====
News
====

2012-XX-XX Version 0.8.XX released
==================================

Version 0.8.XX has been released! Get it `here <download.html>`_. 

Bugfixes
--------

- Fixed a bug where the compiler would "optimize away" valid constant parts of
  a string concatenation.
- Fixed a bug concerning implicit type conversions in ``case`` statements.
- Fixed a serious code generation bug that caused ``algorithm.sort`` to
  produce segmentation faults.
- Fixed ambiguity in recvLine which meant that receiving ``\r\L`` was
  indistinguishable from disconnections.
- Many more bugfixes, too many to list them all.


Library Additions
-----------------

- Added the (already existing) module ``htmlgen`` to the documentation.
- Added the (already existing) module ``cookies`` to the documentation.
- Added ``system.shallow`` that can be used to speed up string and sequence
  assignments.
- Added ``system.eval`` that can execute an anonymous block of code at
  compile time as if was a macro.
- Added ``system.staticExec`` and ``system.gorge`` for compile-time execution 
  of external programs.
- Added ``system.staticRead`` as a synonym for ``system.slurp``.
- Added ``macros.emit`` that can emit an arbitrary computed string as nimrod
  code during compilation.
- Added ``strutils.parseEnum``.
- Added ``json.%`` constructor operator.
- The stdlib can now be avoided to a point where C code generation for 16bit 
  micro controllers is feasible.
- Added module ``oids``.
- Added module ``endians``.
- Added a new OpenGL wrapper that supports OpenGL up to version 4.2.
- Added a wrapper for ``libsvm``.
- Added a wrapper for ``mongodb``.
- Added ``terminal.isatty``.
- Added an overload for ``system.items`` that can be used to iterate over the
  values of an enum.
- Added ``system.TInteger`` and ``system.TNumber`` type classes matching
  any of the corresponding types available in Nimrod.
- Added ``system.clamp`` to limit a value within an interval ``[a, b]``.
- Added ``strutils.continuesWith``.
- Added ``system.getStackTrace``.
- Added ``system.||`` for parallel for loop support.
- The GC supports (soft) realtime systems via ``GC_setMaxPause`` 
  and ``GC_step`` procs.
- The sockets module now supports ssl through the OpenSSL library, ``recvLine``
  is now much more efficient thanks to the newly implemented sockets buffering.
- The httpclient module now supports ssl/tls.
- Added ``times.format`` as well as many other utility functions
  for managing time.
- Added ``system.@`` for converting an ``openarray`` to a ``seq`` (it used to
  only support fixed length arrays).
- Added ``system.compiles`` which can be used to check whether a type supports
  some operation.
- Added ``strutils.format``, ``subexes.format`` which use the 
  new ``varargs`` type.


Changes affecting backwards compatibility
-----------------------------------------

- On Windows filenames and paths are supposed to be in UTF-8. 
  The ``system``, ``os``, ``osproc`` and ``memfiles`` modules use the wide
  string versions of the WinAPI. Use the ``-d:useWinAnsi`` switch to revert
  back to the old behaviour which uses the Ansi string versions.
- ``static`` and ``do`` are now keywords.
- Templates now participate in overloading resolution which can break code that
  uses templates in subtle ways. Use the new ``immediate`` pragma for templates
  to get a template of old behaviour.
- There is now a proper distinction in the type system between ``expr`` and
  ``PNimrodNode`` which unfortunately breaks the old macro system.
- ``pegs.@`` has been renamed to ``pegs.!*`` and ``pegs.@@`` has been renamed
  to ``pegs.!*\`` as ``@`` operators now have different precedence.
- The type ``proc`` (without any params or return type) is now considered a
  type class matching all proc types. Use ``proc ()`` to get the old meaning
  denoting a proc expecing no arguments and returing no value.
- Deprecated ``system.GC_setStrategy``.
- ``re.findAll`` and ``pegs.findAll`` don't return *captures* anymore but
  matching *substrings*.
- RTTI and thus the ``marshall`` module don't contain the proper field names
  of tuples anymore. This had to be changed as the old behaviour never
  produced consistent results.
- Deprecated the ``ssl`` module.
- Deprecated ``nimrod pretty`` as it never worked good enough and has some
  inherent problems.
- The integer promotion rules changed; the compiler is now less picky in some
  situations and more picky in other situations: In particular implicit 
  conversions from ``int`` to ``int32`` are now forbidden.
- ``system.byte`` is now an alias for ``uint8``; it used to be an alias 
  to ``int8``.
- ``bind`` expressions in templates are not properly supported anymore. Use
  the declarative ``bind`` statement instead.
- The default calling convention for a procedural **type** is now ``closure``,
  for procs it remains ``nimcall`` (which is compatible to ``closure``).
  Activate the warning ``ImplicitClosure`` to make the compiler list the 
  occurances of proc types which are affected.
- The Nimrod type system now distinguishes ``openarray`` from ``varargs``.


