news.txt

====
News
====

..
  2014-10-21 Version 0.10.2 released
  ==================================

  Changes affecting backwards compatibility
  -----------------------------------------

  - **The language has been renamed from Nimrod to Nim.** The name of the
    compiler changed from ``nimrod`` to ``nim`` too.
  - ``system.fileHandle`` has been renamed to ``system.getFileHandle`` to
    prevent name conflicts with the new type ``FileHandle``.
  - Comments are now not part of the AST, as such you cannot use them in place
    of ``discard``.
  - Large parts of the stdlib got rid of the T/P type prefixes. Instead most
    types now simply start with an uppercased letter. The
    so called "partial case sensitivity" is now active allowing for code
    like ``var foo: Foo`` in more contexts.
  - String case (or any non-ordinal case) statements
    without 'else' are deprecated.
  - Recursive tuple types are not allowed anymore. Use ``object`` instead.
  - The PEGS module returns ``nil`` instead of ``""`` when an optional capture
    fails to match.
  - The re module returns ``nil`` instead of ``""`` when an optional capture
    fails to match.
  - The "symmetric set difference" operator (``-+-``) never worked and has been
    removed.
  - ``defer`` is a keyword now.
  - ``func`` is a keyword now.
  - The ``using`` language feature now needs to be activated via the new
    ``{.experimental.}`` pragma that enables experimental language features.
  - Destructors are now officially *experimental*.
  - Standalone ``except`` and ``finally`` statements are deprecated now.
    The standalone ``finally`` can be replaced with ``defer``,
    standalone ``except`` requires an explicit ``try``.
  - Operators ending in ``>`` are considered as "arrow like" and have their
    own priority level and are right associative. This means that
    the ``=>`` and ``->`` operators from the `future <future.html>`_ module
    work better.


  Language Additions
  ------------------

  - The new concurrency model has been implemented including ``locks`` sections,
    lock levels and object field ``guards``.
  - The ``parallel`` statement has been implemented.
  - ``deepCopy`` has been added to the language.
  - The builtin ``procCall`` can be used to get ``super``-like functionality
    for multi methods.
  - There is a new pragma ``{.experimental.}`` that enables experimental
    language features per module, or you can enable this features on a global
    level with the ``--experimental`` command line option.


  Compiler Additions
  ------------------

  - The compiler now supports *mixed* Objective C / C++ / C code generation:
    The modules that use ``importCpp`` or ``importObjc`` are compiled to C++
    or Objective C code, any other module is compiled to C code. This
    improves interoperability.
  - There is a new ``parallel`` statement for safe fork&join parallel computing.
  - ``guard`` and ``lock`` pragmas have been implemented to support safer
    concurrent programming.
  - The following procs are now available at compile-time::

      math.sqrt, math.ln, math.log10, math.log2, math.exp, math.round,
      math.arccos, math.arcsin, math.arctan, math.arctan2, math.cos, math.cosh,
      math.hypot, math.sinh, math.sin, math.tan, math.tanh, math.pow,
      math.trunc, math.floor, math.ceil, math.fmod,
      os.getEnv, os.existsEnv, os.dirExists, os.fileExists,
      system.writeFile

  - Two backticks now produce a single backtick within an ``emit`` or ``asm``
    statement.
  - There is a new tool, `nimfix <nimfix.html>`_ to help you in updating your
    code from Nimrod to Nim.
  

  Library Additions
  -----------------

  - Added module ``fenv`` to control the handling of floating-point rounding and
    exceptions (overflow, division by zero, etc.).
  - ``system.setupForeignThreadGc`` can be used for better interaction with
    foreign libraries that create threads and run a Nim callback from these
    foreign threads.


2014-12-09 New website design!
==============================

A brand new website including an improved forum is now live. 
All thanks go to Philip Witte and 
Dominik Picheta, Philip Witte for the design of the website (together with
the logo) as well as the HTML and CSS code for his template, and Dominik Picheta
for integrating Philip's design with Nim's forum. We're sure you will
agree that Philip's design is beautiful.



2014-10-19 Version 0.9.6 released
=================================

**Note: 0.9.6 is the last release of Nimrod. The language is being renamed to
Nim. Nim slightly breaks compatibility.**

This is a maintenance release. The upcoming 0.10.0 release has
the new features and exciting developments.


Changes affecting backwards compatibility
-----------------------------------------

- ``spawn`` now uses an elaborate self-adapting thread pool and as such
  has been moved into its own module. So to use it, you now have to import
  ``threadpool``.
- The symbol binding rules in generics changed: ``bar`` in ``foo.bar`` is
  now considered for implicit early binding.
- ``c2nim`` moved into its own repository and is now a Babel package.
- ``pas2nim`` moved into its own repository and is now a Babel package.
- ``system.$`` for floating point types now produces a human friendly string
  representation.
- ``uri.TUrl`` as well as the ``parseurl`` module are now deprecated in favour
  of the new ``TUri`` type in the ``uri`` module.
- The ``destructor`` pragma has been deprecated. Use the ``override`` pragma
  instead. The destructor's name has to be ``destroy`` now.
- ``lambda`` is not a keyword anymore.
- **system.defined has been split into system.defined and system.declared**.
  You have to use ``--symbol`` to declare new conditional symbols that can be
  set via ``--define``.
- ``--threadanalysis:on`` is now the default. To make your program compile
  you can disable it but this is only a temporary solution as this option
  will disappear soon!


Compiler improvements
---------------------

- Multi method dispatching performance has been improved by a factor of 10x for
  pathological cases.


Language Additions
------------------

- This version introduces the ``deprecated`` pragma statement that is used
  to handle the upcoming massive amount of symbol renames.
- ``spawn`` can now wrap proc that has a return value. It then returns a data
  flow variable of the wrapped return type.


Library Additions
-----------------

- Added module ``cpuinfo``.
- Added module ``threadpool``.
- ``sequtils.distnct`` has been renamed to ``sequtils.deduplicate``.
- Added ``algorithm.reversed``
- Added ``uri.combine`` and ``uri.parseUri``.
- Some sockets procedures now support a ``SafeDisconn`` flag which causes 
  them to handle disconnection errors and not raise them.


