ChangeLog

ChangeLog for the Dao language and virtual machine:

================================
release dao-2.0, 2014-XX-XX
================================
ADDED:
-- Execution time profiler;
-- Bytecode format and single file deployment;
-- Basic data flow analysis and optimizations (CSE, DCE, register reallocation etc.);
-- DaoJIT, LLVM-based JIT compiler;
-- DaoCXX, Clang-based module to support embedding C/C++ codes;
-- ClangDao, Clang-based automatic binding tool;
-- Code section methods (similar to Ruby code blocks);
-- Parallelized code section methods in mt;
-- Asynchronous class and future value;
-- Communication channel for tasklets;
-- Abstract interface type: interface Name{ methods };
-- Deferred code block and error handling;
-- Typed function decorators;
-- Class decorator and Apsect-Oriented Programming;
-- Invariables and invar classes;
-- Boolean type;
-- Enum/flag/symbol type;
-- Variant or disjoint union type: type1|type2;
-- Hash map type (colliding keys as red-black tree);
-- Support for customized comparisons and hashing;
-- Explicit enumeration with keywords: array/list/map/tuple{};
-- Verbatim string syntax;
-- Customized for-in iteration;
-- Improve operator overloading (added support for type casting);
-- New technique for more efficient lookup of overloaded functions;
-- Access control on syntax macros and global consts and variables;
-- Data serialization (in aux module);
-- Support for template-like C data type;
-- Standard help system;
CHANGED:
-- "float" type to double precision (with "double" type removed);
-- Internal data storage structures;
-- Better parsing with a combination of top-down and bottom-up parsing;
-- Better handling of control branching;
-- Better handling of overloaded functions;
-- Better support for function specialization;
-- Better implementation of call stack;
-- Various improvements to the basic data types;
-- Various improvements to the garbage collector;
-- Re-implementation of exception types as C data type;
-- Moved aux, sys, math, meta and network modules from kernel to standard modules;
-- Replaced builtin functional methods with various builtin code section methods;
REMOVED:
-- Wide character string;
-- Posix like multi-threading methods;
-- Try-catch style exception handling;
-- Parameter passing by reference for basic data types;
FIX:
-- Many bugs;

================================
release dao-1.1, 2009-09-19
================================
ADDED:
 -- do{}while() statement;
 -- Tail call optimization;
 -- Built-in mathematic functions;
 -- Built-in functional methods such as map(), reduce() etc.;
 -- Built-in functional-style methods for data construction such as string(), list(), array() etc.;
 -- Type checking operators: ?=, ?<, and the associated VM instruction DVM_CHECK;
 -- Support for "case c1, c2, c3:" and "case c1 ... c2:" in switch statement;
 -- Function DaoFunction_Call() to the C interface for extending and embedding;
 -- Support for using constant fields in namespaces or classes or cdata as
    default value in function parameter list;
 -- Partial ranking in list.rank();
 -- Numeric array method: array.index(), to convert a flat index to proper multi-index;
 -- Type casting by:  var :: ( type ) ;
 -- In parameter list, parameters can be specified as "const";
 -- Automatic inheritance of constructors from single parent class/cdata;
 -- DaoVmSpace_AddVirtualFile(), and daoMainv.c to support binding script files into the Dao
    interpreter executable.
 -- New operator: ?? to check if the last operation is successful, 
    and/or provide an alternative if not successful; example:
      list[i] ??   # check if index "i" is in valid range;
      map[key] ??  # check if a map has particular key;
      val = map[key] ?? another  # if map has the key, assign its value, otherwise assign another;