Compiler Additions
------------------

- Win64 is now an officially supported target.
- The Nimrod compiler works on BSD again, but has some issues 
  as ``os.getAppFilename`` and ``os.getAppDir`` cannot work reliably on BSD.
- The compiler can detect and evaluate calls that can be evaluated at compile
  time for optimization purposes with the ``--implicitStatic`` command line
  option or pragma.
- The compiler now generates marker procs that the GC can use instead of RTTI.
  This speeds up the GC quite a bit.
- The compiler now includes a new advanced documentation generator 
  via the ``doc2`` command. This new generator uses all of the semantic passes
  of the compiler and can thus generate documentation for symbols hiding in
  macros.
- The compiler now supports the ``dynlib`` pragma for variables.
- The compiler now supports ``bycopy`` and ``byref`` pragmas that affect how
  objects/tuples are passed.


Language Additions
------------------

- Added explicit ``static`` sections for enforced compile time evaluation.
- Added an alternative notation for lambdas with ``do``.
- ``addr`` is now treated like a prefix operator syntactically.
- Added ``global`` pragma that can be used to introduce new global variables
  from within procs.
- ``when`` expressions are now allowed just like ``if`` expressions.
- The precedence for operators starting with ``@`` is different now 
  allowing for *sigil-like* operators.
- Stand-alone ``finally`` and ``except`` blocks are now supported.
- Macros and templates can now be invoked as pragmas.
- The apostrophe in type suffixes for numerical literals is now optional.
- Unsigned integer types have been added.
- The integer promotion rules changed.
- Nimrod now tracks proper intervals for ``range`` over some built-in operators.
- In parameter lists a semicolon instead of a comma can be used to improve 
  readability: ``proc divmod(a, b: int; resA, resB: var int)``.
- A semicolon can now be used to have multiple simple statements on a single
  line: ``inc i; inc j``.
- ``bind`` supports overloaded symbols and operators.
- A ``distinct`` type can now borrow from generic procs.


2012-02-09 Version 0.8.14 released
==================================

Version 0.8.14 has been released!

Bugfixes
--------

- Fixed a serious memory corruption concerning message passing.
- Fixed a serious bug concerning different instantiations of a generic proc.
- Fixed a newly introduced bug where a wrong ``EIO`` exception was raised for
  the end of file for text files that do not end with a newline.
- Bugfix c2nim, c2pas: the ``--out`` option has never worked properly.
- Bugfix: forwarding of generic procs never worked.
- Some more bugfixes for macros and compile-time evaluation.
- The GC now takes into account interior pointers on the stack which may be
  introduced by aggressive C optimizers.
- Nimrod's native allocator/GC now works on PowerPC.
- Lots of other bugfixes: Too many to list them all.


Changes affecting backwards compatibility
-----------------------------------------