2014-04-21 Version 0.9.4 released
=================================

The Nimrod development community is proud to announce the release of version
0.9.4 of the Nimrod compiler and tools. **Note: This release has to be
considered beta quality! Lots of new features have been implemented but
unfortunately some do not fullfill our quality standards yet.**

Prebuilt binaries and instructions for building from source are available
on the `download page <download.html>`_.

This release includes about 
`1400 changes <https://github.com/Araq/Nimrod/compare/v0.9.2...v0.9.4>`_
in total including various bug
fixes, new languages features and standard library additions and improvements.
This release brings with it support for user-defined type classes, a brand
new VM for executing Nimrod code at compile-time and new symbol binding
rules for clean templates.

It also introduces support for the brand new
`Babel package manager <https://github.com/nimrod-code/babel>`_ which
has itself seen its first release recently. Many of the wrappers that were
present in the standard library have been moved to separate repositories
and should now be installed using Babel.

Apart from that a new **experimental** Asynchronous IO API has been added via
the ``asyncdispatch`` and ``asyncnet`` modules. The ``net`` and ``rawsockets``
modules have also been added and they will likely replace the sockets
module in the next release. The Asynchronous IO API has been designed to
take advantage of Linux's epoll and Windows' IOCP APIs, support for BSD's
kqueue has not been implemented yet but will be in the future.
The Asynchronous IO API provides both
a callback interface and an interface which allows you to write code as you
would if you were writing synchronous code. The latter is done through
the use of an ``await`` macro which behaves similar to C#'s await. The
following is a very simple chat server demonstrating Nimrod's new async
capabilities.

.. code-block::nim
  import asyncnet, asyncdispatch

  var clients: seq[PAsyncSocket] = @[]

  proc processClient(client: PAsyncSocket) {.async.} =
    while true:
      let line = await client.recvLine()
      for c in clients:
        await c.send(line & "\c\L")

  proc serve() {.async.} =
    var server = newAsyncSocket()
    server.bindAddr(TPort(12345))
    server.listen()

    while true:
      let client = await server.accept()
      clients.add client

      processClient(client)

  serve()
  runForever()


Note that this feature has been implemented with Nimrod's macro system and so
``await`` and ``async`` are no keywords.

Syntactic sugar for anonymous procedures has also been introduced. It too has
been implemented as a macro. The following shows some simple usage of the new
syntax:
 
.. code-block::nim
  import future
  
  var s = @[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
  echo(s.map((x: int) => x * 5))

A list of changes follows, for a comprehensive list of changes take a look
`here <https://github.com/Araq/Nimrod/compare/v0.9.2...v0.9.4>`_.

Library Additions
-----------------

- Added ``macros.genSym`` builtin for AST generation.
- Added ``macros.newLit`` procs for easier AST generation.
- Added module ``logging``.
- Added module ``asyncdispatch``.
- Added module ``asyncnet``.
- Added module ``net``.
- Added module ``rawsockets``.
- Added module ``selectors``.
- Added module ``asynchttpserver``.
- Added support for the new asynchronous IO in the ``httpclient`` module.
- Added a Python-inspired ``future`` module that features upcoming additions
  to the ``system`` module.


Changes affecting backwards compatibility
-----------------------------------------

- The scoping rules for the ``if`` statement changed for better interaction 
  with the new syntactic construct ``(;)``.
- ``OSError`` family of procedures has been deprecated. Procedures with the same
  name but which take different parameters have been introduced. These procs now
  require an error code to be passed to them. This error code can be retrieved
  using the new ``OSLastError`` proc.
- ``os.parentDir`` now returns "" if there is no parent dir.
- In CGI scripts stacktraces are shown to the user only 
  if ``cgi.setStackTraceStdout`` is used.
- The symbol binding rules for clean templates changed: ``bind`` for any
  symbol that's not a parameter is now the default. ``mixin`` can be used
  to require instantiation scope for a symbol.
- ``quoteIfContainsWhite`` now escapes argument in such way that it can be safely
  passed to shell, instead of just adding double quotes.
- ``macros.dumpTree`` and ``macros.dumpLisp`` have been made ``immediate``,
  ``dumpTreeImm`` and ``dumpLispImm`` are now deprecated.
- The ``nil`` statement has been deprecated, use an empty ``discard`` instead.
- ``sockets.select`` now prunes sockets that are **not** ready from the list
  of sockets given to it.
- The ``noStackFrame`` pragma has been renamed to ``asmNoStackFrame`` to
  ensure you only use it when you know what you're doing.
- Many of the wrappers that were present in the standard library have been
  moved to separate repositories and should now be installed using Babel.


Compiler Additions
------------------

- The compiler can now warn about "uninitialized" variables. (There are no
  real uninitialized variables in Nimrod as they are initialized to binary
  zero). Activate via ``{.warning[Uninit]:on.}``.
- The compiler now enforces the ``not nil`` constraint.
- The compiler now supports a ``codegenDecl`` pragma for even more control
  over the generated code.
- The compiler now supports a ``computedGoto`` pragma to support very fast
  dispatching for interpreters and the like.
- The old evaluation engine has been replaced by a proper register based
  virtual machine. This fixes numerous bugs for ``nimrod i`` and for macro
  evaluation.
- ``--gc:none`` produces warnings when code uses the GC.
- A ``union`` pragma for better C interoperability is now supported.
- A ``packed`` pragma to control the memory packing/alignment of fields in 
  an object.
- Arrays can be annotated to be ``unchecked`` for easier low level
  manipulations of memory.
- Support for the new Babel package manager.


