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Beta release of gawk 4.1.0 now available

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Aharon Robbins

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Apr 17, 2013, 3:09:53 PM4/17/13
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This note is to announce the BETA release of GNU Awk 4.1.0

It is available from:

http://www.skeeve.com/gawk/gawk-4.0.75.tar.gz

This is a major release with significant new features.

As far as I can tell, the documentation and code have both hit the
freeze point.

So, why do a beta release? So that you, yes you, the end user, can see
if anything I've done breaks gawk for you. Then you can TELL ME ABOUT
IT so that I can fix it for the final release.

Thanks,

Arnold Robbins
arn...@skeeve.com
---------------------------------------------
Copyright (C) 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
notice and this notice are preserved.

Changes from 4.0.2 to 4.1
-------------------------
1. The three executables gawk, pgawk, and dgawk, have been merged into
one, named just gawk. As a result:
* The -R option is gone
* Use -D to run the debugger. An optional file argument is a
list of commands to run first.
* Use -o to do pretty-printing only.
* Use -p to do profiling.
This considerably reduces gawk's "footprint" and eases the documentation
burden as well.

2. Gawk now supports high precision arithmetic with MPFR. The default is
still double precision, but setting PREC changes things, or using
the -M / --bignum options. This support is not compiled in if the MPFR
library is not available.

3. The new -i option (from xgawk) is used for loading awk library files.
This differs from -f in that the first non-option argument is treated
as a script.

4. The new -l option (from xgawk) is used for loading dynamic extensions.

5. The dynamic extension interface has been completely redone! There is
now a defined API for C extensions to use. A C extension acts like
a function written in awk, except that it cannot do everything that awk
code can. However, this allows interfacing to any facility that is
available from C. This is a major development, see the doc, which has
a nice shiny new chapter describing everything.

This support is not compiled in if dynamic loading of shared libraries
is not supported.

The old extension mechanism is still supported for compatiblity, but
it will most definitely be removed at the next major release.

6. The "inplace" extension, built using the new facility, can be used to
simulate the GNU "sed -i" feature.

7. The and(), or() and xor() functions now take any number of arguments,
with a minimum of two.

8. New arrays: SYMTAB, FUNCTAB, and PROCINFO["identifiers"]. SYMTAB allows
indirect access to any defined variable or array; it is possible to
"walk" the symbol table, if that should be necessary.

9. Support for building gawk with a cross compiler has been improved.

10. Infrastructure upgrades: bison 2.7.1, gettext 0.18.2.1, automake 1.13.1.
--
Aharon (Arnold) Robbins arnold AT skeeve DOT com
P.O. Box 354 Home Phone: +972 8 979-0381
Nof Ayalon
D.N. Shimshon 9978500 ISRAEL

Kenny McCormack

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Apr 17, 2013, 3:29:08 PM4/17/13
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In article <kkms20$b2l$1...@dont-email.me>,
Aharon Robbins <arn...@skeeve.com> wrote:
...
>10. Infrastructure upgrades: bison 2.7.1, gettext 0.18.2.1, automake 1.13.1.

Just out of curiosity, what does this mean?

Does it mean that you need at least that version of things in order to
build/compiler GAWK?

Note: I am pretty sure that bison is actually used in the build process, and
on the system I just checked, the bison version is (only) 2.5. Will that
be a problem?

Or am I mis-remembering, and bison is not actually invoked on the local system?

--

Some of the more common characteristics of Asperger syndrome include:

* Inability to think in abstract ways (eg: puns, jokes, sarcasm, etc)
* Difficulties in empathising with others
* Problems with understanding another person's point of view
* Hampered conversational ability
* Problems with controlling feelings such as anger, depression
and anxiety
* Adherence to routines and schedules, and stress if expected routine
is disrupted
* Inability to manage appropriate social conduct
* Delayed understanding of sexual codes of conduct
* A narrow field of interests. For example a person with Asperger
syndrome may focus on learning all there is to know about
baseball statistics, politics or television shows.
* Anger and aggression when things do not happen as they want
* Sensitivity to criticism
* Eccentricity
* Behaviour varies from mildly unusual to quite aggressive
and difficult

Aharon Robbins

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Apr 17, 2013, 4:04:38 PM4/17/13
to
>In article <kkms20$b2l$1...@dont-email.me>,
>Aharon Robbins <arn...@skeeve.com> wrote:
>...
>>10. Infrastructure upgrades: bison 2.7.1, gettext 0.18.2.1, automake 1.13.1.

