Return-Path: smlieu Return-Path: Received: by cygnus.com (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA28267; Mon, 28 Mar 94 20:10:34 PST Date: Mon, 28 Mar 94 20:10:34 PST From: smlieu (Sun Ming Lieu) Message-Id: <9403290410.AA28267@cygnus.com> To: engnews-distrib Subject: Inside Cygnus Engineering - Vol 3 #3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vol 3 No 3 INSIDE CYGNUS ENGINEERING March 1994 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- . Reno 1.3 . Emacs 19 . Lynx Update . SPARC V9 Support . Kerberos Public Release Update . Motorola 68k Compiler Changes in 94Q2 . Software Maintenance Status . See You at the Show! . Green Packaging . People Notes PRODUCTS AND RELEASES --------------------- 1. Reno 1.3 On March 18, we made the Reno 1.3 release of g++. The Reno releases are typically early releases of g++ that may not have gone through the full progressive testing process. They are made available at irregular intervals to C++ users who would like to get the `latest and greatest' version of g++. A partial list of the changes in Reno 1.3 include - a faster standard compiler driver - member access control and overloading conform more closely to the Annotated Reference Manual (ARM) and to the draft ANSI standard - unrestricted levels of nested types - more frequent default generation of assignment operators, and of copy and default constructors - alternate template instantiation semantics via the `-falt-external-templates' option - more informative error messages - elimination of many known bugs In this case, the progressive 94Q1 release contains most of these improvements, but access control and generation (in part) and more bug fixes have been added. 2. Emacs 19 Our last Emacs release, made in September of 1993, was based on Emacs 18.59. We are now test-shipping a version of Emacs 19, 19.22, to our Emacs customers. Traditionally, we have shipped Emacs software with our own manual in 3-ring binders. With the 19.22 release, we switched over to using the bound manual from the Free Software Foundation (FSF). This is because there are too few Cygnus-local modifications to Emacs 19 at this point to justify a separate manual. If you are an Emacs 19 customer, please let us know what you think of this change in documentation policy. NEW AND ONGOING DEVELOPMENTS ---------------------------- 1. Lynx Update Last summer we mentioned the ongoing development work to provide GNU tools for LynxOS from Lynx Real-Time Systems. With the 94Q1 release, we will support tools for the following Lynx platforms: i386 Lynx native m68k Lynx native SPARC Lynx native RS6000 Lynx native Sun 4 x i386 Lynx Sun 4 x m68k Lynx Sun 4 x SPARC Lynx Solaris x SPARC Lynx The Cygnus Developer's Kit for LynxOS includes multithread support in GDB, SVR3 styled shared libraries, and stabs-in-coff debugging information to support debugging g++. 2. SPARC V9 Support We are pleased to announce that Cygnus has ported the GNU tools to the SPARC V9 architecture. This is a full 64-bit toolchain including gcc, gas, gld, binutils, and gdb. Currently, the tools run on ordinary 32-bit workstations, and can be used for developing SPARC V9 embedded systems and operating systems. We expect to produce a native GNU toolchain for SPARC V9-based workstations sometime in the future. The V9 efforts were funded by Sun Microsystems Laboratories, with whom we have worked closely for the last few years. Pending the final approval of the SPARC V9 ABI, Cygnus will contribute these improvements to the GNU Project at the Free Software Foundation. The availability of this code will improve the overall support for 64-bit targets in addition to providing researchers and users with fully functional tools for SPARC V9. 3. Kerberos Public Release Update Last month, we made the latest version of Cygnus Network Security (CNS) availble to the public in response to the rash of Internet breakins that resulted from `password sniffing' on the Internet. Since the announcement, we have received over 200 inquiries, most of them followed by faxes identifying the requester as a citizen or permanent resident of the United States or Canada (to comply with U.S. export law). We have provided the software to each of these requesters, and are starting to follow up with them to see whether they have succeeded in installing and using the software. If your own network isn't yet protected by Kerberos and you would like to do so, please contact us at info@cygnus.com or via fax at +1 415 903 0122. To help expedite processing, please identify yourself, your company, and whether you are a resident or citizen