Language Additions
------------------

- Arrays can now be declared with a single integer literal ``N`` instead of a
  range; the range is then ``0..N-1``.
- Added ``requiresInit`` pragma to enforce explicit initialization.
- Exported templates are allowed to access hidden fields.
- The ``using statement`` enables you to more easily author domain-specific
  languages and libraries providing OOP-like syntactic sugar.
- Added the possibility to override various dot operators in order to handle
  calls to missing procs and reads from undeclared fields at compile-time.
- The overload resolution now supports ``static[T]`` params that must be
  evaluable at compile-time.
- Support for user-defined type classes has been added.
- The *command syntax* is supported in a lot more contexts.
- Anonymous iterators are now supported and iterators can capture variables
  of an outer proc.
- The experimental ``strongSpaces`` parsing mode has been implemented.
- You can annotate pointer types with regions for increased type safety.
- Added support for the builtin ``spawn`` for easy thread pool usage.


Tools improvements
------------------

- c2nim can deal with a subset of C++. Use the ``--cpp`` command line option
  to activate.


2014-02-11 Nimrod Featured in Dr. Dobb's Journal
================================================

Nimrod has been `featured<http://www.drdobbs.com/open-source/nimrod-a-new-systems-programming-languag/240165321>`_
as the cover story in the February 2014 issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal.


2014-01-15 Andreas Rumpf's talk on Nimrod at Strange Loop 2013 is now online
============================================================================

Andreas Rumpf presented *Nimrod: A New Approach to Metaprogramming* at
`Strange Loop 2013<https://thestrangeloop.com/sessions/nimrod-a-new-approach-to-meta-programming>`_.
The `video and slides<http://www.infoq.com/presentations/nimrod>`_
of the talk are now available.      


2013-05-20 New website design!
==============================

A brand new website is now live. All thanks go to Philip Witte and 
Dominik Picheta, Philip Witte for the design of the website (together with
the logo) as well as the HTML and CSS code for his template, and Dominik Picheta
for integrating Philip's design with the ``nimweb`` utility. We're sure you will
agree that Philip's design is beautiful.


2013-05-20 Version 0.9.2 released
=================================

We are pleased to announce that version 0.9.2 of the Nimrod compiler has been
released. This release has attracted by far the most contributions in comparison
to any other release.

This release brings with it many new features and bug fixes, a list of which
can be seen later. One of the major new features is the effect system together
with exception tracking which allows for checked exceptions and more, 
for further details check out the `manual <manual.html#effect-system>`_.
Another major new feature is the introduction of statement list expressions,
more details on these can be found `here <manual.html#statement-list-expression>`_.
The ability to exclude symbols from modules has also been
implemented, this feature can be used like so: ``import module except symbol``.

Thanks to all `contributors <https://github.com/Araq/Nimrod/contributors>`_!

Bugfixes
--------

- The old GC never collected cycles correctly. Fixed but it can cause
  performance regressions. However you can deactivate the cycle collector 
  with ``GC_disableMarkAndSweep`` and run it explicitly at an appropriate time 
  or not at all. There is also a new GC you can activate 
  with ``--gc:markAndSweep`` which does not have this problem but is slower in
  general and has no realtime guarantees.
- ``cast`` for floating point types now does the bitcast as specified in the 
  manual. This breaks code that erroneously uses ``cast`` to convert different
  floating point values.
- SCGI module's performance has been improved greatly, it will no longer block
  on many concurrent requests.
- In total fixed over 70 github issues and merged over 60 pull requests.


Library Additions
-----------------

- There is a new experimental mark&sweep GC which can be faster (or much 
  slower) than the default GC. Enable with ``--gc:markAndSweep``.
- Added ``system.onRaise`` to support a condition system.
- Added ``system.locals`` that provides access to a proc's locals.
- Added ``macros.quote`` for AST quasi-quoting.
- Added ``system.unsafeNew`` to support hacky variable length objects.
- ``system.fields`` and ``system.fieldPairs`` support ``object`` too; they
  used to only support tuples.
- Added ``system.CurrentSourcePath`` returning the full file-system path of
  the current source file.
- The ``macros`` module now contains lots of useful helpers for building up
  abstract syntax trees.


Changes affecting backwards compatibility
-----------------------------------------

- ``shared`` is a keyword now.
- Deprecated ``sockets.recvLine`` and ``asyncio.recvLine``, added
  ``readLine`` instead.
- The way indentation is handled in the parser changed significantly. However,
  this affects very little (if any) real world code.
- The expression/statement unification has been implemented. Again this
  only affects edge cases and no known real world code.
- Changed the async interface of the ``scgi`` module.
- WideStrings are now garbage collected like other string types.


Compiler Additions
------------------

- The ``doc2`` command does not generate output for the whole project anymore.
  Use the new ``--project`` switch to enable this behaviour.
- The compiler can now warn about shadowed local variables. However, this needs
  to be turned on explicitly via ``--warning[ShadowIdent]:on``.
- The compiler now supports almost every pragma in a ``push`` pragma.
- Generic converters have been implemented.
- Added a **highly experimental** ``noforward`` pragma enabling a special 
  compilation mode that largely eliminates the need for forward declarations.

Language Additions
------------------

- ``case expressions`` are now supported.
- Table constructors now mimic more closely the syntax of the ``case`` 
  statement.
- Nimrod can now infer the return type of a proc from its body.
- Added a ``mixin`` declaration to affect symbol binding rules in generics.
- Exception tracking has been added and the ``doc2`` command annotates possible
  exceptions for you.
- User defined effects ("tags") tracking has been added and the ``doc2`` 
  command annotates possible tags for you.
- Types can be annotated with the new syntax ``not nil`` to explicitly state
  that ``nil`` is not allowed. However currently the compiler performs no
  advanced static checking for this; for now it's merely for documentation
  purposes.
- An ``export`` statement has been added to the language: It can be used for
  symbol forwarding so client modules don't have to import a module's 
  dependencies explicitly.
- Overloading based on ASTs has been implemented.
- Generics are now supported for multi methods.
- Objects can be initialized via an *object constructor expression*.
- There is a new syntactic construct ``(;)`` unifying expressions and 
  statements.
- You can now use ``from module import nil`` if you want to import the module
  but want to enforce fully qualified access to every symbol in ``module``.
  

Notes for the future
--------------------

- The scope rules of ``if`` statements will change in 0.9.4. This affects the 
  ``=~`` pegs/re templates.
- The ``sockets`` module will become a low-level wrapper of OS-specific socket
  functions. All the high-level features of the current ``sockets`` module
  will be moved to a ``network`` module.


