[Axiom-developer] Axiom September release

[daly]

September 26, 2009 Release Notes

A major project milestone has been achieved with this release.
Axiom is implemented in lisp, removing all code in Boot.

The major effort in this release has been the boot to lisp rewrite.
There are several follow-on phases which are "in-process" but only
partially complete with this release. These include:
  source cleanup - 
    generating warning-free compiles which involves cleaning up the
    boot-to-lisp artifacts
  generating unit tests
    unit tests are being developed for each of the translated files to
    ensure that the rewrite does not introduce bugs
  file merge
    the individual files are being prepared to merge into the interpreter
    and compiler volumes.
  global variable handling
    the system uses many globals which are being either explained or
    rewritten to reduce coupling
  data structure extraction
    the various data structures used by the compiler and interpreter 
    are being identified and explained
  API vs implementation 
    the functions used externally vs the functions used internally are 
    being identified
  code refactoring
    the generated lisp code is being rewritten into human form without
    changing the behavior

The target goal is to have the code cleanly merged into the interpreter
and compiler volumes in a logical way that form chapters related to function.

Additional changes in this release include:

  Add Steven Segletes to credits. He was the author of the paper that
  supplied the coefficients for computing E1. He has contributed a later,
  unpublished paper which has more accurate coefficients. This is in-plan
  to implement.

  Barry Trager contributed an example of computing Shannon Matrices.
  This has been added to the input/regression suite.

  The .dvi files for the interpreter are no longer being built. The
  individual pamphlets will shortly disappear.

  Debugsys is no longer built. I am the only user of it and I can build
  it when needed.

  Bootsys is no longer built. It is no longer needed.

  The Makefiles now use the := rather than = assignment limiting re-evals

  Parallel Make is now the default since the documentation build is now 
  independent of the interpreter build