clisp-devel

release plans and schedule

[Bruno H. <br...@cl...>]

Hi all,

clisp now has much fewer build failures and random crashes that it had a year
ago, and all of the "high-prority" items of my TODO list that I set up in
February 2017 are fixed. Therefore my original plan would have been:

  - fix remaining high-priority issues: bug 718.
  - finish making assembly code portable.
  - Do a final round of testing on all Linux and GNU platforms.

  * PRERELEASE 2.49.70 -> for Debian

  - Do more rounds of testing on other platforms (from macOS to Haiku)

  * RELEASE 2.50 -> for the world

  - All other stuff comes afterwards, like https support, socket fixes,
    warning fixes etc.

Now it seems you (esp. Sam and Jörg) want to hack on something. Especially
during the end-of-December vacations, I guess.

But the timing of these releases is probably something like:

  * 2.49.70: between Dec 20 and Jan 7

  * 2.50: between Jan 25 and Feb 20

Therefore I guess we should at some point create a release branch, so that
you can continue to hack with full speed and at the same time we limit the risk
of breakage just before release. The precise question is WHEN to create
this release branch.

What are your plans for the next few weeks? What would you like to hack on
soon?

Bruno

Re: release plans and schedule

[<Joe...@t-...>]

Hi,

>What are your plans for the next few weeks? What would you like to hack on soon?
I have only 2 items:

1. regexp module #691
I need to change my patch. I've observed that almost no module works in a --without-unicode
setting, because most of them reference things like O(misc_encoding) or S(utf_8).
My patch allows to use #\ä inside both patterns and search strings.
- Patch a) Use O(misc_encoding), ignore --without-unicode.
  Nothing to debate here. Perhaps good enough already.
- Patch b) Change most misc_encoding to Symbol_value(utf_8),
  except the call to regerror which continues to use misc_encoding.
  Rationale: gnulib/regexp detects utf-8 internally -- if it has been compiled with Unicode.
  However, clisp cannot know how it was compiled.
- Patch c) Find some way to make the module (and perhaps other modules) work
  in a --without-unicode setting.


2. Hopefully loop.
2a. (loop for x = x or for x on x or for x from x) bugs #375 and #667
I'm not convinced that Sam's recent change is TRT, but I need time to think about
what clause goes where, read ANSI-CL and CLtL2 at least 7 more times etc. and
think about the meaning of the AND clause.

Perhaps translate some of the remaining german comments, so Sam and others can benefit.

My current reading is that there are significant differences in code motion, binding
and initialization between ANSI-CL and CLtL2 loop, but maybe I need to reread them and
hopefully find a way that can accommodate both without creating trouble.

For instance, CLtL2 clearly moves all initially clauses together inside one prog. CLISP alternates FOR and INITIALLY, IIRC. Or at least FOR and WITH.

There's an interesting example in CLtL2 where LOOP-FINISH is used inside INITIALLY
and references some of the initialized variables to cause termination.

2b. Maybe write a patch to signal an error from
(loop for ... and for ...) ; no repetition of for/as after AND, as Pascal mentioned recently.
CLtL2 did not allow that either.
I just read CLtL2 but did not look at that code part of loop.lsp

Regards,
	Jörg

Re: release plans and schedule

[Sam S. <sd...@gn...>]

Hi Jörg,

> *  <Wbret-Plevy.Ubruyr@g-flfgrzf.pbz> [2017-12-04 10:46:34 +0000]:
>
> 1. regexp module #691 
> ... --without-unicode ...

Unless you add a "without-unicode" target to the Makefile.devel
multibuild targets, your code will only be tested sporadically.
on the other hand, Bruno might already be running "make -f
Makefile.devel MULTIBUILD_EXTRAS=--without-unicode" ;-)

-- 
Sam Steingold (http://sds.podval.org/) on darwin Ns 10.3.1504
http://steingoldpsychology.com http://www.childpsy.net
http://islamexposedonline.com http://www.dhimmitude.org
Live Lisp and prosper.

Re: release plans and schedule

[Sam S. <sd...@gn...>]

Hi Bruno,

> * Bruno Haible <oe...@py...t> [2017-12-03 18:49:02 +0100]:
>
> clisp now has much fewer build failures and random crashes that it had
> a year ago, and all of the "high-prority" items of my TODO list that I
> set up in February 2017 are fixed. Therefore my original plan would
> have been:
>
>   - fix remaining high-priority issues: bug 718.

