[commit-womb] womb/gnustatus gnustatus-2011-01.texi

[Karl Berry]

CVSROOT:        /sources/womb
Module name:    womb
Changes by:     Karl Berry <karl>       11/01/26 23:41:39

Modified files:
        gnustatus      : gnustatus-2011-01.texi 

Log message:
        hurd update, gcc addition, heading tweaks

CVSWeb URLs:
http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/womb/gnustatus/gnustatus-2011-01.texi?cvsroot=womb&r1=1.12&r2=1.13

Patches:
Index: gnustatus-2011-01.texi
===================================================================
RCS file: /sources/womb/womb/gnustatus/gnustatus-2011-01.texi,v
retrieving revision 1.12
retrieving revision 1.13
diff -u -b -r1.12 -r1.13
--- gnustatus-2011-01.texi      24 Jan 2011 01:29:43 -0000      1.12
+++ gnustatus-2011-01.texi      26 Jan 2011 23:41:39 -0000      1.13
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 \input texinfo   @c -*-texinfo-*-
address@hidden $Id: gnustatus-2011-01.texi,v 1.12 2011/01/24 01:29:43 karl Exp $
address@hidden $Id: gnustatus-2011-01.texi,v 1.13 2011/01/26 23:41:39 karl Exp $
 @comment %**start of header
 @setfilename gnustatus-2011-01.info
 @set mytitle GNU Status Reports: January 2011
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 @setchapternewpage off
 @comment %**end of header
 
address@hidden put all extra space at the bottom of pages.
 @tex
 \globaldefs=1
  \raggedbottom
@@ -39,6 +40,10 @@
 @insertcopying
 @end titlepage
 
address@hidden This looks better than having the specific chapter headings.
address@hidden off
address@hidden @thistitle @| @| @thispage
+
 @contents
 
 @node Top
@@ -52,7 +57,9 @@
 many packages as possible.
 
 @url{http://www.gnu.org/manual} lists all GNU packages, with links to
-online manuals and home pages.
+online manuals and home pages.  All GNU packages can be accessed on
+the web via @indicateurl{http://www.gnu.org/software/@var{pkgname}},
+as shown in the headings here.
 
 See also @url{http://planet.gnu.org}, which aggregates the individual
 GNU news items posted on Savannah (@url{http://savannah.gnu.org}).
@@ -62,7 +69,11 @@
 archives at @url{http://@/lists.gnu.org/@/mailman/@/listinfo/@/info-gnu}.
 
 The aim of the present report is to be somewhat higher-level and more
-general than the others, although there is clearly some overlap.
+general than the others, although there is inevitably some overlap.
+
+Questions, comments, and suggestions about this document in general
+are welcome; please email @email{maintainers@@gnu.org}.  Issues for
+specific packages should of course be addressed via their usual routes.
 
 @menu
 * Binutils::
@@ -70,6 +81,7 @@
 * Electric::
 * Freefont::
 * Gawk::
+* GCC::         GNU Compiler Collection.
 * GNUCOMM::     GNU Telecom subsystem.
 * GNUtrition::
 * Grep::
@@ -262,6 +274,66 @@
 @end itemize
 