In article <kkmt64$h4p$2...@news.xmission.com>,
Kenny McCormack <gaz...@shell.xmission.com> wrote:
>Just out of curiosity, what does this mean?
>
>Does it mean that you need at least that version of things in order to
>build/compiler GAWK?

No. What it means is those versions were used for creating the files
in the tar ball. You should not need to run bison, autoconf, automake,
or gettext yourself.

>Note: I am pretty sure that bison is actually used in the build process, and
>on the system I just checked, the bison version is (only) 2.5. Will that
>be a problem?

If you modify one of the .y files, it should not be.

>Or am I mis-remembering, and bison is not actually invoked on the local system?

You are misremembering; the timestamp on the generated files should be
such that bison is not run.

HTH,

Arnold

Ed Morton

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Apr 17, 2013, 10:42:06 PM4/17/13
to
On 4/17/2013 2:09 PM, Aharon Robbins wrote:
> This note is to announce the BETA release of GNU Awk 4.1.0
>
> It is available from:
>
> http://www.skeeve.com/gawk/gawk-4.0.75.tar.gz

I get:

Not Found

The requested URL /gawk/gawk-4.0.75.tar.gz was not found on this server.

I also tried (just in case):

The requested URL /gawk/gawk-4.1.0.tar.gz was not found on this server.

Regards,

Ed.

Aharon Robbins

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Apr 18, 2013, 2:17:35 AM4/18/13
to
In article <kknmch$go5$1...@dont-email.me>,
Ed Morton <morto...@gmail.com> wrote:
>On 4/17/2013 2:09 PM, Aharon Robbins wrote:
>> This note is to announce the BETA release of GNU Awk 4.1.0
>>
>> It is available from:
>>
>> http://www.skeeve.com/gawk/gawk-4.0.75.tar.gz
>
>I get:
>
> Not Found

Braino on my part. I'm working too late at night. Try:

http://www.skeeve.com/gawk-4.0.75.tar.gz

Arnold

Kenny McCormack

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Apr 18, 2013, 7:16:07 AM4/18/13
to
In article <kko35v$93i$1...@dont-email.me>,
Aharon Robbins <arn...@skeeve.com> wrote:
>In article <kknmch$go5$1...@dont-email.me>,
>Ed Morton <morto...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>On 4/17/2013 2:09 PM, Aharon Robbins wrote:
>>> This note is to announce the BETA release of GNU Awk 4.1.0
>>>
>>> It is available from:
>>>
>>> http://www.skeeve.com/gawk/gawk-4.0.75.tar.gz
>>
>>I get:
>>
>> Not Found
>
>Braino on my part. I'm working too late at night. Try:
>
> http://www.skeeve.com/gawk-4.0.75.tar.gz

That works!

--
One of the best lines I've heard lately:

Obama could cure cancer tomorrow, and the Republicans would be
complaining that he had ruined the pharmaceutical business.

(Heard on Stephanie Miller = but the sad thing is that there is an awful lot
of direct truth in it. We've constructed an economy in which eliminating
cancer would be a horrible disaster. There are many other such examples.)

Janis Papanagnou

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Apr 18, 2013, 8:16:02 AM4/18/13
to
Am 18.04.2013 08:17, schrieb Aharon Robbins:
> In article <kknmch$go5$1...@dont-email.me>,
> Ed Morton <morto...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 4/17/2013 2:09 PM, Aharon Robbins wrote:
>>> This note is to announce the BETA release of GNU Awk 4.1.0
>>>
>>> It is available from:
>>>
>>> http://www.skeeve.com/gawk/gawk-4.0.75.tar.gz
>>
>> I get:
>>
>> Not Found
>
> Braino on my part. I'm working too late at night. Try:
>
> http://www.skeeve.com/gawk-4.0.75.tar.gz

Thanks!

$ gawk.exe --version
GNU Awk 4.0.75, API: 0.0
Copyright ᅵ 1989, 1991-2013 Free Software Foundation.

Is the "0.0" supposed to be a version number or just not set?

Janis

>
> Arnold
>

Janis Papanagnou

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Apr 18, 2013, 8:26:47 AM4/18/13
to
Am 18.04.2013 08:17, schrieb Aharon Robbins:
>>> This note is to announce the BETA release of GNU Awk 4.1.0
>>>
>>> It is available from:
>
> http://www.skeeve.com/gawk-4.0.75.tar.gz

Two questions:

1. "make check" tests - is this something to worry about?

next
./next.ok _next differ: char 7, line 1
Makefile:2012: recipe for target `next' failed
make[1]: [next] Error 1 (ignored)

2. Under Cygwin on WinDOS - is this inherently an unavailable
feature on that platform or solvable/availabe in any way?

MPFR tests not supported on this system

(I suppose there's need for some specific (or any) MP library?)

