[clean-list] Clean 2.0 compiler ?

[rinus plasmeijer]

Dear all,

> John Swartz wrote:    (...)   Clean 2.0 will never be finished.

I must admit that the question "when will Clean 2.0 be finished" is also the
most frequently asked question in our group. It is indeed starting to become an
embarrassing question. We all want the compiler to be finished as soon as
possible. We all want to play with the new features...

Clearly, we have underestimated the amount of work involved in producing the new
compiler. What happened is that the team who started the work on the Clean 2.0
compiler became staff members and they did not  have time anymore to complete
the compiler. Therefore, others had to continue their work and dig into a
complicated piece of software.
Furthermore, it is a lot of work to make a reliable and efficient  compiler and
we have limited manpower to work on the compiler.
We are working on many other things at the same time: dynamic linking, the IDE
for the Mac, object IO for the Mac,  adding support for dynamics in the 2.0
compiler, support for strict lists, an integrated proof system which uses the
2.0 compiler as front end, a graphical editor, and so on.
The 2.0 compiler works for existing 1.3 programs, but a lot of testing has to
take place to test new features and error  messages resulting from wrong
programs. We are currently working on the known bugs from the bugs list. The 2.0
compiler is now used by our students too. They try the new  features like
dynamics and the support for generic programming.
And they do find enough bugs to keep us busy.

Therefore, there is hope, but I don’t dare to mention a date anymore.


Greetings,  Rinus