[Mono-announce-list] Mono 0.9 has been released

[Miguel de Icaza]

Hello!

	I have just uploaded Mono 0.9 to the web server, you can get
	the goodies here:

		http://www.go-mono.com/archive/mono-0.9.tar.gz
		http://www.go-mono.com/archive/mcs-0.9.tar.gz

	mono-0.9.tar.gz contains the source code to the runtime (JIT
	and interpreter) as well as a pre-compiled version of the
	compiler (mcs.exe) and the class libraries.

	To compile the compiler and the class libraries, you still
	need Windows with the .NET SDK, as our runtime can not host
	the compiler completely yet.

* Improved Build System

	You can check http://www.go-mono.com/download.html for the
	new and fresh compilation instructions.  Same requirements as
	the last version (pkg-config, glib 1.3.xx need to be
	installed). 

* What is new:

	Compiler can compile about 75% of our regression test suite
	on Linux.  Most of this work is on the class libraries and
	Paolo has been the magician behind the work here.

	JIT can run the compiler now (Dietmar)
	
	Mint works on Windows now (Dick).

	Application Domains have been implemented (Dietmar)

		* Two modes of operation are available, depending on
		  your needs: share code, or maximize speed (does not
		  share code).  This is described by the the
		  LoaderOptimization enumeration in .NET.

	Corlib no longer has references to mscorlib (Daniel Lewis)

	Ports:
		PowerPC has been updated (Radek Doulik)
		New SPARC port (Jeffrey Stedfast)

	Documentation system:
		Adam Treat has been working on finishing the Doctools
		to maintain the Mono class library documentation.  We
		still need a GUI editor though.

	Tracking progress:
		Nick's new tools to track progress are included in
		this release.

	Many new more regression tests for the class library
		(David Brandt, Mark Crichton, Nick Drochak, Bob Doan,
		 Duco Fijma).

	Lots of new code:
		Gaurav Vaish (the hacking god behind System.Web),
		Chris Podugriel (System.Data) and Mark Crichton (Crypto)

	Runtime:
		Socket layer is finished (Dick Porter)

	Compiler has full support for unsafe code now (Miguel)
		Still a few things missing: constant folding is not 
		finished everywhere and access permissions are not
		enforced yet.
	
	Many many many bug fixes everywhere from everyone on the team:

		Paolo Molaro, Daniel Lewis, Daniel Stodden, Dietmar
		Maurer, Jeff Stedfast, Nick Drochak, Duco Fijma, Ravi Pratap,
		Dick Porter, Duncan Mak, Jeff Stedfast and Miguel de Icaza.

	I am sorry if I left a major component out of the
	announcement, this were some intense 11 days of work.

* What is obviously missing

	Currently our System.Reflection.Emit is lacking array and
	pointer support, which is why many programs still do not
	compile, but this should be taken care of next week.

* How can you help

	There are many ways to help the project, check the details
	documentation in:

		http://www.go-mono.com/contributing.html

	You might also want to stop by our IRC channel on
	irc.gnome.org, channel #mono if you are interested in
	contributing.

Have a happy weekend!
Miguel.