Janis

>
> Arnold
>

Kenny McCormack

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Apr 18, 2013, 8:41:18 AM4/18/13
to
In article <kkooq4$or5$1...@speranza.aioe.org>,
Janis Papanagnou <janis_pa...@hotmail.com> wrote:
...
>2. Under Cygwin on WinDOS - is this inherently an unavailable
>feature on that platform or solvable/availabe in any way?
>
>MPFR tests not supported on this system

The dox are pretty explicit that the build process checks for the existence
of the MPFR libs on your system and quietly compiles/builds without them if
they are not present. So, the above is quite expected - when running the
test suite on a system without the libs.

>(I suppose there's need for some specific (or any) MP library?)

Yes. And I would imagine that most systems won't have it, so for most
people, this will all be moot.

--
(This discussion group is about C, ...)

Wrong. It is only OCCASIONALLY a discussion group
about C; mostly, like most "discussion" groups, it is
off-topic Rorsharch [sic] revelations of the childhood
traumas of the participants...

Aharon Robbins

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Apr 18, 2013, 9:13:02 AM4/18/13
to
In article <kkoo5v$n2l$1...@speranza.aioe.org>,
Janis Papanagnou <janis_pa...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>$ gawk.exe --version
>GNU Awk 4.0.75, API: 0.0
>Copyright � 1989, 1991-2013 Free Software Foundation.
>
>Is the "0.0" supposed to be a version number or just not set?

It is the version of the API. I will set it to 1.0 for the real release
and from then on it will increase. 0.0 means it's (theoretically) still
subject to change without warning, since we're still in the pre-release
stage.

The API and pointers to the docs were announced here quite some time
ago. As I haven't gotten any feedback from anyone in this group, that
means that either it's wonderful, or that no-one has looked at it, or
that no-one has any suggestions. If this is not true, be aware that
the window is rapidly (VERY rapidly) closing.

Aharon Robbins

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Apr 18, 2013, 9:18:20 AM4/18/13
to
In article <kkooq4$or5$1...@speranza.aioe.org>,
Janis Papanagnou <janis_pa...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>Two questions:
>
>1. "make check" tests - is this something to worry about?
>
>next
>./next.ok _next differ: char 7, line 1
>Makefile:2012: recipe for target `next' failed
>make[1]: [next] Error 1 (ignored)

Yes, this should not be a failure. Please send a bug report with
the full details: system, compiler, output from diff next.ok _next,
and so on. (Send the report to bug-...@gnu.org, of course.)

It may be a cygwin issue; I'm told by one of the cygwin maintainers
that this tarball works OOTB on the latest cygwin, even 64 bit cygwin.

>2. Under Cygwin on WinDOS - is this inherently an unavailable
>feature on that platform or solvable/availabe in any way?
>
>MPFR tests not supported on this system
>
>(I suppose there's need for some specific (or any) MP library?)

As was answered, this is expected if you have not installed the MPFR
and GMP libraries. I don't know if they're available for cygwin or not
(I would think they would be, but I haven't checked.) So, it's OK.

If the libraries are available, you'll need to install them and any
development package (= headers) and then rerun configure and rebuild.
"make distclean" before doing so is a good idea.

Thanks,

Aharon Robbins

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Apr 18, 2013, 2:19:36 PM4/18/13
to
In article <kkorqr$v7f$2...@dont-email.me>,
Aharon Robbins <arn...@skeeve.com> wrote:
>In article <kkooq4$or5$1...@speranza.aioe.org>,
>Janis Papanagnou <janis_pa...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>Two questions:
>>
>>1. "make check" tests - is this something to worry about?
>>
>>next
>>./next.ok _next differ: char 7, line 1
>>Makefile:2012: recipe for target `next' failed
>>make[1]: [next] Error 1 (ignored)
>
>Yes, this should not be a failure. Please send a bug report with
>the full details: system, compiler, output from diff next.ok _next,
>and so on. (Send the report to bug-...@gnu.org, of course.)

One of my testers reported this also. It's a locale issue and I think
I have fixed it. Please contact me offline if you want to test the fix.
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