CHANGED:
 -- Fixed a bug in the incremental GC algorithm for single threaded Dao VM;
 -- Decreased GC frequency to greatly decrease the GC overhead for singel threaded version;
 -- Improved GC by freeing more data directly, and by add tuple type to GC scanning process;
 -- Reduced tuple creation when possible;
 -- Revised type and function preparation methods for loading C modules;
 -- Some C/C++ interface functions are moved from type DaoVmSpace to DaoNameSpace;
 -- math.rand(), math.rand_gaussian() now take a parameter which is multiply to the
    standard distribution (even and normal);
 -- Constant number literal should now use 'D' to mark double precision instead of 
    using double '0';
 -- "stdio" is changed to "io", and "stdio" is kept as an alias to "io" for compatiblity;
 -- "stdlib" is changed to "std", and "stdlib" is kept as an alias to "std" for compatiblity;
 -- "stdio.print/printf/println" are changed to "io.write/writef/writeln", aliases are kept
    for compatiblity;
 -- Storage for local variables as references;
 -- Class definition: class body no longer allows statements;
 -- Passing parameter as references for simple data types is back;
 -- Now max() and min() methods of list and array return a tuple to include the value and index;
    And for list, a larger range of types are allowed for comparison;
 -- Improved cast to tuples;
 -- Disabled duplication of C functions, and disable data copying for parameters passed to C functions;

FIXED:
 -- A few bugs regarding modification to non-local variables due to the previous lacking of
    reference representation of the variables;
 -- A minor bug in handling 0 as default parameter for DaoCData types;
 -- A minor bug for handing compatible types in DaoAbsType_MatchValue();
 -- Proper parsing >> in type names, and >= after type names, such as:
    list<list<int>>, a : list<int>= {};

REMOVED:
 -- list.sort(); replaced by functional method sort();
 -- array.noapply(); array.apply(); the later is replaced by functional method apply();
 -- single precision complex array;
 -- "buffer" type;

================================
release dao-1.0.1, 2009-06-02
================================

ADDED:
  -- Type checked instructions for DVM_CALL and DVM_MCALL;

CHANGED:
  -- map.key() and map.value() are changed to map.keys() and map.values();
  -- A slight change to the C interface to make embedding much simpler;
  -- C interfaces for DaoVmProcess and DaoVmSpace types;
  -- Data structures for function call stack frames;
  -- Improved usage of namespaces for module loading, script compiling and
     evaluation;
  -- Changed implementation for returning by parameters;
  -- Remove the global constant "NULL" as the NULL pointer object which can be
     used as the default parameter value for C types in C functions; Now a
	  simple alternative solution is used to allow using "0" in place of "NULL"
	  as a default parameter value for C types.
FIXED:
  -- Finished a neglected new implementation of do-until statements;
  -- A typing error in creating the typing object of the "::main()" function;
  -- A minor bug in using specialized VM instructions such as SETV_XY;
  -- A running time data type related bug in comparison operation;
  -- A compiling error in erasing virtual instructions after constant folding
     for operations that generate codes other than codes for arithmatics, e.g.
		  "A = 0 || 1" or "A = 1 ? 10 : 20" etc.

