Prehistory
----------

We designed the Mercury execution algorithm in October 1993. We started
working on a Mercury compiler in December 1993. Semantic analysis
started working around May 1994. We started generating code around
August 1994; we started work on optimizations very soon after. The
compiler successfully compiled itself on 24 February 1995.


Mercury 0.1, April 8 1995
-------------------------
Initial beta-test release. 
Very resource-hungry, not very well documented.


Mercury 0.2, April 18 1995
--------------------------
Much better error messages for determinism errors, much
faster compilation, much lower memory requirements for bootstrapping.
The C compilation is much faster and requires much less memory since we
now by default compile to one C function per procedure, but we also
improved the speed of the Mercury compiler itself by nearly 40% by
implementing some library predicates much more efficiently.


Mercury 0.2.5, 1 June 1995
--------------------------
Much better syntax error messages.
Better documentation, now including a library reference manual.
Added a GNU autoconf configuration script.
Ported to IRIX 5.
Added `multidet'.  
Enabled the use of tag bits in combination with conservative garbage
collection (this improved the speed of the compiler by about 20%).
Compile directly to C rather than via the old .mod files, which were
post-processed by a Perl script (improves compilation speed, reduces
disk space requirements, removes dependency on Perl).
Lots of bug fixes.


Mercury 0.3, 18 July 1995
-----------
The first public release.
Better type error messages.
Better determinism error messages.
Only recompiles <module>_init.c after `mmake depend', rather than after
anything changes.
Ported to ULTRIX (N.B. - ULTRIX's /bin/sh sucks).
Avoid saving variables on the stack before negated contexts.
Don't embed label names as strings in the executable.
A few other efficiency improvements.
Lots of bug fixes.
Made the rule for `mmake clean' less reckless (don't do `rm -f *.c').
Rationalized the options to `mc'.  Implemented a couple of new ones.
Added a symbol demangler to improve linker error messages.
Made very significant improvements to the documentation.
Added a "Prolog to Mercury transition guide".


Mercury 0.4, 14 September 1995
------------------------------

* Higher-order predicates and lambda expressions are now implemented.
  (This means that `call/{1,2,3,4}' and `solutions/2' are now usable;
  unfortunately call/{5,6,...} are still not yet implemented.)
* Unique modes are now partially implemented (but don't use them
  for anything except I/O, as the implementation is not yet complete).
* Partially instantiated modes are now closer to being fully
  implemented.
* The installation process is more standard (basically
  just `configure; make; make install').
* Autoconfiguration is a bit more robust.
* `msc' and `mnc' now produce somewhat smaller object files.
* Error and warning messages are a little better in some cases.
* Fixed a few code generation bugs.
* Ported to DEC Alpha/OSF and BSDI BSD/386.
* We've improved the efficiency of the 386 port by about 70%.
  (50% because asm_fast.gc mode now works on the 386, the rest
  due to better optimization).
* We generate better code for calls to `\='.
* We generate better code for `compare/3'.
* A few other new optimizations.
* The profiler now works (see the documentation in the Mercury
  User's Guide).
* Some new library predicates, including `string__format'
  (like C's sprintf).
* `set__join/2' has been renamed as `set__power_union/2'.
* `list__sort/2' has been renamed as `list__sort_and_remove_dups/2'.
* There is a new `list__sort/2' which does not remove duplicates.

Mercury 0.5, 15 Febuary 1996
----------------------------

* We now support committed choice nondeterminism in a logical and declarative
  fashion, using the new determinism categories `cc_nondet' and `cc_multi'.
  Like `nondet' and `multi' respectively, they specify that a predicate
  may have more than one solution, but they convey the additional
  assertion that the predicate will only be used in contexts in which
  only one solution is needed.  The compiler will check that all uses
  of the predicate satisfy this requirement.  Having proven the
  assertion to be correct, the compiler can then generate much more
  efficient code for the predicate.  By pushing pruning inwards, the
  compiler can often avoid creating choice points at all.

* We now check for backtracking over unique modes.
  (This may potentially break some programs using unique modes in ways
  that the compiler can't prove are safe.  In such cases, replacing
  `multi' with `cc_multi' should solve the problem.  If you have any
  trouble with this, we'll be happy to help you.)
  We have also added "mostly unique" modes, which provide support
  for backtrackable destructive update.
  See the Mercury language reference manual.

* We now provide genuinue arrays with destructive update.
  See the library module `uniq_array'.  (Warning: this has not had
  much testing.  The interface is not yet stable.)

* We now support interfacing to C code.
  See the documentation in the Mercury language reference manual.

* There is now an `inline' pragma which you can use as a hint to the
  compiler to inline a particular predicate.

* We've ported the system to ULTRIX (thanks to Gertjan van Noord
  and especially Eero Pajarre).

* We now support shared libraries for IRIX 5.