2012-09-23 Version 0.9.0 released
=================================

Summary
-------

* Unsigned integers have been added.
* The integer type promotion rules changed.
* The template and macro system evolved.
* Closures have been implemented.
* Term rewriting macros have been implemented.
* First steps to unify expressions and statements have been taken.
* Symbol lookup rules in generics have become stricter to catch more errors.


Bugfixes
--------

- Fixed a bug where the compiler would "optimize away" valid constant parts of
  a string concatenation.
- Fixed a bug concerning implicit type conversions in ``case`` statements.
- Fixed a serious code generation bug that caused ``algorithm.sort`` to
  produce segmentation faults.
- Fixed ambiguity in recvLine which meant that receiving ``\r\L`` was
  indistinguishable from disconnections.
- Many more bugfixes, too many to list them all.


Library Additions
-----------------

- Added the (already existing) module ``htmlgen`` to the documentation.
- Added the (already existing) module ``cookies`` to the documentation.
- Added ``system.shallow`` that can be used to speed up string and sequence
  assignments.
- Added ``system.eval`` that can execute an anonymous block of code at
  compile time as if was a macro.
- Added ``system.staticExec`` and ``system.gorge`` for compile-time execution 
  of external programs.
- Added ``system.staticRead`` as a synonym for ``system.slurp``.
- Added ``macros.emit`` that can emit an arbitrary computed string as nimrod
  code during compilation.
- Added ``strutils.parseEnum``.
- Added ``json.%`` constructor operator.
- The stdlib can now be avoided to a point where C code generation for 16bit 
  micro controllers is feasible.
- Added module ``oids``.
- Added module ``endians``.
- Added a new OpenGL wrapper that supports OpenGL up to version 4.2.
- Added a wrapper for ``libsvm``.
- Added a wrapper for ``mongodb``.
- Added ``terminal.isatty``.
- Added an overload for ``system.items`` that can be used to iterate over the
  values of an enum.
- Added ``system.TInteger`` and ``system.TNumber`` type classes matching
  any of the corresponding types available in Nimrod.
- Added ``system.clamp`` to limit a value within an interval ``[a, b]``.
- Added ``strutils.continuesWith``.
- Added ``system.getStackTrace``.
- Added ``system.||`` for parallel ``for`` loop support.
- The GC supports (soft) realtime systems via ``GC_setMaxPause`` 
  and ``GC_step`` procs.
- The sockets module now supports ssl through the OpenSSL library, ``recvLine``
  is now much more efficient thanks to the newly implemented sockets buffering.
- The httpclient module now supports ssl/tls.
- Added ``times.format`` as well as many other utility functions
  for managing time.
- Added ``system.@`` for converting an ``openarray`` to a ``seq`` (it used to
  only support fixed length arrays).
- Added ``system.compiles`` which can be used to check whether a type supports
  some operation.
- Added ``strutils.format``, ``subexes.format`` which use the 
  new ``varargs`` type.
- Added module ``fsmonitor``.

Changes affecting backwards compatibility
-----------------------------------------

- On Windows filenames and paths are supposed to be in UTF-8. 
  The ``system``, ``os``, ``osproc`` and ``memfiles`` modules use the wide
  string versions of the WinAPI. Use the ``-d:useWinAnsi`` switch to revert
  back to the old behaviour which uses the Ansi string versions.
- ``static``, ``do``, ``interface`` and ``mixin`` are now keywords.
- Templates now participate in overloading resolution which can break code that
  uses templates in subtle ways. Use the new ``immediate`` pragma for templates
  to get a template of old behaviour.
- There is now a proper distinction in the type system between ``expr`` and
  ``PNimrodNode`` which unfortunately breaks the old macro system.
- ``pegs.@`` has been renamed to ``pegs.!*`` and ``pegs.@@`` has been renamed
  to ``pegs.!*\`` as ``@`` operators now have different precedence.
- The type ``proc`` (without any params or return type) is now considered a
  type class matching all proc types. Use ``proc ()`` to get the old meaning
  denoting a proc expecing no arguments and returing no value.
- Deprecated ``system.GC_setStrategy``.
- ``re.findAll`` and ``pegs.findAll`` don't return *captures* anymore but
  matching *substrings*.
- RTTI and thus the ``marshall`` module don't contain the proper field names
  of tuples anymore. This had to be changed as the old behaviour never
  produced consistent results.
- Deprecated the ``ssl`` module.
- Deprecated ``nimrod pretty`` as it never worked good enough and has some
  inherent problems.
- The integer promotion rules changed; the compiler is now less picky in some
  situations and more picky in other situations: In particular implicit 
  conversions from ``int`` to ``int32`` are now forbidden.
- ``system.byte`` is now an alias for ``uint8``; it used to be an alias 
  to ``int8``.
- ``bind`` expressions in templates are not properly supported anymore. Use
  the declarative ``bind`` statement instead.
- The default calling convention for a procedural **type** is now ``closure``,
  for procs it remains ``nimcall`` (which is compatible to ``closure``).
  Activate the warning ``ImplicitClosure`` to make the compiler list the 
  occurances of proc types which are affected.
- The Nimrod type system now distinguishes ``openarray`` from ``varargs``.
- Templates are now ``hygienic``. Use the ``dirty`` pragma to get the old
  behaviour.
- Objects that have no ancestor are now implicitly ``final``. Use 
  the ``inheritable`` pragma to introduce new object roots apart 
  from ``TObject``.
- Macros now receive parameters like templates do; use the ``callsite`` builtin
  to gain access to the invocation AST.
- Symbol lookup rules in generics have become stricter to catch more errors.


