[DotGNU]Portable.NET 0.2.6 and pnetlib 0.1.0 released

[Rhys Weatherley]

Portable.NET 0.2.6 and pnetlib 0.1.0 have been released:

Web Page: http://www.southern-storm.com.au/portable_net.html
Download: http://www.southern-storm.com.au/download/pnet-0.2.6.tar.gz
Library:  http://www.southern-storm.com.au/download/pnetlib-0.1.0.tar.gz

The major changes in this release are to the runtime engine.  The
performance of the engine on x86 platforms has been improved a little
now that I have the PNetMark to test against.  There have also been
numerous bug fixes to improve engine stability.

Exceptions have finally been implemented in the CVM interpreter core.
This leaves delegates and tail calls as the two biggest areas to
tackle in the interpreter core.

PInvoke has been implemented, so it is possible to call out to external
".so" libraries on Unix-like platforms like GNU/Linux, and ".dll"
libraries
on Windows.  I will be posting a separate message shortly about an
example
program that uses this facility.

The interpreter core is almost done now, and I would appreciate any help

that people can provide with testing.

Other changes are detailed in the appended NEWS entries.

Cheers,

Rhys.

Portable.NET 0.2.6 (27 November 2001)

Runtime engine:

* Internalcall methods for "System.Diagnostics".
* Make asmfix a bit more tolerant of odd assemblers.
* Enable the use of asmfix to generate an optimised version of
  the CVM interpreter loop on x86 platforms.
* Align "ILTypedRef" structures properly on 64-bit platforms.
* Push "ffi_call" arguments onto a separate native argument stack
  so that they can be handled faster and with the correct alignment.
* Implement true PInvoke for calling external libraries.
* Rewrite the path searching code for assemblies and external libraries.

* Implement the "NativeTypeSizes" and "DllImportMap" attributes to
  assist with the ugly business of PInvoke on non-Windows platforms.
* Compile the host information from "configure" into "image/link.c"
  so that it knows which external library to use when resolving uses
  of the PInvoke mechanism.
* Fixed a value type bug in "newobj".
* Add user-specified search paths to the "ilrun" command-line.
* Better support for UTC vs local time.
* Exception handling in the verifier, CVM coder, and CVM interpreter.
* Bug fixes to "GetTypeName" in "lib_type.c".
* Print a message if "Main" throws an uncaught exception.
* Internalcall methods needed to support "System.Text.StringBuilder".
* Better detection for cygwin in "image/filemap.c".  Fix due to
  Volker Hahn <address@hidden>.
* Inline common methods as CVM instructions.
* Fixes to the verifier that were discovered during unit testing.

C# Compiler:

* Output a warning message when "-fsyntax-check" is used to remind
  people that the compiler isn't finished.

Assembler:

* Enable short instruction squashing in the assembler.
* Fix a bug that caused the assembler to use "ldarg" instead of
  "ldloc" in some situations.

Other:

* Implement a large number (>3000) of unit tests for the verifier.
* Begin implementing the "csdocvalil" program, to help validate
  pnetlib against the ECMA's XML documentation for the C# library.
* Update the FAQ.

pnetlib 0.1.0 (27 November 2001)

* Continue documentation of native methods.
* Implement "System.Diagnostics" and "System.Text".
* Handle exception stack traces.
* Timezone handling for dealing with UTC vs local time issues.