[ANNOUNCE] Parrot v0.0.9

[Steve Fink]

The Parrot team is proud to announce the release of Parrot version
0.0.9, code named "Nazgul". It is downloadable from
<http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/S/SF/SFINK/parrot-0.0.9.tar.gz>. If
you would like to check the latest copy out from CVS, see the
instructions at <http://dev.perl.org/cvs/>.

Try it out by unpacking it, then running:
perl Configure.pl
make
make test

If you would like to join in the fun, see
<http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi?name=perl6-internals>. All
discussion occurs on the perl6-internals mailing list. Start from
http://www.parrotcode.org/ for information on all Parroty things.

It's been a while since the last release, so the list of changes is
quite long. Here are some of the highlights:

- Native function calling interface
- Stack/list aggregate rewrite (faster, more capable)
- Scratchpads
- Preliminary DotGNU support -- type conversion ops
- Buffer/PMC unification
- stabs debugging support for JIT
- Jako overhaul
- Optional Lea memory allocator
- Parrot sprintf
- Miniparrot
- PMC Properties
- Various JIT improvements (eg platform independence layer)
- Extensible packfiles
- Restructured PMC hierarchy
- Real Scheme (with lambda!)

Parrot currently supports several nontrivial languages, and is adding
features at a rapid pace. I would like to encourage everyone
interested to check out the Parrot development scene. It's a friendly
but focused environment, and we could always use a few more
able-minded volunteers. Also, don't think you need to be some Hacker
Lord in order to help out -- some of our most valuable contributors
barely know C. Assistance is always appreciated in the areas of:

- documentation
- testing
- support tools
- tinderbox hosting
- platform-dependent knowledge
- and, of course, coding

We are in particular need of platform-specific knowledge, seeing as
how we have a multiplatform JIT, a garbage collector that needs to
scan processor registers (and register windows etc.), dynamic library
loading, and direct native function calls.

Check out the mailing list archive at
http://archive.develooper.com/perl6-internals%40perl.org/ or just
download the code and try it out!