Compiler Additions
------------------

- Win64 is now an officially supported target.
- The Nimrod compiler works on BSD again, but has some issues 
  as ``os.getAppFilename`` and ``os.getAppDir`` cannot work reliably on BSD.
- The compiler can detect and evaluate calls that can be evaluated at compile
  time for optimization purposes with the ``--implicitStatic`` command line
  option or pragma.
- The compiler now generates marker procs that the GC can use instead of RTTI.
  This speeds up the GC quite a bit.
- The compiler now includes a new advanced documentation generator 
  via the ``doc2`` command. This new generator uses all of the semantic passes
  of the compiler and can thus generate documentation for symbols hiding in
  macros.
- The compiler now supports the ``dynlib`` pragma for variables.
- The compiler now supports ``bycopy`` and ``byref`` pragmas that affect how
  objects/tuples are passed.
- The embedded profiler became a stack trace profiler and has been documented.


Language Additions
------------------

- Added explicit ``static`` sections for enforced compile time evaluation.
- Added an alternative notation for lambdas with ``do``.
- ``addr`` is now treated like a prefix operator syntactically.
- Added ``global`` pragma that can be used to introduce new global variables
  from within procs.
- ``when`` expressions are now allowed just like ``if`` expressions.
- The precedence for operators starting with ``@`` is different now 
  allowing for *sigil-like* operators.
- Stand-alone ``finally`` and ``except`` blocks are now supported.
- Macros and templates can now be invoked as pragmas.
- The apostrophe in type suffixes for numerical literals is now optional.
- Unsigned integer types have been added.
- The integer promotion rules changed.
- Nimrod now tracks proper intervals for ``range`` over some built-in operators.
- In parameter lists a semicolon instead of a comma can be used to improve 
  readability: ``proc divmod(a, b: int; resA, resB: var int)``.
- A semicolon can now be used to have multiple simple statements on a single
  line: ``inc i; inc j``.
- ``bind`` supports overloaded symbols and operators.
- A ``distinct`` type can now borrow from generic procs.
- Added the pragmas ``gensym``, ``inject`` and ``dirty`` for hygiene
  in templates.
- Comments can be continued with a backslash continuation character so that
  comment pieces don't have to align on the same column.
- Enums can be annotated with ``pure`` so that their field names do not pollute
  the current scope.
- A proc body can consist of an expression that has a type. This is rewritten
  to ``result = expression`` then.
- Term rewriting macros (see `trmacros <http://nimrod-code.org/trmacros.html>`_)
  have been implemented but are still in alpha.


2012-02-09 Version 0.8.14 released
==================================

Version 0.8.14 has been released!

Bugfixes
--------

- Fixed a serious memory corruption concerning message passing.
- Fixed a serious bug concerning different instantiations of a generic proc.
- Fixed a newly introduced bug where a wrong ``EIO`` exception was raised for
  the end of file for text files that do not end with a newline.
- Bugfix c2nim, c2pas: the ``--out`` option has never worked properly.
- Bugfix: forwarding of generic procs never worked.
- Some more bugfixes for macros and compile-time evaluation.
- The GC now takes into account interior pointers on the stack which may be
  introduced by aggressive C optimizers.
- Nimrod's native allocator/GC now works on PowerPC.
- Lots of other bugfixes: Too many to list them all.


Changes affecting backwards compatibility
-----------------------------------------

- Removed deprecated ``os.AppendFileExt``, ``os.executeShellCommand``, 
  ``os.iterOverEnvironment``, ``os.pcDirectory``, ``os.pcLinkToDirectory``,
  ``os.SplitPath``, ``os.extractDir``, ``os.SplitFilename``, 
  ``os.extractFileTrunk``, ``os.extractFileExt``, ``osproc.executeProcess``,
  ``osproc.executeCommand``.
- Removed deprecated ``parseopt.init``, ``parseopt.getRestOfCommandLine``.
- Moved ``strutils.validEmailAddress`` to ``matchers.validEmailAddress``.
- The pointer dereference operator ``^`` has been removed, so that ``^``
  can now be a user-defined operator.
- ``implies`` is no keyword anymore.
- The ``is`` operator is now the ``of`` operator.
- The ``is`` operator is now used to check type equivalence in generic code.
- The ``pure`` pragma for procs has been renamed to ``noStackFrame``. 
- The threading API has been completely redesigned.
- The ``unidecode`` module is now thread-safe and its interface has changed.
- The ``bind`` expression is deprecated, use a ``bind`` declaration instead.
- ``system.raiseHook`` is now split into ``system.localRaiseHook`` and
  ``system.globalRaiseHook`` to distinguish between thread local and global
  raise hooks.
- Changed exception handling/error reporting for ``os.removeFile`` and
  ``os.removeDir``.
- The algorithm for searching and loading configuration files has been changed.
- Operators now have diffent precedence rules: Assignment-like operators 
  (like ``*=``) are now special-cased. 
- The fields in ``TStream`` have been renamed to have an ``Impl`` suffix 
  because they should not be used directly anymore. 
  Wrapper procs have been created that should be used instead.
- ``export`` is now a keyword.
- ``assert`` is now implemented in pure Nimrod as a template; it's easy 
  to implement your own assertion templates with ``system.astToStr``.


Language Additions
------------------

- Added new ``is`` and ``of`` operators.
- The built-in type ``void`` can be used to denote the absense of any type.
  This is useful in generic code.
- Return types may be of the type ``var T`` to return an l-value.
- The error pragma can now be used to mark symbols whose *usage* should trigger
  a compile-time error.
- There is a new ``discardable`` pragma that can be used to mark a routine 
  so that its result can be discarded implicitly.
- Added a new ``noinit`` pragma to prevent automatic initialization to zero
  of variables.
- Constants can now have the type ``seq``.
- There is a new user-definable syntactic construct ``a{i, ...}``
  that has no semantics yet for built-in types and so can be overloaded to your
  heart's content.
- ``bind`` (used for symbol binding in templates and generics) is now a
  declarative statement.
- Nimrod now supports single assignment variables via the ``let`` statement.
- Iterators named ``items`` and ``pairs`` are implicitly invoked when 
  an explicit iterator is missing.
- The slice assignment ``a[i..j] = b`` where ``a`` is a sequence or string
  now supports *splicing*.