 
address@hidden GCC
address@hidden GCC (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/gcc})
+
+From Gerald Pfeifer: The last couple of months have seen several GCC
+(GNU Compiler Collection) releases, first GCC 4.4.5 in October, then
+GCC 4.5.2 in December and we are working full steam to brush up the
+first release in the 4.6 series
+(@url{http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-4.6/changes.html}).
+
+GCC 4.6 will bring support for the Xilinx MicroBlaze softcore
+processor on the backend and a new frontend (and run-time library) for
+the Go language, plus many new Objective-C features, such as declared
+and synthesized properties, dot syntax, fast enumeration, optional
+protocol methods, method/protocol/class attributes, class extensions,
+and a new GNU Objective-C runtime API.
+
+GCC 4.6 is also adding a new optimization level @code{-Ofast} that is
address@hidden with options that can affect standards compliance but
+result in better optimized code.  The link-time optimizations (LTO) we
+introduced with GCC 4.5 have been improved, stabilized and reduced in
+terms of resource consumption which allows GCC to build itself or
+Mozilla Firefox with LTO.  As a user you can control how many
+compilations to execute via -flto=N.  Inlining heuristics and
+interprocedural optimizations have been tuned heavily, too.
+
+Back to frontends, stack checking for Ada has been tightened and now
+detects all overflows on several platforms; experimental support for
+the upcoming C1X standard has been added, new function attributes
address@hidden and @code{callee_pop_aggregate}, and a new warning
address@hidden  Support for the upcoming C++0x standard has
+seen a lot of love and care and C++ code generation can be tuned more
+finely (cf.@: new options @code{-fstrict-enums} and
address@hidden).
+
+On systems supporting the new libquadmath library, GNU Fortran now
+also supports a quad-precision, @code{kind=16} floating-point data
+type (@code{REAL(16)}, @code{COMPLEX(16)}).  The @code{-fwhole-file}
+command-line option is now enabled by default which improves code
+generation and diagnostics, and both Fortran 2003 and Fortran 2008
+support have seen their fair dose of enhancements.
+
+In terms of platform enhancements, @code{-march=core2} (and
address@hidden) provides support for Intel address@hidden,
address@hidden for Intel i3/i5/i7 and @code{-march=btver1} gives
+you support for AMD Bobcat (family 14).  Darwin, FreeBSD, MinGW and
+Cygwin now all support @code{__float128} on 32-bit x86 targets.  MIPS
+now supports the Loongson 3A processor and s390x added full support
+for the zEnterprise z196 processor with a number of new instructions
+facilities.
+
+As far as operating systems go, GCC provides a convenient way of
+building native libraries and applications for the Android platform
+and on Windows @code{#pragma push_macro} & @code{#pragma pop_macro},
+decimal floating point and more have been added.
+
+Should you find any issue testing this forthcoming release, or any
+other, please make use of our updated Bugzilla at
address@hidden://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla}.
+
+
 @node GNUCOMM
 @unnumbered GNUCOMM (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/gnucomm})
 
@@ -493,67 +565,110 @@
 @node Hurd
 @unnumbered Hurd (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd})
 
-From Thomas Schwinge: Yeah, that's right!  The GNU Hurd is the GNU
-project's replacement for the Unix kernel, implemented as a collection
-of servers that run on the Mach microkernel.  Contrary to popular
-belief, this project is not yet dead.  Of course, it's not the world's
-most active project either, but a handful of volunteers (a small
-handful, mostly) are still plowing their way through the terrain of a
-steadily changing (and improving) Free Software world, striving to
-keep this advanced research prototype system going.  They are
-accompanied by another handful of Debian GNU/Hurd, and (address@hidden) Arch
-Hurd packagers.  So, what happened in the last year?
+From Olaf Buddenhagen, Arne Babenhauserheide, Thomas Schwinge: Yeah,
+that's quite right: this project is still alive!
 
address@hidden @bullet
address@hidden Apart from having done a lot of other work, Samuel Thibault, our 
Jack
-of all trades, merged his development branch that brought us Xen domU
-support.  Development had started in 2007 already, and since it has
-been heavily tested by using it for the Debian GNU/Hurd build servers
-as well as our public Hurd boxen,
address@hidden://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/public_hurd_boxen.html}.
-
address@hidden We had Zheng Da work on user-space device drivers, based on L4's 
DDE
-project.  This is a project we've long been wanting to implement, so
-this was good progress.  Unfortunately, due to accepting a PhD
-position, he didn't have much time anymore to bring this to
-completion.  But due to modern revision control systems, all his
-development and code are publically available, and waiting for the
-next developer to pick up again.
+Originally started as the GNU project's take at replacing proprietary
+UNIX kernels, the GNU Hurd is nowadays pursued mostly because of its
+
+According to our mission statement, the goal is creating @emph{a
+general-purpose kernel suitable for the GNU operating system, which is
+viable for everyday use, and gives users and programs as much control
+over their computing environment as possible}.  It has a unique
+multi-server microkernel-based architecture---bringing advanced
+operating system research to the mainstream.  More concretely, it's a
+collection of user-space server processes that run on the GNU Mach
+microkernel.
+
+The Hurd doesn't fully deliver on the @emph{everyday usability} goal
+yet, but it is seeing continuous improvement---and 2010 has been no
+exception.  Let's take a look at the progress throughout the year.
 
