Initial draft for 0.3.0-RC1 blog post

Author: allanrenucci

docs/blog/_posts/date-third-dotty-milestone-release.md

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+---
+layout: blog-page
+title: Announcing Dotty 0.3.0-RC1
+author: Allan Renucci
+authorImg: /images/allan.jpg
+date: ???
+---
+
+Today, we are excited to release Dotty version 0.3.0-RC1. This release
+serves as a technology preview that demonstrates new language features
+and the compiler supporting them.
+
+This release is based on the [previous milestone](/blog/2017/07/12/second-dotty-milestone-release.html).
+The highlights of this release are:
+ - improvements in VS Code IDE stability
+ - making erasure pass `Ycheck`
+
+<!--more-->
+
+This is our third scheduled release according to our [6-week release schedule](http://dotty.epfl.ch/docs/usage/version-numbers.html).
+
+## What’s in the 0.3.0-RC1 technology preview?
+The [previous technology preview](/blog/2017/07/12/second-dotty-milestone-release.html) improved
+stability and reliability:
+ - substantial improvement of quality of generated code for pattern matching
+ - improvements in VS Code IDE stability
+ - support Windows in VS Code IDE
+ - improved compatibility with scalac
+ - initial support for reproducible builds
+
+This technology preview further improves stability and reliability. Some highlighted PRs are:
+ - IDE bug fixes:
+ [#2986](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty/pull/2986),
+ [#2932](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty/pull/2932),
+ [#2885](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty/pull/2885),
+ [#2876](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty/pull/2876),
+ [#2870](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty/pull/2870),
+ [#2872](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty/pull/2872) by [@odersky] and [@smarter].
+ - Making erasure pass Ycheck, [#2927](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty/pull/2927) by [@smarter].
+
+
+## How can you try it out?
+We ship with tools that help you try out the Dotty platform:
+
+  - [IDE features for Visual Studio Code](http://dotty.epfl.ch/docs/usage/ide-support.html)
+  - [sbt support, including retro-compatibility with Scala 2](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty-example-project)
+
+
+You have several alternatives; use the `sbt-dotty` plugin, get a standalone
+installation, or try it online on [Scastie].
+
+### sbt
+Using sbt 0.13.13 or newer, do:
+
+```
+sbt new lampepfl/dotty.g8
+```
+
+This will setup a new sbt project with Dotty as compiler. For more details on
+using Dotty with sbt, see the
+[example project](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty-example-project).
+
+### Standalone installation
+
+Releases are available for download on the _Releases_
+section of the Dotty repository:
+[https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty/releases](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty/releases)
+
+We also provide a [homebrew](https://brew.sh/) package that can be installed by running:
+
+```
+brew install lampepfl/brew/dotty
+```
+
+In case you have already installed Dotty via brew, you should instead update it:
+
+```
+brew upgrade dotty
+```
+
+### Scastie
+
+[Scastie], the online Scala playground, supports Dotty.
+You can try it out there without installing anything.
+
+
+## What are the next steps?
+
+Over the coming weeks and months, we plan to work on the following topics:
+
+ - [Add support for using Dotty generated classes with Scala 2.12](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty/pull/2827)
+ - [Add Language-level support for HMaps and HLists](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty/pull/2199);
+ - Upstream more optimizations from Dotty Linker
+ - [Add support for existing in the same classpath with Scala 2.12](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty/pull/2827)
+ - [Add native Dotty REPL](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty/pull/2991)
+
+If you want to get your hands dirty with any of this, now is a good
+moment to get involved! Join the team of contributors, including
+Martin Odersky ([@odersky])
+Dmitry Petrashko ([@DarkDimius]),
+Guillaume Martres ([@smarter]),
+Felix Mulder ([@felixmulder]),
+Nicolas Stucki ([@nicolasstucki]),
+Liu Fengyun ([@liufengyun]),
+Olivier Blanvillain ([@OlivierBlanvillain]),
+Aggelos Biboudis ([@biboudis]),
+Allan Renucci ([@allanrenucci]),
+and others!
+
+## Library authors: Join our community build
+
+Dotty now has a set of libraries that are built against every nightly snapshot.
+Currently this includes scalatest, squants and algebra.
+Join our [community build](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty-community-build)
+to make sure that our regression suite includes your library.
+
+
+To get started, see [https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty).
+
+
+[Scastie]: https://scastie.scala-lang.org/?target=dotty
+
+[@odersky]: https://github.com/odersky
+[@DarkDimius]: https://github.com/DarkDimius
+[@smarter]: https://github.com/smarter
+[@felixmulder]: https://github.com/felixmulder
+[@nicolasstucki]: https://github.com/nicolasstucki
+[@liufengyun]: https://github.com/liufengyun
+[@OlivierBlanvillain]: https://github.com/OlivierBlanvillain
+[@OlivierBlanvillain]: https://github.com/OlivierBlanvillain
+[@biboudis]: https://github.com/biboudis
+[@biboudis]: https://github.com/biboudis
+[@allanrenucci]: https://github.com/allanrenucci