Compiler Additions
------------------

- The compiler can generate C++ code for easier interfacing with C++.
- The compiler can generate Objective C code for easier interfacing with
  Objective C.
- The new pragmas ``importcpp`` and ``importobjc`` make interfacing with C++
  and Objective C somewhat easier.
- Added a new pragma ``incompleteStruct`` to deal with incomplete C struct
  definitions.
- Added a ``--nimcache:PATH`` configuration option for control over the output
  directory for generated code.
- The ``--genScript`` option now produces different compilation scripts 
  which do not contain absolute paths.
- Added ``--cincludes:dir``, ``--clibdir:lib`` configuration options for 
  modifying the C compiler's header/library search path in cross-platform way.
- Added ``--clib:lib`` configuration option for specifying additional
  C libraries to be linked.
- Added ``--mainmodule:file`` configuration options for specifying the main
  project file. This is intended to be used in project configuration files to
  allow commands like ``nimrod c`` or ``nimrod check`` to be executed anywhere
  within the project's directory structure.
- Added a ``--app:staticlib`` option for creating static libraries.
- Added a ``--tlsEmulation:on|off`` switch for control over thread local
  storage emulation.
- The compiler and standard library now support a *taint mode*. Input strings
  are declared with the ``TaintedString`` string type. If the taint
  mode is turned on it is a distinct string type which helps to detect input
  validation errors.
- The compiler now supports the compilation cache via ``--symbolFiles:on``. 
  This potentially speeds up compilations by an order of magnitude, but is
  still highly experimental!
- Added ``--import:file`` and ``--include:file`` configuration options
  for specifying modules that will be automatically imported/incluced.
- ``nimrod i`` can now optionally be given a module to execute.
- The compiler now performs a simple alias analysis to generate better code.
- The compiler and ENDB now support *watchpoints*.
- The compiler now supports proper compile time expressions of type ``bool``
  for ``on|off`` switches in pragmas. In order to not break existing code,
  ``on`` and ``off`` are now aliases for ``true`` and ``false`` and declared
  in the system module.
- The compiler finally supports **closures**. This is a preliminary 
  implementation, which does not yet support nestings deeper than 1 level
  and still has many known bugs.


Library Additions
-----------------

- Added ``system.allocShared``, ``system.allocShared0``, 
  ``system.deallocShared``, ``system.reallocShared``.
- Slicing as implemented by the system module now supports *splicing*.
- Added explicit channels for thread communication.
- Added ``matchers`` module for email address etc. matching.
- Added ``strutils.unindent``, ``strutils.countLines``,
  ``strutils.replaceWord``.
- Added ``system.slurp`` for easy resource embedding.
- Added ``system.running`` for threads.
- Added ``system.programResult``.
- Added ``xmltree.innerText``.
- Added ``os.isAbsolute``, ``os.dynLibFormat``, ``os.isRootDir``,
  ``os.parentDirs``.
- Added ``parseutils.interpolatedFragments``.
- Added ``macros.treeRepr``, ``macros.lispRepr``, ``macros.dumpTree``, 
  ``macros.dumpLisp``, ``macros.parseExpr``, ``macros.parseStmt``, 
  ``macros.getAst``.
- Added ``locks`` core module for more flexible locking support.
- Added ``irc`` module.
- Added ``ftpclient`` module.
- Added ``memfiles`` module.
- Added ``subexes`` module.
- Added ``critbits`` module.
- Added ``asyncio`` module.
- Added ``actors`` module.
- Added ``algorithm`` module for generic ``sort``, ``reverse`` etc. operations.
- Added ``osproc.startCmd``, ``osproc.execCmdEx``.
- The ``osproc`` module now uses ``posix_spawn`` instead of ``fork`` 
  and ``exec`` on Posix systems. Define the symbol ``useFork`` to revert to
  the old implementation.
- Added ``intsets.assign``.
- Added ``system.astToStr`` and ``system.rand``, ``system.doAssert``.
- Added ``system.pairs`` for built-in types like arrays and strings.


2011-07-10 Version 0.8.12 released
==================================

Bugfixes
--------

- Bugfix: ``httpclient`` correct passes the path starting with ``/``.
- Bugfixes for the ``htmlparser`` module.
- Bugfix: ``pegs.find`` did not respect ``start`` parameter.
- Bugfix: ``dialogs.ChooseFilesToOpen`` did not work if only one file is
  selected.
- Bugfix: niminst: ``nimrod`` is not default dir for *every* project.
- Bugfix: Multiple yield statements in iterators did not cause local vars to be
  copied.
- Bugfix: The compiler does not emit very inaccurate floating point literals
  anymore.
- Bugfix: Subclasses are taken into account for ``try except`` matching.
- Bugfix: Generics and macros are more stable. There are still known bugs left
  though.
- Bugfix: Generated type information for tuples was sometimes wrong, causing
  random crashes.
- Lots of other bugfixes: Too many to list them all.


Changes affecting backwards compatibility
-----------------------------------------

- Operators starting with ``^`` are now right-associative and have the highest 
  priority.
- Deprecated ``os.getApplicationFilename``: Use ``os.getAppFilename`` instead.
- Deprecated ``os.getApplicationDir``: Use ``os.getAppDir`` instead.
- Deprecated ``system.copy``: Use ``substr`` or string slicing instead.
- Changed and documented how generalized string literals work: The syntax
  ``module.re"abc"`` is now supported.
- Changed the behaviour of ``strutils.%``, ``ropes.%`` 
  if both notations ``$#`` and ``$i`` are involved.
- The ``pegs`` and ``re`` modules distinguish between ``replace`` 
  and ``replacef`` operations.
- The pointer dereference operation ``p^`` is deprecated and might become
  ``^p`` in later versions or be dropped entirely since it is rarely used. 
  Use the new notation ``p[]`` in the rare cases where you need to 
  dereference a pointer explicitly.
- ``system.readFile`` does not return ``nil`` anymore but raises an ``EIO``
  exception instead.
- Unsound co-/contravariance for procvars has been removed.


