Return-Path: jeffrey Return-Path: Received: by cygnus.com (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA11573; Wed, 15 Jul 92 16:32:50 PDT Date: Wed, 15 Jul 92 16:32:50 PDT From: jeffrey (Jeffrey Osier) Message-Id: <9207152332.AA11573@cygnus.com> To: engnews-distrib Subject: Cygnus Engineering Newsletter 7/92 INSIDE CYGNUS ENGINEERING July 1992 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Inside Cygnus Engineering (ICE) is published monthly for customers of Cygnus Support. Our objective is to provide a relevant but informal summary of news and ongoing activities. Please send all comments, suggestions, and subscription requests to engnews@cygnus.com. PRODUCTS AND RELEASES --------------------- 1. Cygnus Developers' Kit for Solaris 2.0 Things have been moving quickly on the Solaris 2.0 front, especially now that Sun has shipped the final version of the O/S. We have solved or overcome technical problems such as packaging (we are no longer using "pkgadd", the standard utility for installing optional software in Solaris 2.0) and deciphering stabs information from the Solaris 2.0 cc (for gdb interoperability) were worked around or overcome. We have made two beta releases, and are on schedule for the final release: via FTP July 14, and as tapes and hardcopy documentation July 21. Our "Early Adopters" program will expire when we ship product. If you know people who would still like to join this program, please let them know they can sign up until July 20 for a year of support for 5 users for $2,000. The Cygnus Developers' Kit will be on the Solaris Catalyst CDware distribution being released in September as planned. We are also making the toolkit available for FTP on UUNET - more details will follow in the next issue of ICE. 2. Progressive Update The 5-host progressive release is now shipping. (The hosts are Sun3, Sun4, DECstation, IBM RS6000, and SGI-Iris.) We have built an alpha release of the first progressive Cross Developers' Toolkit. This consists of Sun4 x 68k and DECstation x 68k cross development tools. As with the native progressive release last month, configuration continues to be a challenge. We are building up a set of testing procedures that can be automated in our testing framework under development (see section on DejaGnu below). Our current release schedule is as follows: Date Platform ---------------------------------- Jul Native: Solaris 2.0 Target: 68k Aug Target: i960, 29k Sep Native: SCO Unix Host: HP700, DOS Target: i3/486 3. Gdb 4.6 As we go to press, a new release of gdb, gdb 4.6, is being prepared for distribution to the net. Highlights of this release include - HP-PA support - Solaris 2.0 support - i386 Linux support - improved support for DECstation and IBM RS6000 - improved C++ name demangling support, including support for the Lucid Energize product style of demangling - grouping of various gdb internals commands under a maintenance command - support for arbitrary number of sections for ELF - many bug fixes 4. libg++ Libg++ 2.2 was released in early July. This is mainly a bug fix release; notable enhancements include improvements in the accuracy of floating point I/O and increased portability. It is interesting that Linux, the copylefted Unix clone for Intel 3/486 machines, uses a stdio library that is built on the lower level functions of the IOstreams library. This stdio library is part of the standard libg++ distribution; it is not normally installed because many people use their system library. 5. PRMS A number of people have expressed interest in the PRMS software. Since we wrote the original version inhouse specifically for our own use, we have modified it for generic use and plan to release it to the net before the end of the month. We've been running this new version here at Cygnus since the beginning of the month. PRMS is made up of five components: 1. Flat files containing problem reports. 2. Send_pr, the customer interface format; we provide an emacs-lisp implementation although any mail message containing the appropriate information will work. 3. File_pr, the program invoked by the mailer to record problem reports, written in C++. 4. Query_pr and report_pr, reporting facilities written in shellscript and GNU awk. 5. Man pages. NEW AND ONGOING DEVELOPMENTS ---------------------------- We are implementing some of these only for certain platforms, so for the moment, they are not all tested or available for generic use. 1. Reno We are busy laying the groundwork for a multiphase GNU C++ renovation project. Nicknamed "Reno", the project has the following goals: - Bring G++ into closer conformance with the latest X3J16 C++ draft standard. - Rebuild infrastructure for improved stability and in preparation for future extensions. - Meet commercial requirements such as Cfront compatibility and support for multi-vendor or public domain class libraries. One of our first activities is to survey user needs. If you would like to participate in this survey, or find out more about the project, please contact us at engnews@cygnus.com. 2. DejaGnu Significant progress has been made on our test automation project, named DejaGnu, in the last two months. Rather than writing everything ourselves, we have elected to use two free software tools, TCL, a command language and supporting library package, and EXPECT, a program that manages other programs through the use of scripts that track test input and exprected output, as the testing framework. DejaGnu will incorporate existing test cases originating at Cygnus (such as gdbtest and the g++ regression testing work mentioned in the February issue of ICE) and elsewhere (e.g., a customer's specific test suite). We now have a prototype working: it can initialize and establish a connection with the O/S on a target cpu board, start up gdb, and run through the gdbtests. These tests can also run "native" on the host workstation. The next trial application, if our progressive testers have their way, would be to automate the test procedures that have been developed over the course of the 5-host native progressive and the cross progressive relases. DejaGnu has been adopted as part of the GNU project. We are developing a schedule for release to the net community, and will publish this schedule in the coming months. 3. Flat Register Window Model for SPARC Multiple register windows in the SPARC architecture present a challenge to real time systems because of its indeterministic context switch time. We have implemented a version of gcc for the SPARC that is based on a "flat register window" model (referred to by some as a "single register window model"). This gcc can also be configured and built so as to be link compatible with normally compiled SPARC code. SUPPORT ACTIVITIES ------------------- In addition to new developments, a significant part of our engineering resources is devoted to answering questions, fixing problems in the GNU software, and providing a range of support services to our customers. 1. Changes to Send_PR and PRMS The new version of PRMS that we adopted this month has two user visible changes; 1. Problem report numbers are now simply numeric. We are not required to type the preceding "p0000" any more. For example, PR p0001000 is now simply PR 1000. 2. If you use the "Subject:" line in our acknowledgement message to your problem report when you correspond with us about an existing PR, your mail will be automatically filed under the correct PR number. This provides a mechanism to update or query about an existing PR without having to submit another one under a different number. 2. Software maintenance status Open problem reports as of July 6: 246 New reports since June 15: 74 Reports closed since June 15: 39 OTHER ITEMS ----------- We value your inputs, and would like to ask for your response to the following questions (to engnews@cygnus.com). We will publish summaries of answers in the following issue. 1. How are we doing? Are you satisfied with what Cygnus is providing you? 2. What else would you like to see from Cygnus? 3. What else would you like to read about in Inside Cygnus Engineering? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Cygnus Support 814 University Avenue One Kendall Square Palo Alto, CA 94301 Cambridge, MA 02139 +1 415 322 3811 voice +1 617 494 1040 voice +1 415 322 3270 fax +1 617 494 1325 fax