The Unicon Project Files

Unicon 13.0 - (April-16-2017)
-------------------------------------------
This is mainly a bug fix release for Unicon 13.0. It includes various bug fixes
and performnace tuning to the language. In summary:
  - Critical fixes to threads
  - Critical fixes to patterns
  - Critical fixes to 3D graphics
  - Better resource management and utilization in threaded programs.
  - Changes to the semantics of &errortext
  - Includes the Unicon benchmark and tests


Unicon 13.0 Beta - What is new (Feb-2-2017)
-------------------------------------------

New features highlight:
  - Polishing Pattern Type support
  - HTTPS support
  - Concurrent threads and  Native-Coswitch-based coexpressions in the same build
    i.e: One unified build, no more threads/without-threads versions.

Bug Fixes 
  * Fix insert(Table,...); if the last value is missing it defaults to &null
  * Fix level on co-expression switch
  * Fix &source to point at the activating co-expression 
  * Fix buffer overflow caused by going over MAXDISPLAYNAME
  * Fix dynamic c functions loading on Mac OS
  * Fix chmod(file, string), and getaddrinfo(h, non-string)
  * Fixes for where() , directory(), system()  on Windows
  * Fix tracing on intarray variable references
  * Fix monitoring crash
  * Various fixes for HTTP support
  * Treat the end of a stream/file as the end of the input line when doing line-based read
  * Various fixes for C calling interface 
  * Fix for the #line bug!
  * Protect against crypt() failure and set &errno accordingly. 
  * Fix sign overflow when passing -1 as a second arg to reads() for a messaging file
  * Get stdin working as input source file on “-” even with “-x”
  * Temp files fixes for Windows
  * Fix memory leak in getimstr24. 
  * Fix writing 3D window contents to an image file
  * Fix: rename link() to hardlink()
  * Fix: return the correct mutex id when doing unlock()
  * Make map() thread safe
  * Fix memory leak in list to int array macro
  * Fix -x command line argument on Windows

Improvements and Additions
  * preliminary support for ~ in front of filenames in open()
  * trap() now works on Windows
  * Lists used internally by the runtime system now have negative serial numbers
  * The availability of native coswitch now  is reported via &features
  * Improve architecture detection with &features 
  * Improve behavior of pseudo-tty read()
  * Add WorkPool to the threads package
  * Add repl(L, n) for n copies of list L
  * Enable reads(dir, i), sys_errstr() on Windows
  * Proper cleanup for pipes
  * Better png error handling

Patterns Specific fixes and additions:
  * Fix regex concat of string and cset
  * Normalize error reporting during pattern match
  * Add some pattern runtime errors
  * Pattern image work-in-progress
  * Improve behavior of regex asterisk operator on other regexes
  * Fix codegen for curly brace alternation with parenthesis
  * Implement regex + operator on string literal
  * Improve redirection handling in multi-program scripts

Building from Sources:
  * Huge cleanup of compiler warnings, unused or uninitialized variables
  * Restore the ability to have working co-expressions via PthreadCoswitch without Concurrency
  * Native coswitch support was added  for 32/64 bit ARM on linux and for Mac x86_64
  * Standard  test suite now runs on windows - not yet packaged with binary distribution
  * Build gui libraries only when the graphics subsystem is built
  * Introduce arm_64_linux config for ARM aarch64
  * Declare temp vars for list comprehension

Unicon Preprocessor/Compiler- Fix and improve the behavior of various options
  * Detect and handle no file argument while other args are provided
  * Add -h, -help : same as --help
  * Make -s and -v consistent with icont. -s implies -v0 and vice versa
  * Pass -s if present to the linker stage
  * Handle -s in unicon as well allowing fully silent builds, same as icont

Known Issues:
   * Installation to a non default directory other than (c:\unicon) seems to break the
     linker's ability to link to precompiled .u files
   * On some platforms, the first time you run UI it hangs for a while,
     Stopping and restarting seems to fix the issue.


Unicon 12.3 Beta - What is new
--------------------------
Improvements/Additions/Features
  * SNOBOL-Inspired pattern type and facilities
  * Short error tracebacks by default
  * Addition of more syntax error messages
  * More informative error message for threads
  * Emit __faux.icn line directives for class/OO internals
  * Add support for redirecting stderr in system()
  * ximage now knows about the 'thread' type
  * Support stat on directory
  * Add texture support to Bg
  * On Windows, use opendir()/closedir()/readdir() and avoid the need for temp files

Windows Specific Bug Fixes:
  * Fix system() redirection
  * Fix append mode system() function
  * Fix !directory
  * "long" is 32 bit on Windows/mingw-gcc caused some issues.
     Ex: incorrect large integer conversion to strings
  * Fix a memory leak
  * Fix flipped texture from a 2D window
  
General Bug Fixes:
  * Fix member([], 4) to fail properly
  * Fix for odd-numbered parameters to table()
  * Fix class scopecheck on local initializer followed by static
  * image() of objects might say object not record
  * Fix getserv() when called with an integer port number
  * For functions that expect a class instance fail if the argument is a record
  * Fix off-by-one errors in texture EraseArea
  * Use named semaphores on platforms that dont have unnamed semaphores like OS X
  * Fix 3D functions to do a proper runtime error when operating on a non-3D window
  * Fix off by one error in dynamic texture copy from a 2D window

******************************************************************

Unicon 12.2 - What is new
--------------------------

Unicon IDE (ui):
   * Double click on filename opens immediately, no OK needed
   * Add to Windows Native file dialogs the ability to specify 
     what directory to open
   * Improve directory behavior of open/save
   * Add control-HOME and control-END commands
   * Improve Windows save dialogs
   * Improve font dialog, let it remember/re-use font settings from 
     invocation to invocation
   * Use portable fontname with better font handling
   * Improve legibility of code coloring
   * Bind home and end keys to current line
   * A lot of bug fixes, usability and interface improvments!


