Jikes RVM

File Release Notes and Changelog

Release Name: 2.9.0

Notes:
*Jikes RVM 2.9.0 Release Notes (March 15, 2007)
** Highlights

*** The five months since the release of 2.4.6 have been one of the most
    active periods in the open source history of the project.  A number
    of significant changes have been made to clean up and modernize the 
    code base to enable future evolution. 

*** We have made large scale changes to the structure of the source code
    to prepare for development of Jikes RVM from within standard Java IDEs.

*** There is a new, ant-based, build and test system that have replaced 
    jconfigure and RunSanityTests.

*** We now use ecj (the Eclipse Java compiler) instead of jikes to compile 
    our Java source files and have eliminated the preprocessor. 

*** The userguide has been moved from latex into a wiki.  It has been updated
    to describe the new build and test systems. 
    The release tarball contains a pdf and html version of the userguide.

*** We now support Java5, we have switched to using the generics branch
    of GNU Classpath, and much of Jikes RVM has been rewritten to use
    Java 5 language features and generic types. 

*** We have switched to using Java5 annotations for pragmas/magic. 

*** The recommended version of GNU classpath is 0.93-generics.
    Earlier versions of GNU classpath are not supported.

*** Support in the PPC baseline compiler for storing local variables in
    registers.

*** Refactor of type system and JTOC.

*** Support for packing subword sized fields in objects. Removal of hand
    packed fields. Various memory savings.

*** System calls now supported in any file using SysCall annotation on a
    native method. VM_SysCall now generates implementation from annotation.
    VMMath now implemented using system calls.

*** Support for chasing final fields reached from literal or static final
    fields. Greater optimization of object constant operands.

*** Greater support for 387 constants. Simplification of 387 BURS rules.

** Bug fixes

*** Yes...many :)  For details: svn log -r10915:11866

** Other Notes

*** The Quick compiler has been deleted.  It is now available as a
    patch on the research tracker, or via older releases (2.3.4
    through 2.4.6).

*** The HPM (Hardware Performance Monitor) code has been deleted.
    It is now available on the research tracker (item 1613215),
    by svn diff -r11162:11161, or in releases through 2.4.6.

*** This release is known to not work on OS X.  We would like to get this 
    platform working again;  if you use Jikes RVM on OS X and are willing to
    help fix it, please let us know.




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