================================
release dao-1.0
================================
ADDED:
  -- "long" type as multiple/arbitrary precision integer (BigInteger);
  -- new implementation of a clean lexer;
  -- new and parallelized regular expression matching engine, 
     which can be accessed by new string methods such as: 
     string.match(), string.submatch(), string.extract(), 
     string.capture(), string.change(), string.pfind();
  -- parallelized arithmetic operations for numeric arrays;
  -- JIT compiling for X86-64 platform;
  -- coroutine with typed interface, added keyword "yield";
  -- parameter grouping as in python, to allow passing tuples as parameters,
     and get the fields of the tuples to be bound to the corresponding
	  parameters automatically;
  -- "local" keyword for local data;
  -- "virtual" keyword to indicate class virtual methods;
  -- a new syntax for easy construction of list or array: { expr ... count };
  -- list items pushback and popback by operators: << and >>;
  -- configuration by file;
  -- string += integer_as_char;
  -- string.expand( ... );
  -- string.replace( key_value_map, max );
  -- stdlib.time( calendar_time_tuple ), return time in seconds.
  -- stdio.read( file_name : string ), to read whole file;
  -- Set default values for simple types in class instance creation, for
     fields that are declared without default values;
  -- stdio.popen( command : string, mode : string );
  -- flush output stream before closing;
  -- Raising error when reading from or write to closed file or pipe;
  -- More restrict type checking for compatible types;
  -- tuple as map keys, where tuples are ordered according to each item;
  -- added missed type checking for some specialized VM instructions;
  -- subindexing with a tuple of two numbers: a = list[ (i, j) ], which is
     equivalent to: a = list[ i : j ];
  -- new behavior: string.chop() => string.chop( utf8=0 ), to allow removing 
     corrupted utf-8 code from the end of a string;
  -- new behavior: string.split(), when called without parameters, the string
     will be splitted into tokens, such that each token is either a byte of an
	  ASCII character, or multi-bytes encoding a single utf-8 symbol, or a
	  block of bytes with invalid encoding;
  -- Proper handling of paths for modules loaded through modules,
     namely, the path of a module is added to the searching paths
     when the module is being loaded, so that this module can load
     other modules relative in path to itself;
  -- Support for setting default values for parent class variables.
CHANGED:
  -- stdlib.load( file, safe ) => stdlib.load( file, import, safe );
  -- stdlib.ctime() => stdlib.ctimef(), return formated time;
  -- stdlib.ctime(), return unformated time as a tuple;
  -- stream.read() => stream.read( count );
  -- string.splitby() => string.split();
  -- representation and handling of abstract types (DaoAbsType);
  -- implementation of returning value by parameters;
  -- implementation of switch-case statement;
  -- implementation of post parsing to setup conditional branching;
  -- improved code parsing by better using token lexical information;
  -- revised GETF/SETF instructions;
  -- simplified instruction GETCL/G/K, GETVG/K/O and SETVG/K/O into GETC, GETV
     and SETV;
  -- composite operation: |=, OR to BITOR, &=, AND to BITAND;
FIXED:
  -- Some memory leaking bugs as detected by valgrind;
  -- Support for infinite looping;
  -- A bug in deriving member methods from a parent class;
  -- A bug in string.encrypt();
  -- A bug in updating reference count causing memory leaking;
  -- A few bugs in tuple typing, and field naming;
  -- A bug in the parser to print error information;
  -- A bug in handling errors during incremental compiling;
  -- A bug for break/skip;
  -- A bug in compiling nested classes;
  -- A bug in regex to match '.' to no-ascii characters;
  -- A bug of missed type checking for setting single map item;
  -- A bug in lexing unicode source codes;
  -- A bug in parsing pathes with dots;
  -- A bug in simple optimization for tuple enumeration;
  -- A bug in self in/de-crement opteration for list items;
  -- A bug in regex engine parallelization;
  -- A bug in DaoVmSpace and DaoNameSpace allocation;
  -- A bug in calling main();
  -- A bug in iterating list/map in for-in loops;
  -- A bug in list.sort(), list.rank();
  -- A bug in run code section from list.sort();
  -- A bug in class instance creation;
  -- A bug in initializing exception classes;
  -- A bug in copying routine constants;
  -- A bug in virtual register reallocation for numbers;
  -- A bug in erasing a range of keys from a map;
  -- A minor bug in typing for map key/value insertion;
  -- A bug in using no-ascii symbols as variable names;
REMOVED:
  -- The old regular expression engine, and the syntax support for it;
  -- The interface to support embedding codes of another language;
  -- remove keyword "extern" and instruction GETCE, GETVE and SETVE;

================================
release 1.0-preview2, 2008-05-01
================================

ADDED:
  -- "function" as equivalent keyword of "routine".

FIXED:
  -- Parsing error for scientific number.
  -- A bug in using environment variable DAO_DIR for loading dao.so.
  -- A bug for VM instruction DVM_TEST for double type due to a typo.
  -- A bug in DValue_GetString() for double type due to a typo.
  -- Better error information for mixing string quotation symbols " and '.

================================
release 1.0-preview, 2008-04-24
================================

ADDED:
  -- enum and typedef keywords.
  -- New data type: tuple.
  -- Automatic parsing of command line arguments for explicitly defined
  main() routine.
  -- Comments as documentations for classes and routines.
  -- Safe running mode is taken back with a simpler implementation.
  -- An incremental garbage collector similar to the concurrent garbage collector 
  with double object pools.
  -- String encryption methods using XXTEA.