* We now allow the use of compilers other than gcc -
  see the user's guide for details.
  We don't recommend the use of compilers other than gcc,
  since the inability to use gcc's special features will
  most likely lead to much less efficient code.

* To complement our source distribution, we now also provide binary
  distributions for a variety of platforms.  Installation should be
  quick and easy.

* Various other minor improvements:
  - In portable C mode, we now generate better code for loops.
  - We've made a few other minor improvements in the generated code.
  - Unary plus and minus are now implemented.
  - Updated the documentation to reflect changes in unique modes,
  - Corrected a lot of typos in the documentation.
  - Fixed quite a few bugs.

* Parts of the library module `std_util' have been moved into separate
  modules `assoc_list' and `bool'; if you have existing code which
  used those parts of `std_util', you may need to add `import_module'
  declarations to import `assoc_list' and/or `bool'.

Mercury 0.6, 2 August 1996
----------------------------

* We now provide preliminary support for type and mode inference.
  
  The `:- pred' and `:- mode' declarations are now optional for
  predicates that are local to a module; the compiler will infer
  the types and modes automatically.

  This support is not yet complete, and so type and mode inference are
  not enabled by default.  They can be enabled using the `--infer-types'
  and `--infer-modes' options.  The limitations of the current
  implementation are: (1) type inference loops for certain very rare
  type-incorrect programs; (2) mode inference doesn't support
  reordering; (3) there are some modes which the current mode inference
  algorithm is not capable of inferring.

  Note that omitting type and mode declarations can significantly
  reduce the quality of the compiler's error messages; if you have
  trouble understanding an error message, then it is a good idea to add
  explicit type and mode declarations.

* We now support functional syntax.

  Functions can be declared with `:- func' declarations,
  and defined using equations or conditional equations,
  in a similar manner to the way predicates are declared
  with `:- pred' declarations and defined using facts and rules.
  Terms can contain function calls and if-then-elses.
  For example:

	:- func sum(list(int)) = int.	
	sum([]) = 0.				% unconditional equations
	sum([X|Xs]) = X + sum(Xs).		% using function calls

	:- func max(int, int) = int.
	max(X, Y) = Max :-			% conditional equation
		(X >= Y -> Max = X ; Max = Y).

	:- func min(int, int) = int.
	min(X, Y) = (if X >= Y then X else Y).	% unconditional equation
						% using if-then-else expression

  By default, functions are assumed to have a single det mode with
  all arguments input and the result output, but you can override
  this default by supplying explicit mode declarations; for example,
  this allows you to use functions in a backwards mode to compute the
  function inverse. 

  Zero-arity functions can be used to define constants.

	:- func pi = float.
	pi = 3.14159265359.

  We also support higher-order functions and function lambda expressions.
  See the Mercury language reference manual for details.
  
  The support for functions is not quite complete; there is one minor
  limitation and one major one.  The minor limitation is that the C
  interface does not yet support Mercury functions.  (Fortunately there
  is an easy work-around - since the C interface does support predicates,
  you can just make your Mercury function call a Mercury predicate.)
  The major limitation is that there is currently no support for
  debugging programs using functional syntax; obviously using a Prolog
  system won't work, since Prolog doesn't support functions.

* We now support overloading of predicates (and functions) with the
  same name and arity defined in different modules. 
  
  Previously, an explicit module qualifier was required to resolve the
  ambiguity; now, the typechecker will use the types to resolve the
  ambiguity, if possible.  (Note that you cannot define more than one
  predicate with the same name and arity in the same module.  Allowing
  that would add considerable complexity to the syntax, and would be
  of arguable utility, so we do not anticipate lifting that restriction.)

* We now support defining types with the same name in different modules.

  Previously this resulted in multiply defined symbol errors in certain
  circumstances, e.g. when profiling.

* We have removed the limitations on the number and order of arguments in
  higher-order predicate calls.

* Support for floating point is much improved.
  
  The above-mentioned support for functional syntax and overloading
  have enabled major improvements in the interface used for floating
  point.  You can now use the usual arithmetic and comparison
  operators, rather than the cumbersome builtin_float_plus (etc.)
  predicates that were used previously.  We have also improved code
  generation for floating point operations, by avoiding many
  unnecessary boxing/unboxing operations, and by making the
  `--static-ground-terms' optimization apply also to floating point
  constants.  These two optimizations improved performance on the
  realistic "pseudoknot" benchmark by nearly a factor of four.
  (There's still plenty of room for performance improvements, however.)

* We now support reverse mode arithmetic.

  This means that a goal such as `A is B + C' can be used not only to compute
  A from B and C, but also to compute B from A and C, or to compute C from
  A and B.

* We have added some new compiler options to simplify the choice of which
  optimization options to enable.

  - You can now use `-O<n>' to select an optimization level between -1 and 6.
    The default level is `-O2'; if you want to minimize compilation
    time, compile with `-O0', which disables all optimizations except those
    that actually improve overall compilation speed.

