Features & Fixes

...available in Smalltalk/X jv-branch which are not integrated to ​eXept's version

Base Runtime

(stc, virtual machine, basic classes)

• ENH: Performance & functional improvement in FFI callouts (see de37550dc3dd/stx.libbasic)
• FIX: Fixed a baad bug causing VM crash when one set a breakpoint on Java Method (see librun commit 79868de791e7)
• ENH: Fill in Block source position, i.e., an offset of opening bracket. Given a Block instance, one may ask for it's source position by aBlock sourcePos. Moreover, one can get a parse tree (RB) of the block by aBlock parseTree. This allows for nice optimizations in PetitParser compiler.
• FIX: Fixed bug in Java synchronized method invocation (see ​issue #84.
• FIX: Fixed FileStream>>position, position: and setToEnd when stream is in non-buffered mode. See commit ​5e7e40d367f2
• ENH: When VM is compiled in DEBUG mode (default), allocate extra guard pages behind each newspace halve.
• FIX: Fixed baaad bugs in various allocation routines causing overflow to memory behind newspace and thus trashing whatever data are there. See commit ​384622fa1a79. Few VM routines suffered the same.
• FIX: Fixed initialization of poly caches (they have not been cleared properly)
• ENH: Performance fixes in String>>at: and Array>>at:/at:put: - see 877a8f1b326d/stx.libbasic and 9e4db770f8f5/stx.libbasic

Development tools

(stx:libtool, stx:goodies/smallsense, stx:goodies/refactoryBrowser, ...)

• ENH: Integrated Jakub Nesveda's excellent custom refactorings (​announcement)
• ENH: Mercurial: Added support for commit amending (i.e., for hg commit --amend. See ​stx:libscm issue 19.
• ENH: Added support for auto-configuration of SCMs. This means that in a common case it is no longer necessary manually manage mapping from package to its source code manager. See 30f4d586370e/stx.libbasic3.

User Interface

(stx:libview, stx:libview2, stx:libwidg, stx:libwidg2)

• FIX/ENH: Better (standard) selection / cursor movement. See ​EditTextView>>selection_and_cursor_movement for details.
• ENH: Linux builds include XFT support for smoother text rendering. Check how to enable anti-aliased fonts on Linux.
• ENH: X11: Make Smalltalk/X be more adhering to ​ICCCM 2.0 and ​EWMH 1.5 standards. This improves UX of Smalltalk/X when run under modern window manager, such as Gnome Shell.
• FIX: Fixed a bad bug in Xft font rendering causing a VM crash (due to memory corruption, see c5cb9d5dfaae/stx.libview)