[ANN] Slate 0.3 Released!

[Brian T. Rice]

Hello everyone,

After much debugging and tweaking and testing and polishing, we're 
declaring Slate as ready for release as 0.3, our first public 
fully-bootstrapped system. This is a big step for us, and marks a 
critical point in the lifespan of the project. Here is a summary of the 
work:

Slate is now virtual-machine-based using a self-generated set of sources 
which are idiomatic and efficient. The VM is generated through a build 
process and translation layer which are designed for easy extension, 
composition, and integration. The VM loads images which can be built 
declaratively through a from-scratch build process we have developed and 
can be re-used and modified as needed. Images may also be saved while 
running, and reloaded to continue from that run-time point. Much of the 
work involved in 0.3 has gone towards ensuring that this new environment 
is effectively bug-free and robust, and has succeeded for all the ways 
the libraries use it.

Relatively simple optimizations have been added to improve performance, 
and have had the effect of nearly-entirely removing the overhead of the 
powerful but complicated dispatch mechanism, and making Slate comparable 
with other similar languages for basic work.

Nearly every library in the system has been given a full test treatment, 
and debugged and polished thoroughly. The fixes and enhancements cover 
everything from the C-code generator to streaming and external resources.

Some features have been delayed in their introduction to the new 
environment, particularly subjective dispatch, graphics backends, and 
socket support, but these will be available soon in subsequent sub-point 
releases along with other important features.

Slate 0.3 is released at http://slate.tunes.org/downloads/slate-0.3.tgz

The distribution contains the full set of our repository's source, 
initial VM C sources and images, and copies of the programmer's manual 
in HTML, PostScript, and PDF formats. The included README file provides 
details on how to use it.

Enjoy!
Brian Rice
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