  - You can now use `--optimize-space' to select optimization for space,
    instead of optimization for time (which is the default).

* We have continued to improve the compiler's optimization.

  As well as the above-mentioned improvements to float-point code generation:

  - We now specialize calls to higher-order predicates within the same module
    in the case when the higher-order arguments have known values.
    This optimization is enabled by the `--optimize-higher-order' option.

  - We now specialize calls to predicates within the same module which have
    unused arguments.  This often happens for polymorphic predicates, since
    the compiler introduces type_info arguments which are often unused.
    This optimization is enabled by the `--optimize-unused-args' option.

  - The `--inlining' option now governs the settings of three separate options.
    One, `--inline-simple', reproduces the previous behavior of `--inlining':
    it inlines procedures whose definition is simple (e.g. a conjunction of
    builtins). Another, `--inline-single-use', tells the compiler to inline
    all procedures that are called exactly once. The compiler can also
    inline procedures called more than once as long as they are not too
    big; the argument of the option `--inline-threshold' sets a limit
    on the size of the procedure definition (roughly in terms of the number
    of logical connectives it has) multiplied by the number of calls to
    the predicate.

  - There's a new option `--optimize-dead-proc' option to eliminate unused
    procedures within a module.  This is useful even if the original source
    code didn't contain any unused procedures, since inlining and code
    specialization can make a procedure unused even if there original source
    had calls to that procedure.

  - There's a new option `--split-c-files' which causes the compiler to put
    each C function in its own C file, so that the linker can link in only
    what is used, and a new Mmake target `foo.split' for
    building a version of `foo' compiled with `--split-c-files'.
    (`--split-c-files' has much the same effect as `--optimize-dead-proc',
    except that it works globally, not just within a module.)
    On platforms for which we don't support shared libraries, installing
    a split version of the Mercury library fixes the problem of dumb Unix
    linkers dragging in nearly the entire library even if most of it is
    unused, and so reduces the size of a hello world program from >400k
    to around 120k.

  - The code generator generates special code for dense switches in
    which all the output variables are constant terms.  Instead of
    generating dense jump tables, it puts the answers in static constant
    arrays, and retrieves them using array indexing, avoiding
    an expensive jump and reducing code size.

  - The code generator now emits better code for constructing deeply nested
    terms, and avoids some unnecessary register shuffling.

  - The value numbering optimization now processes code sequences
    containing several heap allocations.

  - The `--pred-value-number' option now works.  If it is given, and
    value numbering notices that a value is available from a location
    that is faster to access than the one from which another code
    sequence retrieves the value, this other code sequence will be
    reoptimized taking this into account.

* We now support a C-to-Mercury interface, ie. we allow C code to call
  Mercury predicates, using a new `pragma export' declaration.
  (Unfortunately, this is not yet documented.  There is however a
  fairly detailed and reasonably well-documented example in the
  samples/c_interface/c_calls_mercury directory.)

* We have added a little bit of inline assembler code for the Alpha so
  that we can support the use of gcc non-local gotos and asm labels.
  This improved both code size and execution speed for the Alpha port
  by about 20-25%.

* We have ported the Mercury implementation to RS/6000 systems running AIX.
  (Thanks to Andreas Kuehlmann.)

* We have made a few changes to the Mercury standard library.
  The changes are listed here, but see the library reference manual for
  details such as documentation on the new predicates.

  - The getopt library is now more flexible.  It can handle command
    line switches (such as `-O2') that affect the values of many
    options, and it can handle long options that specify a value after
    an equal sign, in the GNU style (e.g. `--optimization-level=2').

  - We have added a few new predicates using higher order facilities:
	list__map/3, list__filter/3, list__filter/4, list__foldl/4,
	list__foldr/4, list__sort/4 and list__merge/4 in list.m and
	maybe_pred/3 in std_util.m. 

  - There are a couple of new all-solutions predicates in std_util.m:
    solutions_set/2 and unsorted_solutions/2. 

  - We have added some additional predicates for handling association lists:
    assoc_list__search/3 and assoc_list__remove/4.

  - There are a few new predicates for converting floats to ints:
    float__ceiling_to_int/2, float__floor_to_int/2
    float__round_to_int/2, and float__truncate_to_int/2.

  - There are quite a few changes to the graph module.  The interface has been
    made more consistent with the rest of the library.  The predicate
    graph__lookup_node/3 has been replaced by two predicates:
    graph__search_node/3 which is nondet and returns all the nodes with
    matching data, and graph__find_matching_nodes/3 which is det and
    returns all the nodes with matching data.

  - We have renamed the varset__lookup predicates to varset__search in order to
    conform to our general naming convention.

  - We have removed the (undocumented) library predicate list__map_maybe/3.

  - The set module is now implemented using sorted lists rather than
    unsorted lists.  (The interface is still the same.)  The old
    unsorted lists representation is still available, in the
    set_unordlist module.

