
    operation and issues appropriate warnings. Such dependency is considered
    to be a likely program bug.
=A0=A0*=A0Numbered anonymous oids added (e.g., _#123). They behave like reg=
ular
    anonymous oids (_#) in the sense that they are substituted by a new oid.
    However, numbered oids can be referenced within the same clause (e.g., =
_#
    12[self->_#12]).
=A0=A0*=A0Optimized compilation of path expressions and nested terms.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
--