[ANN] Feature Freeze on Sunday, December 8, 2019

Hi Marcel,

Hi, all! :-)

On behalf of Hannes Hirzel, who is our release manager for Squeak 5.3 (http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/275), I am happy to announce the next feature freeze. It will be this Sunday, December 8, 2019.

(Hannes is quite busy these days. During the past months, we exchanged many thoughts on this release. So let us make it happen! I am sure he will pop up on the squeak-dev list soon again.)

During that freeze (aka. beta phase), we want to focus on bug hunting; new features will be collected in the inbox only (http://source.squeak.org/inbox/). We are eager to push out this release until Christmas. 2019! ;-) So the freeze will hopefully be over on December 24. Maybe earlier. 

So, if you update you local Trunk image on Monday morning, it should show "Squeak 5.3beta" instead of:

<img id="7f551602-604d-4703-85ea-e12807b53c8e" width="auto" src="mailbird://attachments/26693" data-unique-identifier="">

<image.png>

Where do you get a fresh Squeak Trunk image to test?

-> Via https://squeak.org/downloads/

-> or http://files.squeak.org/trunk/ (the latest ones at the bottom)

-> or http://files.squeak.org/5.3beta/ (soon)

Which virtual machine (VM) should you use?

-> The version from Nov 28, 2019: https://github.com/OpenSmalltalk/opensmalltalk-vm/releases/tag/201911282316

-> That version will be already in all 5.3beta bundles that have a VM bundled within.

-> Double check via Help > About Squeak:

<image2.png>

<img id="323fcc5a-0e9b-4031-b6b5-11da9deeb4b6" width="auto" src="mailbird://attachments/26696" data-unique-identifier="">

What should you test?

-> Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. If possible on macOS, Windows, and Linux operating systems.

-> Hannes suggested a focus on Squeak's Etoys features. Here are some pointers:

* http://forum.world.st/Etoys-infested-by-deprecation-warnings-td5104215.htm

* http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/1183

* http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/3815

* http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/1174

* http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/6601

-> The preference wizard that pops up at the beginning in a fresh image.

-> Bugs listed in Mantis (http://bugs.squeak.org/view_all_bug_page.php) that are still there and really annoying.

-> Grammar/spelling issues in all kinds of texts such as in buttons, menus, help topics, release notes, tutorials (http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/792) etc.

Where should you report the bugs?

-> First, make sure you are working on the latest Trunk version! (Squeak > Update)

-> Please post any bugs directly on the squeak-dev list.

What about SistaV1; is it ready?

-> No, it will not be enabled by default in Squeak 5.3. After the release, we plan to immediately switch the regular Trunk from V3 to SistaV1 to do more tests. Please do all tests using the default V3-with-closures bytecode set. Meaning, just use the ones from files.squeak.org as described above.

The bug we had that I feared wasconnected to the SistaV1 bytecode set was identified by Nicolas Cellier; it was due to the JIT generating unsafe code for assigning the stack pointer through an absolute address in x86-64.  This was fixed and I further improved the code by moving the variables assigned to, CStackPointer and CFramePointer, into the CoInterpreter where they can be reached via the dedicated VarBaseRegister.

Hi Marcel,

On Dec 6, 2019, at 1:52 AM, Taeumel, Marcel <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi, all! :-)

On behalf of Hannes Hirzel, who is our release manager for Squeak 5.3 (http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/275), I am happy to announce the next feature freeze. It will be this Sunday, December 8, 2019.

(Hannes is quite busy these days. During the past months, we exchanged many thoughts on this release. So let us make it happen! I am sure he will pop up on the squeak-dev list soon again.)

During that freeze (aka. beta phase), we want to focus on bug hunting; new features will be collected in the inbox only (http://source.squeak.org/inbox/). We are eager to push out this release until Christmas. 2019! ;-) So the freeze will hopefully be over on December 24. Maybe earlier. 

So, if you update you local Trunk image on Monday morning, it should show "Squeak 5.3beta" instead of:

<img id="7f551602-604d-4703-85ea-e12807b53c8e" width="auto" src="mailbird://attachments/26693" data-unique-identifier="">

<image.png>

Where do you get a fresh Squeak Trunk image to test?

-> Via https://squeak.org/downloads/

-> or http://files.squeak.org/trunk/ (the latest ones at the bottom)

-> or http://files.squeak.org/5.3beta/ (soon)

Which virtual machine (VM) should you use?

-> The version from Nov 28, 2019: https://github.com/OpenSmalltalk/opensmalltalk-vm/releases/tag/201911282316

-> That version will be already in all 5.3beta bundles that have a VM bundled within.

-> Double check via Help > About Squeak:

<image2.png>

<img id="323fcc5a-0e9b-4031-b6b5-11da9deeb4b6" width="auto" src="mailbird://attachments/26696" data-unique-identifier="">

What should you test?

-> Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. If possible on macOS, Windows, and Linux operating systems.

-> Hannes suggested a focus on Squeak's Etoys features. Here are some pointers:

* http://forum.world.st/Etoys-infested-by-deprecation-warnings-td5104215.htm

* http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/1183

* http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/3815

* http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/1174

* http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/6601

-> The preference wizard that pops up at the beginning in a fresh image.

-> Bugs listed in Mantis (http://bugs.squeak.org/view_all_bug_page.php) that are still there and really annoying.

-> Grammar/spelling issues in all kinds of texts such as in buttons, menus, help topics, release notes, tutorials (http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/792) etc.

Where should you report the bugs?

-> First, make sure you are working on the latest Trunk version! (Squeak > Update)

-> Please post any bugs directly on the squeak-dev list.

What about SistaV1; is it ready?

-> No, it will not be enabled by default in Squeak 5.3. After the release, we plan to immediately switch the regular Trunk from V3 to SistaV1 to do more tests. Please do all tests using the default V3-with-closures bytecode set. Meaning, just use the ones from files.squeak.org as described above.

The bug we had that I feared wasconnected to the SistaV1 bytecode set was identified by Nicolas Cellier; it was due to the JIT generating unsafe code for assigning the stack pointer through an absolute address in x86-64.  This was fixed and I further improved the code by moving the variables assigned to, CStackPointer and CFramePointer, into the CoInterpreter where they can be reached via the dedicated VarBaseRegister.

So, given that I’ve been using SistaV1 for over a year and fixed the last bytecode compiler issue several months ago (I’ll dig out the Monticello commits soon) I’m confident that we are in fact ready for Sista V1.  Can we please enable it by default.  I’mconfident that there are no serious issues left with SistaV1 and after a difficult year I have my energy back and feel confident I can address any issues that do come up promptly. 

Ah, I may have spoken too soon.  There may indeed be interactions between EToys and the bytecode set.  Has anyone been using EToys with SistaV1?

---