I think 719 is also high-priority.
It is unconscionable that CLISP compiles its own libunistring and
libregexp on linux.
The current situation is that configure detects a good working
libunistring and sets LTLIBUNISTRING, but fails to massage it into LIBS.
However, I won't insist.

> Now it seems you (esp. Sam and Jörg) want to hack on something.

My TODO contains only LOOP.
If I cannot fix it on your schedule, you can roll back my recent changes
for the releases.
I think getting releases out should be the top priority.

> Therefore I guess we should at some point create a release branch, so
> that you can continue to hack with full speed and at the same time we
> limit the risk of breakage just before release. The precise question
> is WHEN to create this release branch.

I think we should revisit this when you are done with your
"pre-prerelease TODO" and ready to make the branch (in a week?)
At that point I will either say "LOOP is fixed" or "please create the
branch and roll back 52d209b7d29d".

Thanks!

-- 
Sam Steingold (http://sds.podval.org/) on darwin Ns 10.3.1504
http://steingoldpsychology.com http://www.childpsy.net http://jij.org
http://honestreporting.com http://no2bds.org http://camera.org
Suppose there is no empty set. Then consider the set of all empty sets.

Re: release plans and schedule

[Bruno H. <br...@cl...>]

Hi Sam and Jörg,

> >   - fix remaining high-priority issues: bug 718.

Done.

> 1. regexp module #691
> 2. Hopefully loop.
> My TODO contains only LOOP.
> I think 719 is also high-priority.

OK, that's clear. And many more commits have gone in since beginning of
December 2017. All this is too fresh to go into the release that everyone
is waiting for.

I'm going to put the following into the release branch:
all commits <= 16183
16185..16209
16211..16212
16214..16215
16219..16222
16224..16226
16229
16231
16234
16236
16238..16240
16242..16243
16245..16252
16254
16261
16264..16267
and the remaining asm fixes.

> I think 719 is also high-priority.
> It is unconscionable that CLISP compiles its own libunistring and
> libregexp on linux.

This can wait for 2.51.

> At that point I will either say "LOOP is fixed" or "please create the
> branch and roll back 52d209b7d29d".

I don't like to roll back on the branch (because that makes "hg annotate"
results harder to understand). Instead, I'm picking a branch point and
cherry-picking from the main branch.

Bruno

Re: release plans and schedule

[Sam S. <sd...@gn...>]

Hi Jörg,

> *  <Wbret-Plevy.Ubruyr@g-flfgrzf.pbz> [2017-12-04 10:46:34 +0000]:
>
> 2. Hopefully loop.
> 2a. (loop for x = x or for x on x or for x from x) bugs #375 and #667
> I'm not convinced that Sam's recent change is TRT, but I need time to
> think about what clause goes where, read ANSI-CL and CLtL2 at least 7
> more times etc. and think about the meaning of the AND clause.

My recent change (52d209b7d29d) is certainly wrong, but I am not sure
how to fix it yet.
Please note that ANSI-CL and CLtL2 are _not_ the only thing to consider.
If all the other implementations consistently do something reasonable,
then this is the "user expectation" and it makes sense to comply (if
possible).

> Perhaps translate some of the remaining german comments, so Sam and
> others can benefit.

That's always welcome ;-)

> 2b. Maybe write a patch to signal an error from
> (loop for ... and for ...) ; no repetition of for/as after AND, as
> Pascal mentioned recently.

I am not sure this has high enough priority, but it would be nice, I
agree.

Thanks.

-- 
Sam Steingold (http://sds.podval.org/) on darwin Ns 10.3.1504
http://steingoldpsychology.com http://www.childpsy.net http://camera.org
http://thereligionofpeace.com http://americancensorship.org http://jij.org
Those who don't know lisp are destined to reinvent it, poorly.

Re: release plans and schedule

[Bruno H. <br...@cl...>]

> > Perhaps translate some of the remaining german comments, so Sam and
> > others can benefit.
> 
> That's always welcome ;-)

I translated the german comments in loop.lisp.

Bruno