address@hidden Carl Fredrik Hammar finished and presented his thesis,
-``Generalizing mobility for the Hurd'',
address@hidden @bullet
address@hidden
+Apart from having done a lot of other work, Samuel Thibault, our Jack
+of all trades, merged his development branch that added Xen domU
+support to GNU Mach, which makes it possible to run a GNU/Hurd system
+as a Xen guest.  Development of this started in 2007, and since then
+it has been heavily tested by using it for the Debian GNU/Hurd build
+servers, most of our public GNU/Hurd systems,
address@hidden://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/public_hurd_boxen.html}, and the
+Hurd project's wiki web server.
+
address@hidden
+We had Zheng Da work on a new hardware device driver framework, which
+is based on the Dresden L4 (Fiasco) group's DDE project, and allows
+running modern Linux kernel drivers as user-space server processes.
+Many network cards already work perfectly with this new framework.
+(It has not yet been integrated into the mainstream Hurd code base, so
+it needs to be compiled and set up by hand.)  Other driver classes,
+such as hard disk controllers, will require further work.
+
address@hidden
+As in the previous years, we again participated in the Google Summer
+of Code 2010.  Olaf Buddenhagen is our main guy for organizing this.
+
+J@'er@'emie Koenig ported the modern Debian Installer to Debian
+GNU/Hurd.  Installation images using the new installer are replacing
+the previous CD images, which were using an installer based on the old
+Debian boot floppies (and running under the Linux kernel)---Philip
+Charles has been maintaining these single-handedly for almost ten
+years!  The new installer images are available from
address@hidden://people.debian.org/~sthibault/hurd-i386/installer/cdimage/}.
+
+Emilio Pozuelo Monfort was investigating specific compatibility
+problems exposed by the extensive test suites coming with some
+software packages.  Emilio's analysis uncovered a number of
+programming errors in the Hurd code, and he fixed several of them.  As
+these typically affected other programs too, this improved stability
+and compatibility in general.
+
address@hidden
+J@'er@'emie Koenig created a new implementation of a @command{procfs}
+translator, which is considerably more robust and efficient than the
+previous one.  Tools such as @command{top} can now be used without
+problems.
+
+Some other translators (@command{gopherfs}, @command{netio},
address@hidden) which have been created by external contributors in
+the past have been fixed up by Manuel Menal, and packaged in Debian.
+Thus, some of the results of Hurd's extensible architecture are now
+easier to access, and these updated translators can serve as examples
+for other developers to implement their own ideas.
+
address@hidden
+In addition to various general stability, compatibility, and
+portability fixes, several people (Samuel Thibault, Pino Toscano,
+Emilio Pozuelo Monfort, and others) have been working on fixing issues
+with specific Debian packages.  So far, about 68% of all Debian
+packages are also available for Debian GNU/Hurd.
+
address@hidden
+Michael Walker started the Arch Hurd distribution, and together with
+other enthusiastic Arch developers (Allan McRae, Matthias Lanzinger,
+Alexander Preisinger, Stephen Gilles, Diego Nieto Cid) they got it
+working in an amazingly short amount of time, both as an installable
+system, and a live CD.  So now there is a choice between two
+well-featured distributions for the Hurd.  These new people of course
+also help forwarding Hurd development in general---Diego in particular
+contributed various patches to the Hurd console and other components.
+
address@hidden
+Carl Fredrik Hammar finished and presented his thesis, ``Generalizing
+mobility for the Hurd'',
 @url{http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2010-01/msg00078.html},
 and passed with distinction.
-
address@hidden As in the previous years, we again participated in the Google 
Summer
-of Code.  Olaf Buddenhagen is our main guy for organizing this, as
-well as spending considerable time with software design discussions,
-and helping others to get their ideas sorted.  As GSoC projects,
-J@'er@'emie Koenig ported the Debian Installer to GNU/Hurd, and Emilio
-Pozuelo Monfort was working on a task that may be perceived as less
-exciting from the outside, but yet is extremely valuable: fixing
-compatibility problems exposed by projects' test suites.  During that,
-he uncovered a bunch of programming errors in the Hurd code, and fixed
-a lot of these.  J@'er@'emie's work resulted in a modern Debian
-GNU/Hurd installation image:
address@hidden://people.debian.org/~sthibault/hurd-i386/installer/cdimage}.
-
address@hidden Right in time with J@'er@'emie's Debian Installer success, Philip
-Charles, our 72-year-old provider of Debian GNU/Hurd installation CDs
-has now resigned from that position---a job he had been doing for
-nearly ten years.
-
 @end itemize
 
 This is a very short digest of what happened in the last year.  You
-can read our ``Month of the Hurd'' at
address@hidden://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/news.html} or by subscribing to
+can read our regular ``Month of the Hurd'' at
address@hidden://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/news.html}, or by subscribing to
 our RSS feed at @url{http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/index.rss}.
 
-If you're interested, for example, in doing a university project on a
-multi-server microkernel-based operating system, or if you're
-generally interested in contributing, please see
address@hidden://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/contributing.html}.  Or simply
+If you are interested, for example, in doing a university project on a
+multi-server microkernel-based operating system, or if you are
+interested in contributing to Hurd development in general, please see
address@hidden://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/contributing.html}.  Or just
 talk to us at @email{bug-hurd@@gnu.org} or the @code{#hurd} IRC
 channel on freenode.