4.1 Release

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Samit Basu

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Nov 28, 2011, 11:59:13 PM11/28/11

to freemat, freemat-devel

We are happy to announce the release of FreeMat 4.1 (spread the
word!). This version provides some significant performance
improvements over FreeMat 4.0, as well as a host of bug fixes. Here
is a brief list of changes:

* New Just In Time (JIT) compiler -- the new version uses C++ as a
backend for code generation, which means a much more substantial set
of FreeMat code can now be JIT compiled. FreeMat uses CLANG-LLVM to
provide run time compilation of the generated C++ code.
* Universal builds will no longer be officially generated for Mac OS
X. However, we are working on a build for Mac OS X that can utilize
Macports. This should enable PowerPC Mac OS X users to build their
own FreeMat from sources.
* VTK Integration -- FreeMat gets a significant improvement in its
ability to perform sophisticated renderings of multidimensional
datasets by integrating the Visualization Toolkit (VTK). Simple
FreeMat scripts can access nearly all of VTKs functionality.
* Octave Integration -- FreeMat 4.1 has the initial version of an
Octave file parser. This parser will allow you to use your existing
Octave scripts from within FreeMat. It is still a work in progress,
but FreeMat 4.1 ships with a few Octave functions (like factor).
* And of course, the usual litany of bug fixes and features from the tracker.

It's been a while since the 4.0 release (2 years!). But we've been
working behind the scenes to get the FreeMat code base into good shape
for the future.