Thread related:
   * Optimizations for Concurrent Unicon, mainly to sequential programs 
     such as lazy locking, avoiding thread local storage when possible, 
     and reducing indirect memory access for VM registers.
   * Disable mutex locking/unlocking when program monitoring is detected
   * Static linking for pthreads
   * Better error message for many of the concurrency features
   * New argument for spawn() to control the stack size
   * Bug Fixes:
     - Improve handling of sem_wait() premuture thread release, protect 
       against unpredictable errors
     - Fix an off by 1 error in condvar()'s mutex id translation
     - Do not wait for a thread to produce results if it is "dead"


Language level:
   * The new Unicon benchmark suite is now part of the distribution
   * Make classname(x) fail if x is not a record, instead of dying
   * Support SCROLLUP and SCROLLDOWN events
   * Drop scroll wheel release events
   * &features new members: "CPU cores" and "Physical memory"
   * New [: expr :] list comprehension syntax
   * Integer literal suffixes KMGTP for thousads, millions, billions, etc
   * Real number to-by steps
   * gethost() takes an optional additional argument ipv6/ipv4
   * Extend gcd(i, j) to handle all case where i,j could be <=0
   * Handle negative indices with delete(x, i) when x ix a list
   * Drop the old ivib from binary distribution
     ivib v2 is now the default ivib
   * Improvments to the gui class library: better cursor, prelimenary support 
     for transparent gui components

   * Bug fixes:
     - comma-separated class local list bug

JPG/PNG handling:
   * Make JPG/PNG image loading/saving threadsafe 
   * WriteImage() now supports png image format
   * Faster loading, manipulation, and rendering
   * Numerous bug fixes

Runtime/VM: 
   * Native Win64 coswitch
   * Improved hash function - used with tables 
   * Fix real string to large integer conversion
   * Use ; instead of spaces in IPATH/LPATH settings
   * Send EOF instead of SIGPIPE  to close the pipe gracefully
   * Fix bug in variable() over not restoring saved pfp and glbl_argp
   * Fix messaging facilities long line bug

Experimental:
   * Textures used in 3D facilities can be promoted to "window" status
     we call a promoted texture: a texture window. To promote a texture do:
     wt := Clone(T) # T is a texture, the new clone is a texture window
   * A texture window variable can be assinged to &window
   * Many traditional 2D graphics fucntions can be called on a texture
   * WAttrib() supports a texture window as argument/subject
   * CopyArea() now supports texture to texture copy, in addition to
     window to texture and texture to window



******************************************************************



Unicon 12.1.1 : What is new (04/13/2013)

  Version 12.1.1 was focused on bug fixes and polishing many
  existing features and thus brings a very stable release. 
  In additions to that a few features were added which include:

  * channel() is extened to allow named (string names) conections, 
    and also allow no explicit destination.
    ex: chAtoB := channel("AtoB")
  
  * Support for setting thread's inbox/outbox limit with a new 
    fucntion Attrib():
    ex: Attrib(thrd, INBOX_LIMIT, 100)

  * New command line argument : -features
    ex: unicon -features

  * New three additions to &features (applicable to -features above) 
    Arch, Revision, and CCompiler.
   (toward the end of the sample output below).

Sample output for -features:
c:\unicon>unicon -features
MS Windows NT
POSIX
DBM
ASCII
co-expressions
concurrent threads
dynamic loading
environment variables
event monitoring
external functions
keyboard functions
large integers
multiple programs
pseudo terminals
system function
messaging
graphics
3D graphics
MS Windows
Win32
SQL via ODBC
CCompiler gcc 4.6.1
Revision 3420
Arch x86_64
Binaries at C:\UNICON\BIN\

*********************************************************


Unicon 12.1.0 : What is new (08/26/2012)

Several bug fixes! here are some obvious ones:
  * Error messages fixes in the compiler
  * Multi-selection fix in some GUI components
  * Cursor fix, problem with lines that have the tab character
  * Toolbar findnext crash fix in ui IDE
  * Better handling for input/output redirection in wiconx
  * Append of .icn to file names on "save as"
  * IDE crash fix when trying to compile a file that doesn't exist
  *

New features:
* Thread-safe data structures
* New communication operators @>, @>>, <@, and <<@.
      - Used for thread communications but also support TCP sockets communication.
* New thread reserved word similar to create :  thread expr , to launch new threads
   - the function thread() is renamed to spawn()
* min()/max() now accept a list as an argument: min(L) returns the smallest "item" in the list.
* 64-bit builds have a better representation for real numbers. The new representation takes 50% less memory  and provides about 20% performance boost in double intensive applications.
 * Better "randomization" of the random numbers seed by default


****************************************************************

Unicon: What is New? (02/02/2012)


Here is a summary of what the newest release 12.0.2 provides:

**iconx:
  * Added support for &pi, &phi, &e in converting strings to integers

  * !x  now works with x of type integer. It is equivalent to (1 to x)

  * Release threads when they are done freeing system resources. 
    Applies to co-expressions, partially solved and more work is needed.

  * Better memory management:-
      program's initial memory (Main thread): 1% RAM
      Co-Expression: 1% of Main
      Thread: 10% of Main.
      Note: The program's initial memory size can be set using the environment variables BLKSIZE and STRSIZE. Both can be set to an integer (memory size in bytes) 

  * (bug fix) A very old memory leak problem in the code that creates co-expressions/threads

  * Windows (bug fix): undesirable change of windows focus when hovering off the window in front to the one in the back, sometimes sending a dialog to the back.  

**icont: 
  *segfault bug fix when there is a syntax error.

**gui:
  *improve string search capability for editable text lists