Language Additions
------------------

- Source code filters are now documented.
- Added the ``linearScanEnd``, ``unroll``, ``shallow`` pragmas.
- Added ``emit`` pragma for direct code generator control.
- Case statement branches support constant sets for programming convenience.
- Tuple unpacking is not enforced in ``for`` loops anymore.
- The compiler now supports array, sequence and string slicing.
- A field in an ``enum`` may be given an explicit string representation. 
  This yields more maintainable code than using a constant 
  ``array[TMyEnum, string]`` mapping.
- Indices in array literals may be explicitly given, enhancing readability:
  ``[enumValueA: "a", enumValueB: "b"]``.
- Added thread support via the ``threads`` core module and 
  the ``--threads:on`` command line switch.
- The built-in iterators ``system.fields`` and ``system.fieldPairs`` can be
  used to iterate over any field of a tuple. With this mechanism operations 
  like ``==`` and ``hash`` are lifted to tuples.
- The slice ``..`` is now a first-class operator, allowing code like:
  ``x in 1000..100_000``.


Compiler Additions
------------------

- The compiler supports IDEs via the new group of ``idetools`` command line
  options. 
- The *interactive mode* (REPL) has been improved and documented for the 
  first time.
- The compiler now might use hashing for string case statements depending
  on the number of string literals in the case statement.
  

Library Additions
-----------------

- Added ``lists`` module which contains generic linked lists.
- Added ``sets`` module which contains generic hash sets.
- Added ``tables`` module which contains generic hash tables.
- Added ``queues`` module which contains generic sequence based queues.
- Added ``intsets`` module which contains a specialized int set data type.
- Added ``scgi`` module.
- Added ``smtp`` module.
- Added ``encodings`` module.
- Added ``re.findAll``, ``pegs.findAll``.
- Added ``os.findExe``.
- Added ``parseutils.parseUntil`` and ``parseutils.parseWhile``.
- Added ``strutils.align``, ``strutils.tokenize``, ``strutils.wordWrap``.
- Pegs support a *captured search loop operator* ``{@}``.
- Pegs support new built-ins: ``\letter``, ``\upper``, ``\lower``,
  ``\title``, ``\white``.
- Pegs support the new built-in ``\skip`` operation.
- Pegs support the ``$`` and ``^`` anchors.
- Additional operations were added to the ``complex`` module. 
- Added ``strutils.formatFloat``,  ``strutils.formatBiggestFloat``.
- Added unary ``<`` for nice looking excluding upper bounds in ranges.
- Added ``math.floor``.
- Added ``system.reset`` and a version of ``system.open`` that 
  returns a ``TFile`` and raises an exception in case of an error.
- Added a wrapper for ``redis``.
- Added a wrapper for ``0mq`` via the ``zmq`` module.
- Added a wrapper for ``sphinx``.
- Added ``system.newStringOfCap``.
- Added ``system.raiseHook`` and ``system.outOfMemHook``.
- Added ``system.writeFile``.
- Added ``system.shallowCopy``.
- ``system.echo`` is guaranteed to be thread-safe.
- Added ``prelude`` include file for scripting convenience.
- Added ``typeinfo`` core module for access to runtime type information.
- Added ``marshal`` module for JSON serialization.


2010-10-20 Version 0.8.10 released
==================================

Bugfixes
--------

- Bugfix: Command line parsing on Windows and ``os.parseCmdLine`` now adheres
  to the same parsing rules as Microsoft's C/C++ startup code.
- Bugfix: Passing a ``ref`` pointer to the untyped ``pointer`` type is invalid.
- Bugfix: Updated ``keyval`` example.
- Bugfix: ``system.splitChunk`` still contained code for debug output.
- Bugfix: ``dialogs.ChooseFileToSave`` uses ``STOCK_SAVE`` instead of 
  ``STOCK_OPEN`` for the GTK backend.
- Bugfix: Various bugs concerning exception handling fixed.
- Bugfix: ``low(somestring)`` crashed the compiler.
- Bugfix: ``strutils.endsWith`` lacked range checking.
- Bugfix: Better detection for AMD64 on Mac OS X. 


Changes affecting backwards compatibility
-----------------------------------------

- Reversed parameter order for ``os.copyFile`` and ``os.moveFile``!!!
- Procs not marked as ``procvar`` cannot only be passed to a procvar anymore,
  unless they are used in the same module.
- Deprecated ``times.getStartMilsecs``: Use ``epochTime`` or ``cpuTime`` 
  instead.
- Removed ``system.OpenFile``.
- Removed ``system.CloseFile``.
- Removed ``strutils.replaceStr``.
- Removed ``strutils.deleteStr``.
- Removed ``strutils.splitLinesSeq``.
- Removed ``strutils.splitSeq``.
- Removed ``strutils.toString``.
- If a DLL cannot be loaded (via the ``dynlib`` pragma) ``EInvalidLibrary`` 
  is not raised anymore. Instead ``system.quit()`` is called. This is because
  raising an exception requires heap allocations. However the memory manager
  might be contained in the DLL that failed to load.
- The ``re`` module (and the ``pcre`` wrapper) now depend on the pcre dll.


Additions
---------

- The ``{.compile: "file.c".}`` pragma uses a CRC check to see if the file 
  needs to be recompiled.
- Added ``system.reopen``. 
- Added ``system.getCurrentException``.
- Added ``system.appType``.
- Added ``system.compileOption``. 
- Added ``times.epochTime`` and ``times.cpuTime``. 
- Implemented explicit type arguments for generics.
- Implemented ``{.size: sizeof(cint).}`` pragma for enum types. This is useful
  for interfacing with C.
- Implemented ``{.pragma.}`` pragma for user defined pragmas.
- Implemented ``{.extern.}`` pragma for better control of name mangling.
- The ``importc`` and ``exportc`` pragmas support format strings: 
  ``proc p{.exportc: "nim_$1".}`` exports ``p`` as ``nim_p``. This is useful
  for user defined pragmas.
- The standard library can be built as a DLL. Generating DLLs has been
  improved.
- Added ``expat`` module.
- Added ``json`` module.
- Added support for a *Tiny C* backend. Currently this only works on Linux.
  You need to bootstrap with ``-d:tinyc`` to enable Tiny C support. Nimrod 
  can then execute code directly via ``nimrod run myfile``.


