From: Nicholas Nethercote <njn@valgrind.org>
Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 23:46:08 +0000 (+0000)
Subject: Make a first cut at the 3.0.0 release notes.
X-Git-Tag: svn/VALGRIND_3_0_0~114
X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=ff50864d37a8217c785d25ee9bbff8789293e037;p=thirdparty%2Fvalgrind.git

Make a first cut at the 3.0.0 release notes.



git-svn-id: svn://svn.valgrind.org/valgrind/trunk@4204
---

diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index a8bb36e161..89713c85cb 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,4 +1,79 @@
 
+[[TODO: fix all the TODO items!]]
+
+Release 3.0.0 ([[TODO: add release date]])
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+3.0.0 is a major overhaul of Valgrind.  The most significant user-visible
+change is that Valgrind now supports architectures other than x86.
+The new architectures it supports are AMD64 and PPC32, and the
+infrastructure is present for other architectures to be added later.
+
+The AMD64 support works well, but has some shortcomings:
+
+  - It generally won't be as solid as the x86 version.  For example, support
+    for more obscure instructions and system calls may be missing.  We will
+    fix these as they arise.
+
+  - Address space may be limited;  see the point about position-independent
+    executables below.
+
+The PPC32 support is very basic.  It may not work reliably even for small
+programs, but it's a start.  Many thanks to Paul Mackerras for his great
+work that enabled this support.
+
+Other user-visible changes:
+
+- No longer building Valgrind as a position-indendependent executable (PIE)
+  by default, as it caused too many problems.
+
+  Without PIE enabled, AMD64 programs will only be able to access 2GB of
+  address space.  We will fix this eventually, but not for the moment.
+  
+  Use --enable-pie at configure-time to turn this on.
+
+- Support for programs that use stack-switching has been improved.  Use
+  the --max-stackframe flag for simple cases, and the
+  VALGRIND_STACK_REGISTER, VALGRIND_STACK_DEREGISTER and
+  VALGRIND_STACK_CHANGE client requests for trickier cases.
+
+- Support for programs that use self-modifying code has been improved, in
+  particular programs that put temporary code fragments on the stack.
+  This helps for C programs compiled with GCC that use nested functions, and
+  also Ada programs.  This is controlled with the --smc-support flag,
+  although the default setting should work in most cases.
+
+- Output can now be printed in XML format.  This should make it easier for
+  other tools (such as GUI front-ends) to use Valgrind output as input.
+  The --xml flag controls this.  
+  [[TODO: describe the related CLOs added (eg. --log-file-qualifier)]]
+
+- Programs that allocate many heap blocks may run faster, due to
+  improvements in certain data structures.
+
+- Addrcheck is currently not working.  We hope to get it working again soon.
+  Helgrind is still not working, as was the case for the 2.4.0 release.
+
+- [[TODO: add more here]]
+
+Changes that are not user-visible:
+
+- The JITter has been completely rewritten, and is now in a separate
+  library, called Vex.  This enabled a lot of the user-visible changes, such
+  as new architecture support.  It may run slower than the old JITter;
+  feedback about this would be useful.
+
+- The code has been modularized significantly, and should be easier to
+  navigate and understand.
+
+- Lots of code has been rewritten.
+
+- [[TODO: add more here]]
+
+BUGS FIXED
+
+[[TODO: add the full list here (once the RCs are out of the way?)]]
+
+
 Stable release 2.4.0 (March 2005) -- CHANGES RELATIVE TO 2.2.0
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 2.4.0 brings many significant changes and bug fixes.  The most