From 93ce1999a1ad7b0f9cad9fdbcd548470db567c94 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Allan Renucci Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2017 11:50:56 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] Write Dotty 0.4.0-RC1 blog post --- ...17-10-16-fourth-dotty-milestone-release.md | 159 ++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 159 insertions(+) create mode 100644 docs/blog/_posts/2017-10-16-fourth-dotty-milestone-release.md diff --git a/docs/blog/_posts/2017-10-16-fourth-dotty-milestone-release.md b/docs/blog/_posts/2017-10-16-fourth-dotty-milestone-release.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..437a76e00dcf --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/blog/_posts/2017-10-16-fourth-dotty-milestone-release.md @@ -0,0 +1,159 @@ +--- +layout: blog-page +title: Announcing Dotty 0.4.0-RC1 +author: Allan Renucci +authorImg: /images/allan.jpg +date: 2017-10-16 +--- + +Today, we are excited to release Dotty version 0.4.0-RC1. This release +serves as a technology preview that demonstrates new language features +and the compiler supporting them. + +If you’re not familiar with Dotty, it's a platform to try out new language concepts and compiler +technologies for Scala. The focus is mainly on simplification. We remove extraneous syntax +(e.g. no XML literals), and try to boil down Scala’s types into a smaller set of more fundamental +constructors. The theory behind these constructors is researched in +[DOT](https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/215280), a calculus for dependent object types. +You can learn more about Dotty on our [website](http://dotty.epfl.ch). + + + +This is our fourth scheduled release according to our [6-week release schedule](http://dotty.epfl.ch/docs/usage/version-numbers.html). +The [previous technology preview](/blog/2017/09/07/third-dotty-milestone-release.html) improved +stability and reliability. + +## What’s new in the 0.4.0-RC1 technology preview? + +### Rewritten REPL [#2991](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty/pull/2991) +The original Dotty REPL was a proof of concept hacked together +from +[an ancient version of the scalac REPL](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty/pull/1082#issuecomment-183905504). +It worked by creating Scala source files from the user input using string +concatenation, this made it easy to adapt it for Dotty since it did not rely on +the internals of scalac, but it was also fragile and hard to reason about. +The [new REPL](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty/pull/2991) instead works by +manipulating ASTs (Abstract Syntax Trees), this is more robust and will make it +easier to develop new features: we have already implemented auto-completion +support (by reusing the APIs we had created for +the [Dotty IDE](http://dotty.epfl.ch/docs/usage/ide-support.html)) and we have +plans for displaying API documentation in the REPL. + +Note that the user interface of the REPL has not changed: like in the old REPL +we use code adapted from the [Ammonite REPL](http://ammonite.io/#Ammonite-REPL) +to provide syntax highlighting, multi-line editing, history, etc. + +### Scala 2.12 support [#2827](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty/pull/2827) +Since our first release, it has been possible to use Scala 2 libraries in a +Dotty project as explained in the +[dotty-example-project](https://github.com/smarter/dotty-example-project#getting-your-project-to-compile-with-dotty). +Previously, we supported libraries compiled by Scala 2.11, but starting with this +release we support Scala 2.12 instead. If your Dotty project has Scala 2 +dependencies this change should be transparent for you assuming all your +dependencies have been published for 2.12. + +### Performance work +Over the last few weeks, we started working on compilation speed with some good results: +compiling [ScalaPB](https://github.com/dotty-staging/scalapb) is now 20% faster +than with Dotty 0.3.0-RC2. You can follow along our progress on +http://dotty-bench.epfl.ch/. + + +## Trying out Dotty +### Scastie +[Scastie], the online Scala playground, supports Dotty. +This is an easy way to try Dotty without installing anything. + +### 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). + +### IDE support +It is very easy to start using the Dotty IDE in any Dotty project by following +the [IDE guide](http://dotty.epfl.ch/docs/usage/ide-support.html). + + +### 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 +``` + +## Let us know what you think! +If you have questions or any sort of feedback, feel free to send us a message on our +[Gitter channel](https://gitter.im/lampepfl/dotty). If you encounter a bug, please +[open an issue on GitHub](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty/issues/new). + +## Contributing +Thank you to all the contributors who made this release possible! + +According to `git shortlog -sn --no-merges 0.3.0-RC2..0.4.0-RC1` these are: + +``` + 226 Martin Odersky + 112 Felix Mulder + 104 Nicolas Stucki + 41 Allan Renucci + 41 Guillaume Martres + 33 liu fengyun + 8 Olivier Blanvillain + 4 Aggelos Biboudis + 3 Dmitry Petrashko + 2 Raymond Tay + 2 esarbe + 2 Enno Runne + 1 Brandon Elam Barker + 1 Raphael Bosshard + 1 Jacob J + 1 Aleksander Boruch-Gruszecki + 1 Jim Van Horn + 1 Matthias Sperl + 1 Michal Gutowski +``` + +If you want to get your hands dirty and contribute to Dotty, now is a good time to get involved! +You can have a look at our [Getting Started page for new contributors](http://dotty.epfl.ch/docs/contributing/getting-started.html), +the [Awesome Error Messages](http://scala-lang.org/blog/2016/10/14/dotty-errors.html) project or some of +the simple [Dotty issues](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3Aexp%3Anovice). +They make perfect entry-points into hacking on the compiler. + +We are looking forward to having you join the team of contributors. + +## Library authors: Join our community build +Dotty now has a set of widely-used community libraries that are built against every nightly Dotty +snapshot. Currently this includes ScalaPB, algebra, scalatest, scopt and squants. +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 +[@biboudis]: https://github.com/biboudis +[@allanrenucci]: https://github.com/allanrenucci