2010-03-14 Version 0.8.8 released
=================================

Bugfixes
--------
- The Posix version of ``os.copyFile`` has better error handling.
- Fixed bug #502670 (underscores in identifiers).
- Fixed a bug in the ``parsexml`` module concerning the parsing of
  ``<tag attr="value" />``.
- Fixed a bug in the ``parsexml`` module concerning the parsing of
  enities like ``&ltXX``.
- ``system.write(f: TFile, s: string)`` now works even if ``s`` contains binary
  zeros.
- Fixed a bug in ``os.setFilePermissions`` for Windows.
- An overloadable symbol can now have the same name as an imported module.
- Fixed a serious bug in ``strutils.cmpIgnoreCase``. 
- Fixed ``unicode.toUTF8``. 
- The compiler now rejects ``'\n'`` (use ``"\n"`` instead). 
- ``times.getStartMilsecs()`` now works on Mac OS X.
- Fixed a bug in ``pegs.match`` concerning start offsets.
- Lots of other little bugfixes.


Additions
---------
- Added ``system.cstringArrayToSeq``.
- Added ``system.lines(f: TFile)`` iterator.
- Added ``system.delete``, ``system.del`` and ``system.insert`` for sequences.
- Added ``system./`` for int.
- Exported ``system.newException`` template.
- Added ``cgi.decodeData(data: string): tuple[key, value: string]``.
- Added ``strutils.insertSep``.
- Added ``math.trunc``.
- Added ``ropes`` module.
- Added ``sockets`` module.
- Added ``browsers`` module.
- Added ``httpserver`` module.
- Added ``httpclient`` module.
- Added ``parseutils`` module.
- Added ``unidecode`` module.
- Added ``xmldom`` module.
- Added ``xmldomparser`` module.
- Added ``xmltree`` module.
- Added ``xmlparser`` module.
- Added ``htmlparser`` module.
- Added ``re`` module.
- Added ``graphics`` module.
- Added ``colors`` module.
- Many wrappers now do not contain redundant name prefixes (like ``GTK_``,
  ``lua``). The old wrappers are still available in ``lib/oldwrappers``. 
  You can change your configuration file to use these.
- Triple quoted strings allow for ``"`` in more contexts.
- ``""`` within raw string literals stands for a single quotation mark.
- Arguments to ``openArray`` parameters can be left out.
- More extensive subscript operator overloading. (To be documented.)
- The documentation generator supports the ``.. raw:: html`` directive.
- The Pegs module supports back references via the notation ``$capture_index``. 


Changes affecting backwards compatibility
-----------------------------------------

- Overloading of the subscript operator only works if the type does not provide
  a built-in one.
- The search order for libraries which is affected by the ``path`` option 
  has been reversed, so that the project's path is searched before 
  the standard library's path. 
- The compiler does not include a Pascal parser for bootstrapping purposes any
  more. Instead there is a ``pas2nim`` tool that contains the old functionality.
- The procs ``os.copyFile`` and ``os.moveFile`` have been deprecated
  temporarily, so that the compiler warns about their usage. Use them with
  named arguments only, because the parameter order will change the next
  version!
- ``atomic`` and ``let`` are now keywords.
- The ``\w`` character class for pegs now includes the digits ``'0'..'9'``.
- Many wrappers now do not contain redundant name prefixes (like ``GTK_``,
  ``lua``) anymore.
- Arguments to ``openArray`` parameters can be left out.


2009-12-21 Version 0.8.6 released
=================================

The version jump from 0.8.2 to 0.8.6 acknowledges the fact that all development
of the compiler is now done in Nimrod.


Bugfixes
--------
- The pragmas ``hint[X]:off`` and ``warning[X]:off`` now work.
- Method call syntax for iterators works again (``for x in lines.split()``).
- Fixed a typo in ``removeDir`` for POSIX that lead to an infinite recursion.
- The compiler now checks that module filenames are valid identifiers.
- Empty patterns for the ``dynlib`` pragma are now possible. 
- ``os.parseCmdLine`` returned wrong results for trailing whitespace.
- Inconsequent tuple usage (using the same tuple with and without named fields)
  does not crash the code generator anymore.
- A better error message is provided when the loading of a proc within a
  dynamic lib fails.


Additions
---------
- Added ``system.contains`` for open arrays.
- The PEG module now supports the *search loop operator* ``@``.
- Grammar/parser: ``SAD|IND`` is allowed before any kind of closing bracket.
  This allows for more flexible source code formating.
- The compiler now uses a *bind* table for symbol lookup within a ``bind``
  context. (See `<manual.html#templates>`_ for details.)
- ``discard """my long comment"""`` is now optimized away.
- New ``--floatChecks: on|off`` switches and pragmas for better debugging
  of floating point operations. (See
  `<manual.html#pre-defined-floating-point-types>`_ for details.)
- The manual has been improved. (Many thanks to Philippe Lhoste!)


Changes affecting backwards compatibility
-----------------------------------------
- The compiler does not skip the linking step anymore even if no file
  has changed.
- ``os.splitFile(".xyz")`` now returns ``("", ".xyz", "")`` instead of
  ``("", "", ".xyz")``. So filenames starting with a dot are handled
  differently. 
- ``strutils.split(s: string, seps: set[char])`` never yields the empty string
  anymore. This behaviour is probably more appropriate for whitespace splitting. 
- The compiler now stops after the ``--version`` command line switch.
- Removed support for enum inheritance in the parser; enum inheritance has 
  never been documented anyway.
- The ``msg`` field of ``system.E_base`` has now the type ``string``, instead
  of ``cstring``. This improves memory safety.


2009-10-21 Version 0.8.2 released
=================================


2009-09-12 Version 0.8.0 released
=================================


2009-06-08 Version 0.7.10 released
==================================


2009-05-08 Version 0.7.8 released
=================================


2009-04-22 Version 0.7.6 released
=================================


2008-11-16 Version 0.7.0 released
=================================


2008-08-22 Version 0.6.0 released
=================================

Nimrod version 0.6.0 has been released!
**This is the first version of the compiler that is able to compile itself!**