S M L / N J 1 1 0 . 36 N E W S

September 18, 2001

WARNING This version is intended for compiler hackers. The version ought to be stable, however we have not run our full regression testing. http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/what/smlnj/index.html

Summary:

This is a bugfix release, mainly with the purpose of solving a problem with the FLINT optimizer that was erroneously throwing away code in some cases.
Other changes include a minor bugfix for ml-lex, the implementation of a "minimal" structure Compiler, and switching over to an improved code generator on the x86 (affecting floating-point computations).

FLINT:

There was a problem with FLINT occasionally using the wrong continuation for certain functions because of a faulty internal analysis. Fixed.

MLRISC (x86):

An updated version of the x86-fp module has been enabled by default. This results in significant speedups for FP-intensive code.

Interactive system / libraries:

A minimal version of structure Compiler is that only contains "version" and "architecture" is available at toplevel. Thus, legacy code that wants to test the current version number can do so without having to load the rather heavy (and obsolete) full structure Compiler from $smlnj/compiler/compiler.cm.

ML-Lex:

Bug 1581 (concerning open parentheses in constant strings) has been fixed.