= Release Notes for Clozure CL 1.7 =

== Supported Platforms ==
Clozure CL 1.7 runs on the following platforms:
   * Mac OS X 10.5 and later (x86, x86-64)
   * Linux (x86, x86-64, ppc32, ppc64, armv7l)
   * FreeBSD 6.x and later (x86, x86-64)
   * Solaris (x86, x86-64)
   * Microsoft Windows XP and later (x86, x86-64)

The preferred way to get Clozure CL is via Subversion.  For example,
to get CCL for Mac OS X on x86, one would run the following command
from a shell prompt:

{{{
$ svn co http://svn.clozure.com/publicsvn/openmcl/release/1.7/darwinx86/ccl
}}}

Versions for other platforms are available by changing the `darwinx86` to
one of `linuxx86`, `freebsdx86`, `solarisx86`, `windows`,
`linuxppc`, or `linuxarm`.

Both 32 bit and 64 bit binaries are included with all versions (except for
ARM, which is 32-bit only).

See also http://trac.clozure.com/openmcl/wiki/SystemRequirements.

== Reporting Bugs ==
Please use the Trac instance at  http://trac.clozure.com/ccl to review existing bug reports and to submit new ones.

== Platform Notes ==

=== Windows ===
The 32-bit Windows lisp now runs on 64-bit Windows.

The 64-bit Windows lisp kernel now builds with (and requires)
a recent version of the mingw-w64 toolchain.  See WindowsNotes.

=== Linux ARM ===
An ARMv7 processor is now required.  There
have been a great many improvements and bug fixes to the ARM port
since it was first released in version 1.6.

=== Mac OS X ===
Support for Mac OS X running on PowerPC has been dropped.
Linux on PowerPC is still supported.

The interface databases for Mac OS X are now built from
Snow Leopard (10.6) headers.  This required the use of an experimental
version of the
interface translator that recognizes C blocks.  See [wiki:BuildFFIGEN].

The Cocoa-based IDE requires Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or later.

On OS X Lion, the AltConsole application may not automatically
activate when the standalone Clozure CL.app crashes.  Clicking on
the AltConsole dock icon will activate it.  It should then behave
normally.

=== FreeBSD ===
The FreeBSD binaries were built on a FreeBSD 8.1 system.  If you are running 6.x or 7.x,
you should be able recompile the lisp kernel on your own system and run the lisp without
any further trouble:
{{{
$ cd ccl/lisp-kernel/freebsdx8632   # or freebsdx8664, as appropriate
$ make
}}}

== New exported symbols ==
The following new symbols are now exported from the CCL package:

 * *disassemble-verbose*
 * dparef, sparef
 * allow-heap-allocation, heap-allocation-allowed-p, allocation-disabled (r14807, ARM only)

When `ccl:*disassemble-verbose*` is true, the x86
disassembler will print the opcode bytes along with the disassembled
instructions.

The macros dparef and sparef are shorthand for paref of :double and :float arrays.
For example, (dparef p 3) => (paref p :double 3).

== General == 
The image and fasl file versions have changed.  Old heap images
and fasl files won't work with 1.7.

The bundled version of ASDF is now 2.017.

asdf-install is no longer bundled.  (See http://www.quicklisp.org/ for an alternative.)

In previous versions of CCL, `*gensym-counter*` was thread-local.
It is now global, which means that `gensym` will produce lisp-wide
unique symbol names.  This implies, however, that user code that
modifies `*gensym-counter*` must arrange to serialize access to
it in some way.  See http://trac.clozure.com/ccl/ticket/799 for
discussion.

Further code coverage improvements.

An obscure low-level change: On Unix-like systems, we now have
the operating system restart system calls interrupted by the signal
used to suspend a thread.  (The GC suspends all other threads
every time it runs, so this is not rare.)  We don't foresee any problems
with this, but mention it here just in case.

== Support ==

Fee-based support for Clozure CL is available from Clozure Associates on
a per-incident or contract basis.  Please send mail to business@clozure.com
for more information.