ML Kit NEWS file

           **** ML Kit version 4.1.1 is released ****

 * mael 2002-08-25: Removed Posix support due to licensing problems 
   with code from mlton.

 * mael 2002-08-25: Removed region type real. Added region type 
   pair for implementation of almost tag-free garbage collection -
   not yet fully implemented.

           **** ML Kit version 4.1.0 is released ****

 * mael 2002-04-06: Manual improved -- the pdf-version of the manual
   now uses Type 1 fonts, exclusively.

 * mael 2001-12-16: Posix bug-fixes. Runtime system clean-up. 
   Change of prim-function for interfacing with C. It is easier 
   now to interface with C functions that take regions as 
   arguments; a few macros help generate different code when 
   profiling is enabled.

 * mael 2001-12-13: Ported Posix structure from MLton. Calls to C
   are in many cases simpler now because auto-conversion is 
   extended to work with a larger set of types, including 
   strings (and CharArrays).

 * mael 2001-11-25: Assembler in-lining of sub/update/size 
   operations on bytetables (CharArray, Word8Array, CharVector, 
   Word8Vector, String).

 * mael 2001-11-24: Better implementation of Array/Vector (constant
   subscripting/updating).

 * mael 2001-11-24: Better implementation of CharArray/Word8Array 
   (basislib/ByteTable.sml); no ref-indirection.

 * mael 2001-11-24: Better implementation of strings/arrays/vectors
   by supporting large objects in the runtime system; values that do
   not fit in region pages are now allocated with malloc and placed
   in a list of large objects in the region descriptor for the 
   region. Upon region de-allocation, the large objects are freed 
   using free.

 * mael 2001-11-20: Better reporting of garbage collection statistics
   and fragmentation (runtime flag -verbose_gc, when gc is enabled).

 * mael 2001-11-15: Unboxing of datatypes. Previously, only a certain
   set of predefined types were implemented unboxed. Now, enumerations
   and many other simple datatypes, such as trees, are represented
   unboxed; file src/Compiler/Lambda/CompileDec.sml.

 * mael 2001-11-02: Bug fix involving Int32 operations in the presence
   of profiling and GC; file src/Compiler/Backend/FetchAndFlush.sml.

 * mael 2001-11-01: Added structures Pack32Little, Pack32Big, IntInf
   to basis library implementation; implementations are ported from 
   SML/NJ.

 * mael 2001-10-30: Bug fix involving unboxing of function arguments
   in OptLambda.sml; see test file test/unbox.sml.

 * mael 2001-10-30: Bug fix involving manipulation of compiler bases
   when restricting interpretation bases in ManagerObjects.sml; see
   test file test/functor3.sml.

 * mael 2001-10-26: Bug fix involving recursive value bindings; see
   test programs test/valrecpat.sml, test/valrecpat1.sml,
   test/valrecpat2.sml, test/valrecpat3.sml, and test/valrecpat4.sml.

 * mael 2001-10-26: Bug fix involving polymorphism and parallel
   value bindings. Bug reported by Stephen Weeks; see test program
   test/weeks5.sml.
 
 * mael 2001-10-23: Bug fix in X86-backend; when tagging is enabled an
   Overflow exception was raised when the largest Word31-word appeared
   in a pattern.

 * nh 2001-10-20: The Garbage Collection algorithm now uses two stacks;
   one for infinite regions and one for finite regions. Each finite
   region is only traversed once and it is still a non-recursive
   algorithm. The stack size is determined dynamically.

 * mael 2001-10-14: It is now possible to disable region inference in
   the ML Kit by specifying the flag no_region_inference (or no_ri) on
   the command line. The flag has the effect that all infinite regions
   are collapsed with the top-level infinite regions
   (DropRegions.sml). The option has no effect on finite regions;
   and region parameters may still happen to be instantiated to either
   finite or infinite regions (the top-level ones).

 * mael 2001-09-30: Added regular expression support (structure RegExp) 
   to the basis library. The implementation is based on an 
   implementation by Ken Friis Larsen. See the file 
   kit/basislib/REG_EXP.sml for details.

 * mael 2001-09-30: Program manager changes: (1) It is now 
   possible for two files in different subdirectories to have the same
   name and be listed in the same pm-file. (2) Target-files generated
   when compiling a pm-file (i.e., uo-files for the bytecode backend
   and o-files for the native x86 backend) are now stored in a PM
   directory located in the same directory as the compiled pm-file is
   located; this change allows for a pm-file to refer to source files
   located in directories for which the user does not have 
   write-permission.
   
           **** ML Kit version 4.0.0 is released ****

 * mael 2001-08-16: Fixed bug in separate compilation framework; match
   function in ClosConvEnv functor was non-exhaustive.

 * mael 2001-07-19: Added Interrupt exception to front end; it is
   now possible to handle an Interrupt exception raised by pressing
   Control-C.

           **** ML Kit version 3.9.1 is released ****

 * mael 2001-07-05: Bug fix: valrec may now overwrite identifier
   status. Bug reported by Johnny Andersen.

 * mael 2001-07-05: Quotation support. When the option -quotation is
   given to the compiler at startup, the datatype 
      datatype 'a frag = QUOTE of string | ANTIQUOTE of 'a
   is available in the top-level environment. Moreover, the character
   ` cease to be allowed in symbolic identifiers. Values of the 'a
   frag datatype may be constructed using the quotation/antiquotation
   syntax:
        val s = "world" 
        val a : string frag list = `hello ^s - goodbye`


 * mael 2001-07-05: An uncaught exception now causes the program to
   return -1 to the shell (instead of 0). Suggestion by Stephen Weeks.

 * mael 2001-07-05: Bug fix: The function OS.FileSys.tmpName now
   returns a file name for a file in /tmp/ (instead of in /etc/). Bug
   reported by Stephen Weeks.


           **** ML Kit version 3.9.0 is released ****

 * many bug fixes

 * replaced HP backend with x86 native backend

 * bytecode backend added as an alternative to the x86 native backend;
   primarily, the bytecode backend is added for portability and for
   use with the SMLserver project, which adds Standard ML language
   support to AOLserver -- a webserver from America Online
 
 * added support for reference tracing garbage collection

 * Word31, Word32, Word8, Int31 and Int32 structures added


[1998-12-03]   **** ML Kit version 3.0 is released ****

 * ...

[1997]         **** ML Kit version 2.0 is released ****

 * ...

[1993]         **** ML Kit version 1.0 is released ****