- Removed deprecated ``os.AppendFileExt``, ``os.executeShellCommand``, 
  ``os.iterOverEnvironment``, ``os.pcDirectory``, ``os.pcLinkToDirectory``,
  ``os.SplitPath``, ``os.extractDir``, ``os.SplitFilename``, 
  ``os.extractFileTrunk``, ``os.extractFileExt``, ``osproc.executeProcess``,
  ``osproc.executeCommand``.
- Removed deprecated ``parseopt.init``, ``parseopt.getRestOfCommandLine``.
- Moved ``strutils.validEmailAddress`` to ``matchers.validEmailAddress``.
- The pointer dereference operator ``^`` has been removed, so that ``^``
  can now be a user-defined operator.
- ``implies`` is no keyword anymore.
- The ``is`` operator is now the ``of`` operator.
- The ``is`` operator is now used to check type equivalence in generic code.
- The ``pure`` pragma for procs has been renamed to ``noStackFrame``. 
- The threading API has been completely redesigned.
- The ``unidecode`` module is now thread-safe and its interface has changed.
- The ``bind`` expression is deprecated, use a ``bind`` declaration instead.
- ``system.raiseHook`` is now split into ``system.localRaiseHook`` and
  ``system.globalRaiseHook`` to distinguish between thread local and global
  raise hooks.
- Changed exception handling/error reporting for ``os.removeFile`` and
  ``os.removeDir``.
- The algorithm for searching and loading configuration files has been changed.
- Operators now have diffent precedence rules: Assignment-like operators 
  (like ``*=``) are now special-cased. 
- The fields in ``TStream`` have been renamed to have an ``Impl`` suffix 
  because they should not be used directly anymore. 
  Wrapper procs have been created that should be used instead.
- ``export`` is now a keyword.
- ``assert`` is now implemented in pure Nimrod as a template; it's easy 
  to implement your own assertion templates with ``system.astToStr``.


Language Additions
------------------

- Added new ``is`` and ``of`` operators.
- The built-in type ``void`` can be used to denote the absense of any type.
  This is useful in generic code.
- Return types may be of the type ``var T`` to return an l-value.
- The error pragma can now be used to mark symbols whose *usage* should trigger
  a compile-time error.
- There is a new ``discardable`` pragma that can be used to mark a routine 
  so that its result can be discarded implicitely.
- Added a new ``noinit`` pragma to prevent automatic initialization to zero
  of variables.
- Constants can now have the type ``seq``.
- There is a new user-definable syntactic construct ``a{i, ...}``
  that has no semantics yet for built-in types and so can be overloaded to your
  heart's content.
- ``bind`` (used for symbol binding in templates and generics) is now a
  declarative statement.
- Nimrod now supports single assignment variables via the ``let`` statement.
- Iterators named ``items`` and ``pairs`` are implicitly invoked when 
  an explicit iterator is missing.
- The slice assignment ``a[i..j] = b`` where ``a`` is a sequence or string
  now supports *splicing*.


Compiler Additions
------------------

- The compiler can generate C++ code for easier interfacing with C++.
- The compiler can generate Objective C code for easier interfacing with
  Objective C.
- The new pragmas ``importcpp`` and ``importobjc`` make interfacing with C++
  and Objective C somewhat easier.
- Added a new pragma ``incompleteStruct`` to deal with incomplete C struct
  definitions.
- Added a ``--nimcache:PATH`` configuration option for control over the output
  directory for generated code.
- The ``--genScript`` option now produces different compilation scripts 
  which do not contain absolute paths.
- Added ``--cincludes:dir``, ``--clibdir:lib`` configuration options for 
  modifying the C compiler's header/library search path in cross-platform way.
- Added ``--clib:lib`` configuration option for specifying additional
  C libraries to be linked.
- Added ``--mainmodule:file`` configuration options for specifying the main
  project file. This is intended to be used in project configuration files to
  allow commands like ``nimrod c`` or ``nimrod check`` to be executed anywhere
  within the project's directory structure.
- Added a ``--app:staticlib`` option for creating static libraries.
- Added a ``--tlsEmulation:on|off`` switch for control over thread local
  storage emulation.
- The compiler and standard library now support a *taint mode*. Input strings
  are declared with the ``TaintedString`` string type. If the taint
  mode is turned on it is a distinct string type which helps to detect input
  validation errors.
- The compiler now supports the compilation cache via ``--symbolFiles:on``. 
  This potentially speeds up compilations by an order of magnitude, but is
  still highly experimental!
- Added ``--import:file`` and ``--include:file`` configuration options
  for specifying modules that will be automatically imported/incluced.
- ``nimrod i`` can now optionally be given a module to execute.
- The compiler now performs a simple alias analysis to generate better code.
- The compiler and ENDB now support *watchpoints*.
- The compiler now supports proper compile time expressions of type ``bool``
  for ``on|off`` switches in pragmas. In order to not break existing code,
  ``on`` and ``off`` are now aliases for ``true`` and ``false`` and declared
  in the system module.
- The compiler finally supports **closures**. This is a preliminary 
  implementation, which does not yet support nestings deeper than 1 level
  and still has many known bugs.


