Return-Path: engineering-request Return-Path: smlieu Received: (from smlieu@localhost) by cygnus.com (8.6.9/8.6.9) id SAA22497 for engnews-distrib; Tue, 24 May 1994 18:50:24 -0700 Date: Tue, 24 May 1994 18:50:24 -0700 From: Sun Ming Lieu Message-Id: <199405250150.SAA22497@cygnus.com> To: engnews-distrib Subject: Inside Cygnus Engineering - Vol 3 #5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vol 3 No 5 INSIDE CYGNUS ENGINEERING May 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 ----------------- . 94Q2 Progressive Release . Gas 2.3 and Binutils 2.4 Release . G++ Update . Kerberos Update . Remote PRMS Access . Getting Software Updates . Software Maintenance Status . See You at the Show PRODUCTS AND RELEASES --------------------- 1. 94Q2 Progressive Release We have begun the testing phase of the 94Q2 Progressive Release. This is mainly a bug fix release, although some new platforms, notably MIPS R4000 (elf) and Hitachi H8/300 and SH (coff) targets, have been added (see matrix below). Shared library support for ecoff (for SGI workstations running Irix 4.x) is now available. The DOS installation process has also been simplified and will require about half as many diskettes as before. We expect to complete shipment of this release in mid to late July. s s g u i m p r r i n x 6 a s / / i 8 8 r 6 s i h h x 6 k c k s s s d 6 r p p w l l l l o u u s 0 i 3 7 d a y y y y l n n t 0 x 0 0 o r n n n n TARGET\HOST | 2 3 4 n 0 4 0 0 s e x x x x -----------------+----------------------------------------------- native | N N N N N N N N N N N N N a29k-amd-udi | X X X h8300-hms | X X i386-aout | X i386-netware | X i386-lynx | X i960-vxworks | X X X X m68k-aout | X X X X X X X m68k-coff | X X X O m68k-idp | X m68k-lynx | X m68k-vxworks | X X m88k-coff | O mips-idt-ecoff | X X X mipsel-idt-ecoff | X mips64-idt-elf | X X X sh-hms | X X sparc-aout | X sparc-lynx | X X sparc-vxworks | X sparclite-aout | X X sparclite-coff | X X sparclite-vxworks| O z8k-coff | O Key: N - supported native (no runtime libraries except libg++ for any natives) X - supported cross O - contact Cygnus for availability 2. Gas 2.3 and Binutils 2.4 Release A joint Net release of the assembler and binutils (including the linker) has just been made. A partial list of the enhancements is given below. Many of these features were available to Cygnus customers earlier in the 94Q1 progressive release; they are now released to the general public as well. gas: - support for RS/6000, PowerPC, HP-PA, DEC alpha, i386 Mach, and Irix 5 - improvements in VMS support and in the testsuites - a new "--statistics" option for printing out program run times to be used with the gcc "-Q" option which prints out times spent in various phases of compilation ld: - reduced memory usage for the a.out and ecoff versions (featured in January 94 issue of ICE) - support for HP-PA elf format, i386 Mach - shared library support for Irix 4 (ecoff) and coff format binutils: - support for RS/6000, PowerPC, HP-PA, i386 Mach and Irix 5 NEW AND ONGOING DEVELOPMENTS ---------------------------- 1. G++ Update G++ is now able to compile Fresco, the successor to the Interviews graphical user interface toolkit. (Fresco is proposed as a future X Constorium standard, and has been publicly released with X11R6.) In addition to fixing a number of problems relating to overloading and inheritance in order to compile Fresco, we have also changed the lifetime of temporaries to conform to the future ANSI/ISO C++ standard. These changes will be part of the 94Q2 Progressive Release. Depending on the release version of Fresco, it may be necessary to apply patches to its sources. Please check with us if you use 94Q2 to compile Fresco so that we can make sure you have the needed patches. Other things we are working on include ANSI exception handling, `bool' support, RTTI (Run Time Type Identification), and improvements in gdb debugging. 2. Kerberos Update We have made a lot of progress on Kerberos clients for the Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh platforms. These client-side Kerberos implementations are built from the same source tree from which we build our many supported Unix implementations. Both new implementations are in testing; they have successfully interacted with a Kerberos server on a Unix machine and retrieved a valid ticket from the server. Much work remains before we are able to offer a stable, high quality product on these platforms. Some tasks include building drivers and dynamic link libraries, adding a graphical user interface and asynchronous I/O capabilities, developing installation procedures, and enhancing the Kerberos documentation. In addition, we expect to improve the configuration and build process and port the software to additional compilation environments on these platforms. We expect Cygnus-quality releases to be available in the early fall of 1994. 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. Remote Access to PRMS We are looking into providing remote access to the PRMS database for our customers, e.g., through the Cygnus World Wide Web (WWW) server. Depending on the implementation, potentially anyone on the Internet, Cygnus customer or otherwise, may have access. Therefore, ensuring the protection of confidential information in problem reports is a key element of our plans. At this point, we would like to remind everyone of the following: 1. The synopsis line of the problem report is not considered confidential; e.g., it is published with the PR number and category as part of the progressive release notes. 2. The full text of a non-confidential PR will be made accessible. Since much of the communications about problem reports are done through e-mail, mail headers including people and organizational names will likewise be visible. Our current plans will provide access only to PR's that are marked non-confidential. If you have any questions about the confidentiality status of the problem reports that you have submitted, please contact us at contracts@cygnus.com. We are also looking into how to provide customers direct access to their own confidential PR's. (This has been done through human intervention in the past.) We need some mechanism to verify that the requestor is authorized to access the PR's. If you are interested in this capability, please let us know what you would consider acceptable ways for us to authenticate the requestor. 2. Getting Software Updates Cygnus progressive releases are made on a quarterly basis. They are currently shipping 2-3 weeks after the end of the calendar quarter (although we are working on reducing this interval). Updates for our `Group' level support customers include a full set of hardcopy documentation. Updates of the `Single' level support customers provide only the online documentation. You can default to always receiving the updates automatically, or only receiving them on request. This default is set up at the time the support contract is started although, of course, we can change it for you at any time. In either case, we will send the technical contact person an update request form (via email or US Mail) about 6 weeks before each shipment. If you do not respond, we will take the default action you have specified. Please contact us at contracts@cygnus.com if you have questions or would like to change your preferences. 3. 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 ------------------------------------------------------------ 04/18/94 393 310 872 2,951 158 4,684 05/23/94 433 287 934 3,065 155 4,874 ------------------------------------------------------------ Change +40 -23 +62 +114 -3 +190 OTHER ITEMS ----------- 1. See You at the Show Cygnus Support will be at the NetSec Network Security conference June 13-15 in the Sheraton Palace Hotel in San Francisco, and at SunWorld June 14-16 in the Moscone Center, also in San Francisco. Torbjorn Granlund is giving a paper titled `Division by Invariant Integers using Multiplication' at the SIGPLAN PLDI'94 Conference June 22-24 in Orlando, Florida. The paper describes several techniques for avoiding expensive run-time division, and their implementation in a forthcoming version of GCC. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------