FIXED:
  -- Dao macro system for defining new syntax.
  -- TCC module for embedding C codes.
  -- A bug in list subindexing with index range.
  -- A bug in typing of list assignment with different type of items.
  -- A bug in array.dim().
  -- A bug causing memory leaking for numeric arrays.
  -- A bug in free DaoVmProcess structure, very stupid bug (forgot to set the
  function pointer field of its typer structure!).
  -- A bug in parsing asynchronous function calls with multiple modes.
  -- A bug in joining asynchronous function calls.
  -- A bug in handling messages send to actors that are not in waiting mode.
  -- A bug in counting line number after replacing escape chars.
  -- A bug in declaration of class member when there is a variable with the
  same name presented in the scope.
  -- A bug in forgetting to set the constructor attribute for overloaded class
  constructors.

CHANGED:
  -- Internal data storage scheme is changed to reduce memory consumption;
  -- Data storage for class instances;
  -- C interfaces are changed to cope with the change in internal data storage
  scheme;
  -- Load statement;
  -- Methods in reflection library;
  -- Implementation of the scheduler for AFC and MPI;
  -- Implementation of power operator: **, from implemention by function
  to implementation by VM machine instruction, for simplicity.
  -- Dao type name: "hash"->"map", to better reflect the internal
  implementation.
  -- Dao internal structure name: "DaoNumArray"->"DaoArray", "DaoHash"->"DaoMap".
  -- Members of some structures such as "DArray" have been switched from "int"
  to "size_t" to support 64 bits.
  -- Multiple assignment uses (), instead of [] and {}, for semantic
  consistence.

REMOVED:
  -- Arrange operator: <@>, similar functionality can be achieved by 
  Range enumeration: [ array/number : array/number : number ].
  -- VM instruction for make dynamic field of a class instance: DVM_MAKEF,
  it can be emulated by implementation of AddField(), DelField(),
  _GETF() / SETF methods of a class. This instruction is introduced not
  very long time ago.
  -- Running time instruction with operand caching.

=========================
release on 2007-sep-09:
=========================

ADDED:
  -- "int", "float" and "double" data type.
  -- Constant field inheritance hierarchy for user-defined C/C++ types.
  -- Direct deriving Dao classes from user-defined C/C++ types.
  -- Flexible type casting.
  -- Better interactive shell using readline library.
  -- "final" keyword to finalize a class to prevent it from sub-classing,
  and to support a set of optimized VM instructions.
  -- In-place index permutation for multi-dimensional array (matrix
  transpose).
  -- stdlib.enable_fe() and stdlib.disable_fe(): enable and disable
  floating point exception.
  -- stream.printf(): formated printing, support most of the C printf() flags.
  -- Typing for setters and getter.
  -- Some optimized virtual machine instructions.
  -- Simple common subexpression elimination and register reallocation.
  -- Missed type checking at running time for getting/setting non-local data.
  -- Data scoping by keyword "extern", for data available throughout a
  virtual machine space.

CHANGED:
  -- Simplified DRoutine structure to reduce memory consumption.
  -- Abstract interface defined dao.h.

FIXED:
  -- A timing bug in DCondVar_TimedWait().
  -- An optimization bug in GC (now scalar types that may be deleted directly
  are no long push in the GC pools.)
  -- A bug in extracting matched sub-string for regular expresssion matching.
  -- A bug in handling exception scopes.

2007-06-30:
CHANGED:
  Better interactive shell using readline library.

2007-05-26:
ADDED:
  "use" statement.
  
ADDED:
  Type casting.
  
2007-05-20:
ADDED:
  Integer and single precision floating number, so type name "number" now 
  becomes "int", "float" and "double".

2007-05-01:
ADDED:
  Method stream.printf(): formated printing.

OPTIMIZED:
  Context caching.

2007-04-15:
CHANGED:
  New set of exception classes.

ADDED:
  Floating point exceptions.