Library Additions
-----------------

- Added ``system.allocShared``, ``system.allocShared0``, 
  ``system.deallocShared``, ``system.reallocShared``.
- Slicing as implemented by the system module now supports *splicing*.
- Added explicit channels for thread communication.
- Added ``matchers`` module for email address etc. matching.
- Added ``strutils.unindent``, ``strutils.countLines``,
  ``strutils.replaceWord``.
- Added ``system.slurp`` for easy resource embedding.
- Added ``system.running`` for threads.
- Added ``system.programResult``.
- Added ``xmltree.innerText``.
- Added ``os.isAbsolute``, ``os.dynLibFormat``, ``os.isRootDir``,
  ``os.parentDirs``.
- Added ``parseutils.interpolatedFragments``.
- Added ``macros.treeRepr``, ``macros.lispRepr``, ``macros.dumpTree``, 
  ``macros.dumpLisp``, ``macros.parseExpr``, ``macros.parseStmt``, 
  ``macros.getAst``.
- Added ``locks`` core module for more flexible locking support.
- Added ``irc`` module.
- Added ``ftpclient`` module.
- Added ``memfiles`` module.
- Added ``subexes`` module.
- Added ``critbits`` module.
- Added ``asyncio`` module.
- Added ``actors`` module.
- Added ``algorithm`` module for generic ``sort``, ``reverse`` etc. operations.
- Added ``osproc.startCmd``, ``osproc.execCmdEx``.
- The ``osproc`` module now uses ``posix_spawn`` instead of ``fork`` 
  and ``exec`` on Posix systems. Define the symbol ``useFork`` to revert to
  the old implementation.
- Added ``intsets.assign``.
- Added ``system.astToStr`` and ``system.rand``, ``system.doAssert``.
- Added ``system.pairs`` for built-in types like arrays and strings.


2011-07-10 Version 0.8.12 released
==================================

Bugfixes
--------

- Bugfix: ``httpclient`` correct passes the path starting with ``/``.
- Bugfixes for the ``htmlparser`` module.
- Bugfix: ``pegs.find`` did not respect ``start`` parameter.
- Bugfix: ``dialogs.ChooseFilesToOpen`` did not work if only one file is
  selected.
- Bugfix: niminst: ``nimrod`` is not default dir for *every* project.
- Bugfix: Multiple yield statements in iterators did not cause local vars to be
  copied.
- Bugfix: The compiler does not emit very inaccurate floating point literals
  anymore.
- Bugfix: Subclasses are taken into account for ``try except`` matching.
- Bugfix: Generics and macros are more stable. There are still known bugs left
  though.
- Bugfix: Generated type information for tuples was sometimes wrong, causing
  random crashes.
- Lots of other bugfixes: Too many to list them all.


Changes affecting backwards compatibility
-----------------------------------------

- Operators starting with ``^`` are now right-associative and have the highest 
  priority.
- Deprecated ``os.getApplicationFilename``: Use ``os.getAppFilename`` instead.
- Deprecated ``os.getApplicationDir``: Use ``os.getAppDir`` instead.
- Deprecated ``system.copy``: Use ``substr`` or string slicing instead.
- Changed and documented how generalized string literals work: The syntax
  ``module.re"abc"`` is now supported.
- Changed the behaviour of ``strutils.%``, ``ropes.%`` 
  if both notations ``$#`` and ``$i`` are involved.
- The ``pegs`` and ``re`` modules distinguish between ``replace`` 
  and ``replacef`` operations.
- The pointer dereference operation ``p^`` is deprecated and might become
  ``^p`` in later versions or be dropped entirely since it is rarely used. 
  Use the new notation ``p[]`` in the rare cases where you need to 
  dereference a pointer explicitely.
- ``system.readFile`` does not return ``nil`` anymore but raises an ``EIO``
  exception instead.
- Unsound co-/contravariance for procvars has been removed.


