Subject: The future of E
From: Wouter van Oortmerssen <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1993 00:36:18 +0200

STATEMENT
 
                       The future of Amiga E
 
                     by Wouter van Oortmerssen
 
The question I get most from programmers is: when will the new version
of E be out, what it will cost and what are it's features? since the
answer is of interest to just about anybody working with E, I'll let
the readers of the amiga E mailing list in on some scoops:
 
I've been working for quite some time now on a new E v2.3, and the
reason I haven't released any 2.2 or 2.3 versions but instead continue
to work on 2.5 is that many new features require other new features,
and thus I'll have to make v2.5 a MAJOR update. Parts of the compiler
have been rewritten and datastructures reorganised for efficiency,
and are not stable enough for release yet. When the new version comes
out, it will be yet another milestone, and again a stable one!
 
The current version betatesters work with is v2.3g, and it already has
the following features:
 
- error reconstruction: EC now exactly pinpoints the character that
  caused the error
- optimisations: EC is now 20% to 70% faster than EC2.1b
- optimisations in code-generation.
- reduction in EC's memory consumption with 40% to 50%
- default arguments a la C++
- kick 3.0 modules
- object inheritance (without methods, for now)
- multiple returnvalues and multiple-value assignments
- symbolhunks for use with profiler
- .o to .m file converter (for assembly)
- numerous small bugs fixed and small enhancements made
 
and most important:
 
- compilation to modules.
  this allows you to write sources with OBJECTs, PROCs and CONSTs in
  them, and have them compiled to a ".m" file for use in other programs.
 
Features that will also be implemented before the next release (v2.5):
- full float (:REAL), 68881/2 support.
- a better version of SrcGen supporting the v2.5 features
- more code generation optimisations
- some 020 support
- vast amount of highlevel modules for all sorts of tasks.
 
Features that I don't know of in which release they'll be implemented:
- other OO features (next to object inheritance)
- source level debugger
- full 020 support
- module caching
 
(and ofcourse MUCH more)

Last but not least there is the question what 2.5 will cost. Well,
I don't know myself: I'd like to sell it for a very low-profit price
so that everybody can easily affort it. I will keep you all informed.
 
so, I hope all this information gave some of you an insight of what's
coming... reactions of general interest to this list!
and thanks to norm for administrating it!
 
Greetings to you all,
 
Wouter.