REMOVED:
  Safe running mode.

2007-04-14:
CHANGED:
  Embedded expression in regular expression is now compiled in the normal way,
  instead of creating a code section.

CHANGED:
  Bits operations is now implemented as virtual instructions instead of
  as function calls.

2007-04-13:
ADDED:
  do { stmts } until ( exprs ).

CHANGED:
  The behaviour of boolean operators: &&(and), ||(or), become the same as
  those in Lua. That is, the last evaluated operand is returned as the result
  when considering there is short-cut evaluation.

2007-04-11:
ADDED:
  for( var = first [ : step ] : last ), equivalent to
  for( var = first; var <= last; var += step ), step=1 by default.

2007-04-08:
FIXED:
  A bug in determining the ending of a statement.

2007-04-01:
ADDED:
  Typing system for Dao.

2007-03-17:
ADDED:
  Constant folding for DVM_GETMI with single index.

CHANGED:
  string[i] returns a number instead of a substring.
  
2007-03-03:
CHANGED:
  The Dao VM instructions: new meaning of operand indexes and more specialized
  instructions; new operand caching mechanism.
  
ADDED:
  Synonymous operators: and or not
  
2007-02-25:
FIXED:
  A minor bug in supporting operator overloading (missing a "break" in
  "swith-case" );

ADDED:
  Function curry.

2007-02-22:
ADDED:
  Support for mixed programming with other languages: currently C language is
  supported using libtcc.

2007-02-13:
CHANGED:
  Implementation of a new mechanism for join mode of asynchronous function call.

2007-02-10:
ADDED:
  A powerful macro system for Dao: syntax { ... } as { ... }

2007-02-06:
ADDED:
  Lambda like function: a = @(x,y){ body }
  
2007-02-05:
REMOVED:
  Parameter passing by name with operator @.

CHANGED:
  Parameter passing by name and object enumeration with operator @= is changed to =>.

2007-01-27+4:
CHANGED:
  New message passing interfaces for concurrent and distributed programming
  based on the actor model.

2007-01-19:
ADDED:
  Lazy compiling of routines: they are compiled in to VM codes when
  the are called for the first time.

2007-01-08:
FIXED:
  A bug when raising exceptions outside of try ... rescue.

2007-01-06:
FIXED:
  1. printing of non null-terminated string;
  2. MBS-WCS conversion for strings containing null-chars.

2007-01-02:
ADDED:
  1. network supports;
  2. message passing through network sockets.
  
FIXED:
  1. implementation of condition variable based on Win32 APIs.

2006-12-07:
ADDED:
  supporting dynamic field for class instance.

2006-12-06:
ADDED:
  1. supporting synchronization of asynchronous function calls with keyword join;
  2. supporting return future values from asynchronous function calls;
  3. stdlib.spawn(), stdlib.send() and stdlib.receive();
  4. asynchronous function call "hurry" mode.

2006-12-03:
ADDED:
  exception handling. added keywords: try raise rescue retry.

2006-12-01:
ADDED:
  actor model: asynchronous function call.

ADDED:
  declare un-exposed class. class Abc; class Abc::Edf; 

2006-11-30:
ADDED:
  expand list in parameter list, func( pa, list, ... ), the elements of
  the list are used to fill the rest part of the parameters. Function parameters
  are also checked for such call to identify the right one among overloaded
  functions to call.

2006-11-27:
OPTIMIZED:
  single element accessing of a numarray with multiple-indexing.

2006-11-26:
FIXED:
  a bug in implementation of arrange operator as an internal method.

2006-11-25:
FIXED:
  a bug in stdio redirection.

CHANGED:
  duplicate simple data type when it is assigned to a field of
  class instance or namespace.

2006-11-24:
FIXED:
  a bug in for-in-do for hash type.

2006-11-23:
OPTIMIZED:
  invoking of builtin methods in loops( optimized out an internal
  function call for searching the method by name ).

2006-11-22:
OPTIMIZED:
  single subindexing of list.

2006-11-20;
RELEASED: Dao 1.0 Beta.