diff --git a/ANNOUNCE.1.5 b/ANNOUNCE.1.5 new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f556430 --- /dev/null +++ b/ANNOUNCE.1.5 @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ +GNUstep Objective-C Runtime 1.5 +=============================== + +This is the fifth official release of the GNUstep Objective-C runtime (a.k.a. +libobjc2). This runtime was designed to support the features of Objective-C 2 +for use with GNUstep and other Objective-C programs. Highlights of this +release include: + +- Support for Apple-compatible garbage collection APIs, along with extensions + to support CoreFoundation-style explicit reference counting in a garbage + collected environment. This uses the Boehm garbage collector and is enabled + by default. To build without garbage collection specify the boehm_gc=no + option when building. +- The runtime will now use Boehm GC for several internal data structures, if it + is built with GC enabled. This avoids the need for defensive programming + with respect to thread safety in several places. +- This is the first release to provide a superset of the functionality provided + by the Mac Objective-C runtime, as shipped with OS X 10.6. +- Full support for Automatic Reference Counting (ARC), compatible with OS X + 10.7 and iOS 5. +- The LLVM optimisation passes have been improved and better tested. Code + compiled with them now passes the EtoileFoundation test suite. + +You may obtain the code for this release from subversion at the following +subversion branch: + +svn://svn.gna.org/svn/gnustep/libs/libobjc2/1.4 + +Alternatively, a tarball is available from: + +http://download.gna.org/gnustep/libobjc2-1.4.tar.bz2 + +The runtime library is responsible for implementing the core features of the +object model, as well as exposing introspection features to the user. The +GNUstep runtime implements Apple's Objective-C Runtime APIs, and a small number +of GCC APIs for legacy compatibility. + +This library is based on the Étoilé Objective-C Runtime, an earlier research +prototype, and includes support for non-fragile instance variables, +type-dependent dispatch, and object planes. It is fully compatible with the +FSF's GCC Objective-C ABI and also implements a new ABI that is supported by +Clang and Étoilé's LanguageKit and is required for some of the newer features. + +Although the runtime has been tested by several people, and is being used +extensively by the Étoilé project, it is entirely new (MIT licensed) code and +may still contain bugs. If you come across any problems, please report them to +the GNUstep Developer mailing list .