Language Additions
------------------

- Source code filters are now documented.
- Added the ``linearScanEnd``, ``unroll``, ``shallow`` pragmas.
- Added ``emit`` pragma for direct code generator control.
- Case statement branches support constant sets for programming convenience.
- Tuple unpacking is not enforced in ``for`` loops anymore.
- The compiler now supports array, sequence and string slicing.
- A field in an ``enum`` may be given an explicit string representation. 
  This yields more maintainable code than using a constant 
  ``array[TMyEnum, string]`` mapping.
- Indices in array literals may be explicitly given, enhancing readability:
  ``[enumValueA: "a", enumValueB: "b"]``.
- Added thread support via the ``threads`` core module and 
  the ``--threads:on`` command line switch.
- The built-in iterators ``system.fields`` and ``system.fieldPairs`` can be
  used to iterate over any field of a tuple. With this mechanism operations 
  like ``==`` and ``hash`` are lifted to tuples.
- The slice ``..`` is now a first-class operator, allowing code like:
  ``x in 1000..100_000``.


Compiler Additions
------------------

- The compiler supports IDEs via the new group of ``idetools`` command line
  options. 
- The *interactive mode* (REPL) has been improved and documented for the 
  first time.
- The compiler now might use hashing for string case statements depending
  on the number of string literals in the case statement.
  

Library Additions
-----------------

- Added ``lists`` module which contains generic linked lists.
- Added ``sets`` module which contains generic hash sets.
- Added ``tables`` module which contains generic hash tables.
- Added ``queues`` module which contains generic sequence based queues.
- Added ``intsets`` module which contains a specialized int set data type.
- Added ``scgi`` module.
- Added ``smtp`` module.
- Added ``encodings`` module.
- Added ``re.findAll``, ``pegs.findAll``.
- Added ``os.findExe``.
- Added ``parseutils.parseUntil`` and ``parseutils.parseWhile``.
- Added ``strutils.align``, ``strutils.tokenize``, ``strutils.wordWrap``.
- Pegs support a *captured search loop operator* ``{@}``.
- Pegs support new built-ins: ``\letter``, ``\upper``, ``\lower``,
  ``\title``, ``\white``.
- Pegs support the new built-in ``\skip`` operation.
- Pegs support the ``$`` and ``^`` anchors.
- Additional operations were added to the ``complex`` module. 
- Added ``strutils.formatFloat``,  ``strutils.formatBiggestFloat``.
- Added unary ``<`` for nice looking excluding upper bounds in ranges.
- Added ``math.floor``.
- Added ``system.reset`` and a version of ``system.open`` that 
  returns a ``TFile`` and raises an exception in case of an error.
- Added a wrapper for ``redis``.
- Added a wrapper for ``0mq`` via the ``zmq`` module.
- Added a wrapper for ``sphinx``.
- Added ``system.newStringOfCap``.
- Added ``system.raiseHook`` and ``system.outOfMemHook``.
- Added ``system.writeFile``.
- Added ``system.shallowCopy``.
- ``system.echo`` is guaranteed to be thread-safe.
- Added ``prelude`` include file for scripting convenience.
- Added ``typeinfo`` core module for access to runtime type information.
- Added ``marshal`` module for JSON serialization.


2010-10-20 Version 0.8.10 released
==================================

Bugfixes
--------

- Bugfix: Command line parsing on Windows and ``os.parseCmdLine`` now adheres
  to the same parsing rules as Microsoft's C/C++ startup code.
- Bugfix: Passing a ``ref`` pointer to the untyped ``pointer`` type is invalid.
- Bugfix: Updated ``keyval`` example.
- Bugfix: ``system.splitChunk`` still contained code for debug output.
- Bugfix: ``dialogs.ChooseFileToSave`` uses ``STOCK_SAVE`` instead of 
  ``STOCK_OPEN`` for the GTK backend.
- Bugfix: Various bugs concerning exception handling fixed.
- Bugfix: ``low(somestring)`` crashed the compiler.
- Bugfix: ``strutils.endsWith`` lacked range checking.
- Bugfix: Better detection for AMD64 on Mac OS X. 