of the U.S. or Canada with your request for CNS, 4. Motorola 68k Compiler Changes in 94Q2 In the original version of gcc (93Q1 and earlier), the embedded m68k versions of gcc used the same calling conventions as gcc for Sun 3 workstations. This generated efficient code, but was incompatible with the native Sun 3 compiler. When the native Sun 3 compiler was modified in 93Q2 to provide compatibility, this accidentally changed the calling conventions of our embedded m68k compilers. A majority of our current embedded m68k customers have requested that the old calling convention be restored. Making this change means that the new compiler will generate code that is incompatible with code generated by recent versions of gcc, so all your code will have to be recompiled. We would therefore like to make two other improvements that would also result in binary incompatibility at the same time. The first is changing structure alignment to a more conventional layout. This would improve structure packing, and also allow code such as the Berkeley networking software to be easily compiled. The second improvement is changing the location of floating point return values. The return values are currently placed in d0/d1. It would be more efficient to return them in fp0 if the 68881 fpu is present. This will make code compiled with the -m68881 flag incompatible with code compiled with the -msoft-float flag, but we don't believe that this will be a problem for any of our customers. We would like to incorporate the above changes into the 94Q2 compiler available in early July. Please let us know if this will cause significant problems for you. SUPPORT ACTIVITIES ------------------- In addition to new development, 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. Software maintenance status The following table shows the maintenance statistics for the last five weeks. We continue to need your help: please let us know when you agree that a problem has been fixed so that we can move it from a "feedback" state to a "closed" state. # # # # # # Date Open Analzd Fdback Closed Suspnd Total ------------------------------------------------------------ 02/21/94 436 251 732 2,801 149 4,369 03/28/94 463 282 816 2,870 151 4,582 ------------------------------------------------------------ Change +27 +31 +84 +69 +2 +213 OTHER ITEMS ----------- 1. See You at the Show! It's time for Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) East in Boston, MA, in April. We will have a booth there, showing a full complement of Sun 4 and DOS hosted cross development tools for the AMD29k, Fujitsu SPARClite, Hitachi H8/300 and other processors. Cygnus engineer Mark Eichin will also be reprising his very popular talk on `Security Issues in Embedded Networking' from ESC-West last October. 2. Green Packaging In our continuing commitment to recycling and other ecologically sound practices, we reuse the styrofoam shipping peanuts we receive and supplement them as necessary with biodegradable peanuts made of cornstarch. If you have other suggestions for minimizing adverse impact on the environment, please drop us a note at production@cygnus.com. 3. People Notes John Gilmore: John, a cofounder of Cygnus Support, is featured in the Interview section of the March/April 1994 issue of Infosecurity News, in an article entitled `Civilizing the Electronic Frontier'. John is a cofounder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and has been active in efforts to ensure that today's technologies do not erode civil liberties. A note from Brendan Kehoe: `If everything goes as planned, I will be returning to California in mid-April, and to Cygnus full-time by mid-May. In the interim, I am doing some extensive testing of my ability to still work on g++ and PRMS (aka gnats). So far, it's all going incredibly well - definitely better than anyone anticipated given what really happened in the car accident I had this New Years Eve. My thanks to everyone who sent me cards, notes, and prayers in the last three months. I am convinced that things would not have gone nearly as well had I tried to make it without them.' More on the perfect cigarette: Jeffrey Osier's short story, `How to Roll A Perfect Cigarette', continues to gather interest. Two other online magazines are now competing to publish it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Cygnus Support 1937 Landings Drive One Kendall Square Mountain View, CA 94043 Cambridge, MA 02139 +1 415 903 1400 voice +1 617 494 1040 voice +1 415 903 0122 fax +1 617 494 1325 fax ---------------------------------------------------------------------