Toba Release Notes

Version 1.1: July 31, 1998

Tested under:

• Linux 2.0.35 (based on Red Hat 4.2) using cc [gcc] version 2.7.2.1
• Linux 2.0.35 (based on Red Hat 5.1) using cc [gcc] version 2.7.2.3
• Solaris 2.5.1 (SunOS 5.5.1) Using SunPro C
• Solaris 2.5.1 (SunOS 5.5.1) using gcc version 2.7.2.1
• Irix 6.2 using cc version 6.2
• Irix 6.2 using gcc version 2.7.2.2

Final 1.0.2: April 8, 1998

Tested under:

• Irix 6.2 using cc version 6.2
• Linux 2.0.33 (based on Red Hat 4.2) using cc [gcc] version 2.7.2.1
• Linux 2.0.32 (based on Red Hat 5.0) using cc [gcc] version 2.7.2.3
• Solaris 2.5.1 (SunOS 5.5.1) Using SunPro C
• Solaris 2.5.1 (SunOS 5.5.1) using gcc version 2.7.2.1

Known Problems: None

Bug Fixes:

• Garbage collector updated to 4.13a to support libc6 on linux.
• Improved starvation prevention with scout threads.
• Corrected handling of class, method, and field identifiers with non-ASCII Unicode characters.

Beta 7: February 6, 1998

Tested under:

• Irix 6.2 using cc version 6.2
• Linux 2.0.33 (based on Red Hat 4.2) using cc [gcc] version 2.7.2.1
• Solaris 2.5.1 (SunOS 5.5.1) Using SunPro C
• Solaris 2.5.1 (SunOS 5.5.1) using gcc version 2.7.2.1

Known Problems:

• Toba does not work with Red Hat 5.0 or any other system that uses libc6 (glibc2), because the garbage collector is not supported by libc6.
• Scout threads are a non-preemptible thread model, and starvation-prevention imposes a large overhead on Linux systems with thread support. We are investigating solutions to this.

Bug fixes:

• Forked child processes are now reaped properly on all platforms.
• Network protocols such as HTTP that are not pre-compiled in libAPI now work on systems that support a JIT
• Constant strings are interned correctly.
• Protect all C keywords from misuse in generated code.

Other changes:

• Threads support added to all platforms
• Windows support dropped
• Just-in-time compilation added for Linux/Intel
• Code reorganized to separate functionality

Beta 6: April 28, 1997

Tested under:

• Irix 6.2 using cc version 6.2
• Linux 2.0.18 (Red Hat 4.0) using cc [gcc] version 2.7.2
• Solaris 2.5.1 (SunOS 5.5.1) Using SunPro C
• Solaris 2.5.1 (SunOS 5.5.1) using gcc version 2.7.2
• Windows NT 4.0 using Cygwin32 beta 17.1

Bug fixes:

• Fixed driver bug compiling java files in subdirectories
• Fixed "instance of" code to handle nested interfaces
• Fixed aastore to check type of object at run-time
• Added code to "intern" string constants at startup time

Other changes:

• Added support for non-preemptive threads (not currently used)
• Updated garbage collector
• Added AWT support using the BISS AWT implementation
• Added environmental variable support for java properties
• Added dynamic loading from precompiled shared libraries
• Added "package" capability
• Added zip file support to translator's class loader
• Reorganized translator source code
• Merged itoba into toba.sh
• Added library path (-L) flag

Beta 5: February 3, 1997

Tested under:

• Irix 6.2 using cc version 6.2
• Linux 2.0.18 (Red Hat 4.0) using cc [gcc] version 2.7.2
• Solaris 2.5.1 (SunOS 5.5.1) Using SunPro C
• Windows NT 4.0 using Cygwin32 beta 17.1

Bug fixes:

• Fixed problem with GC on older Linux systems
• Properly handle remainder operations
• Properly restart file read and socket accept operations after an EINTR condition
• Pass parent's environment to child when no environment is passed to System.exec
• Fixed problem calling finalizers
• Properly remove threads from their thread group when they exit.

Other changes:

• Added support for Windows NT and Irix (without thread support)
• Driver scripts now use /bin/sh for portability
• Added an optimization for non-threaded versions
• Added support for systems that don't have shared libraries

Beta 4: December 17, 1996

Tested under:

• Solaris 2.5.1 (SunOS 5.5.1) using SunPro C
• Solaris 2.5.1 (SunOS 5.5.1) using gcc version 2.7.2
• Linux 2.0.18 (Red Hat 4.0) using cc [gcc] version 2.7.2

Bug fixes:

• Correctly ignore exceptions thrown by finalizers
• Avoid deep recursion when invoking finalizers
• Fix problems with remaindering and int conversion of Infs and NaNs
• Set SO_REUSEADDR when creating sockets, to allow reuse of addresses
• Properly deregister exception handler when a class init quits early
• Protect names of GOTO macros generated by translator

Other changes:

• Add support of Linux (but without threads as yet)
• Use newer version of garbage collector
• Generate comment with original name and signature for each method
• Give a little more information after I/O error reading class file
• Further rework the toba script and Makefiles

Beta 3: November 25, 1996

This internal snapshot was not released publicly.

Changes:

• Configuration is done in top-level Makefile
• Many other changes to the build process
• Use same C compiler in toba script (cc or gcc) as during build
• The -Z and -G options no longer work.

Beta 2: November 7, 1996

Released to change the name from "Juice" to "Toba".

Other changes:

• Rename ./juice, bin/*juice, man/juice.1
• Also rename ./native, ./include/sumatra.h
• Fix minor documentation glitches
• Document run-time environment variables

Beta 1: October 31, 1996

Initial public release, under the name of Juice.

Tested under Solaris 2.5 using the SunPro C compiler.