Changes affecting backwards compatibility
-----------------------------------------

- Reversed parameter order for ``os.copyFile`` and ``os.moveFile``!!!
- Procs not marked as ``procvar`` cannot only be passed to a procvar anymore,
  unless they are used in the same module.
- Deprecated ``times.getStartMilsecs``: Use ``epochTime`` or ``cpuTime`` 
  instead.
- Removed ``system.OpenFile``.
- Removed ``system.CloseFile``.
- Removed ``strutils.replaceStr``.
- Removed ``strutils.deleteStr``.
- Removed ``strutils.splitLinesSeq``.
- Removed ``strutils.splitSeq``.
- Removed ``strutils.toString``.
- If a DLL cannot be loaded (via the ``dynlib`` pragma) ``EInvalidLibrary`` 
  is not raised anymore. Instead ``system.quit()`` is called. This is because
  raising an exception requires heap allocations. However the memory manager
  might be contained in the DLL that failed to load.
- The ``re`` module (and the ``pcre`` wrapper) now depend on the pcre dll.


Additions
---------

- The ``{.compile: "file.c".}`` pragma uses a CRC check to see if the file 
  needs to be recompiled.
- Added ``system.reopen``. 
- Added ``system.getCurrentException``.
- Added ``system.appType``.
- Added ``system.compileOption``. 
- Added ``times.epochTime`` and ``times.cpuTime``. 
- Implemented explicit type arguments for generics.
- Implemented ``{.size: sizeof(cint).}`` pragma for enum types. This is useful
  for interfacing with C.
- Implemented ``{.pragma.}`` pragma for user defined pragmas.
- Implemented ``{.extern.}`` pragma for better control of name mangling.
- The ``importc`` and ``exportc`` pragmas support format strings: 
  ``proc p{.exportc: "nim_$1".}`` exports ``p`` as ``nim_p``. This is useful
  for user defined pragmas.
- The standard library can be built as a DLL. Generating DLLs has been
  improved.
- Added ``expat`` module.
- Added ``json`` module.
- Added support for a *Tiny C* backend. Currently this only works on Linux.
  You need to bootstrap with ``-d:tinyc`` to enable Tiny C support. Nimrod 
  can then execute code directly via ``nimrod run myfile``.


2010-03-14 Version 0.8.8 released
=================================

Bugfixes
--------
- The Posix version of ``os.copyFile`` has better error handling.
- Fixed bug #502670 (underscores in identifiers).
- Fixed a bug in the ``parsexml`` module concerning the parsing of
  ``<tag attr="value" />``.
- Fixed a bug in the ``parsexml`` module concerning the parsing of
  enities like ``&ltXX``.
- ``system.write(f: TFile, s: string)`` now works even if ``s`` contains binary
  zeros.
- Fixed a bug in ``os.setFilePermissions`` for Windows.
- An overloadable symbol can now have the same name as an imported module.
- Fixed a serious bug in ``strutils.cmpIgnoreCase``. 
- Fixed ``unicode.toUTF8``. 
- The compiler now rejects ``'\n'`` (use ``"\n"`` instead). 
- ``times.getStartMilsecs()`` now works on Mac OS X.
- Fixed a bug in ``pegs.match`` concerning start offsets.
- Lots of other little bugfixes.


Additions
---------
- Added ``system.cstringArrayToSeq``.
- Added ``system.lines(f: TFile)`` iterator.
- Added ``system.delete``, ``system.del`` and ``system.insert`` for sequences.
- Added ``system./`` for int.
- Exported ``system.newException`` template.
- Added ``cgi.decodeData(data: string): tuple[key, value: string]``.
- Added ``strutils.insertSep``.
- Added ``math.trunc``.
- Added ``ropes`` module.
- Added ``sockets`` module.
- Added ``browsers`` module.
- Added ``httpserver`` module.
- Added ``httpclient`` module.
- Added ``parseutils`` module.
- Added ``unidecode`` module.
- Added ``xmldom`` module.
- Added ``xmldomparser`` module.
- Added ``xmltree`` module.
- Added ``xmlparser`` module.
- Added ``htmlparser`` module.
- Added ``re`` module.
- Added ``graphics`` module.
- Added ``colors`` module.
- Many wrappers now do not contain redundant name prefixes (like ``GTK_``,
  ``lua``). The old wrappers are still available in ``lib/oldwrappers``. 
  You can change your configuration file to use these.
- Triple quoted strings allow for ``"`` in more contexts.
- ``""`` within raw string literals stands for a single quotation mark.
- Arguments to ``openArray`` parameters can be left out.
- More extensive subscript operator overloading. (To be documented.)
- The documentation generator supports the ``.. raw:: html`` directive.
- The Pegs module supports back references via the notation ``$capture_index``. 


Changes affecting backwards compatibility
-----------------------------------------

- Overloading of the subscript operator only works if the type does not provide
  a built-in one.
- The search order for libraries which is affected by the ``path`` option 
  has been reversed, so that the project's path is searched before 
  the standard library's path. 
- The compiler does not include a Pascal parser for bootstrapping purposes any
  more. Instead there is a ``pas2nim`` tool that contains the old functionality.
- The procs ``os.copyFile`` and ``os.moveFile`` have been deprecated
  temporarily, so that the compiler warns about their usage. Use them with
  named arguments only, because the parameter order will change the next
  version!
- ``atomic`` and ``let`` are now keywords.
- The ``\w`` character class for pegs now includes the digits ``'0'..'9'``.
- Many wrappers now do not contain redundant name prefixes (like ``GTK_``,
  ``lua``) anymore.
- Arguments to ``openArray`` parameters can be left out.


2009-12-21 Version 0.8.6 released
=================================

The version jump from 0.8.2 to 0.8.6 acknowledges the fact that all development
of the compiler is now done in Nimrod.


Bugfixes
--------
- The pragmas ``hint[X]:off`` and ``warning[X]:off`` now work.
- Method call syntax for iterators works again (``for x in lines.split()``).
- Fixed a typo in ``removeDir`` for POSIX that lead to an infinite recursion.
- The compiler now checks that module filenames are valid identifiers.
- Empty patterns for the ``dynlib`` pragma are now possible. 
- ``os.parseCmdLine`` returned wrong results for trailing whitespace.
- Inconsequent tuple usage (using the same tuple with and without named fields)
  does not crash the code generator anymore.
- A better error message is provided when the loading of a proc within a
  dynamic lib fails.


Additions
---------
- Added ``system.contains`` for open arrays.
- The PEG module now supports the *search loop operator* ``@``.
- Grammar/parser: ``SAD|IND`` is allowed before any kind of closing bracket.
  This allows for more flexible source code formating.
- The compiler now uses a *bind* table for symbol lookup within a ``bind``
  context. (See `<manual.html#templates>`_ for details.)
- ``discard """my long comment"""`` is now optimized away.
- New ``--floatChecks: on|off`` switches and pragmas for better debugging
  of floating point operations. (See
  `<manual.html#pre-defined-floating-point-types>`_ for details.)
- The manual has been improved. (Many thanks to Philippe Lhoste!)


Changes affecting backwards compatibility
-----------------------------------------
- The compiler does not skip the linking step anymore even if no file
  has changed.
- ``os.splitFile(".xyz")`` now returns ``("", ".xyz", "")`` instead of
  ``("", "", ".xyz")``. So filenames starting with a dot are handled
  differently. 
- ``strutils.split(s: string, seps: set[char])`` never yields the empty string
  anymore. This behaviour is probably more appropriate for whitespace splitting. 
- The compiler now stops after the ``--version`` command line switch.
- Removed support for enum inheritance in the parser; enum inheritance has 
  never been documented anyway.
- The ``msg`` field of ``system.E_base`` has now the type ``string``, instead
  of ``cstring``. This improves memory safety.


2009-10-21 Version 0.8.2 released
=================================


2009-09-12 Version 0.8.0 released
=================================


2009-06-08 Version 0.7.10 released
==================================


2009-05-08 Version 0.7.8 released
=================================


2009-04-22 Version 0.7.6 released
=================================


2008-11-16 Version 0.7.0 released
=================================


2008-08-22 Version 0.6.0 released
=================================

Nimrod version 0.6.0 has been released!
**This is the first version of the compiler that is able to compile itself!**