Release Notes

This page lists major bug fixes in chronological order. Only severe errors are listed here (show stoppers only) . Non severe bugs and inconveniences (which are in the queue, but not yet fixed/released) are found in the "Bug List". Compatibility-Issues for programmers are listed in the "Compatibility Notes".

New features and improvements are not listed here; please refer to "What's new in ST/X" for a list. If you want to send a bug report, always extract the revision(s) of the corresponding part - this helps us in tracking/fixing bugs.

• [aug-2020] [libview] image restart with Xft fonts was broken
• [nov-2019] [stc] recursion error handling with ming64 (windows)
• [nov-2019] [stc] wrong code generated for some largeinteger literals with ming64 (windows)
• [apr-2018] [stc] wrong code generated for character literals above 16rFF (ouch)
• [nov-2016] [librun] outdated images are now always ignored (not tried to be loaded); to force, use a "-i img" argument
• [nov-2014] [librun] fixed a jitter bug which (in very rare situations) was sending a message to the wrong receiver
• [nov-2014] [libbasic] Number reading (fromString:) did not care for garbage at the end
• [nov-2014] [document viewer] fixed initial local anchor positioning
• [nov-2014] [libodbc] fixed a buffer overwrite in GetData (which did not hurt most of the time but...)
• [nov-2014] [stc] fixed bad code generation for some constant folded integer expressions
• [nov-2014] [stc, librun] some GC bug fixes (compressing GC)
• [jan-2013] [stc, librun] the package loader now correctly loads prerequisites before a package's code is installed
• [dec-2011] [stc, librun] memory bug in package loader (sometimes crashed when dynamically loading classlib-dlls)
• [aug-2011] [stc] code generator change to deal with new gcc versions (accessing outer context locals)
• [jun-2011] Fixed SOAP via HTTPS
• [aug-2010] [libwidg] autoscroll-up fixed for ListViews
• [jul-2010] [librun] (win32) fixed a thread scheduler bug, which could lead to memory inconsistency (WeakArray bug)
• [jul-2010] [librun] (win32) fixed lost timerinterrupt bug
• [oct-2009] [stc] "register" as instance variable generated code which cc does not like
• [oct-2009] [stc] wrong code for certain block-code (Timestamp)
• [sep-2009] [goodies/rdoit] disable the connection timeout in the rdoit client, after the connection has been established
• [apr-2009] [rules] windows executables and libraries support Data Execution Prevention (DEP/NX)
• [mar-2009] [stc] trigraph escaping (for VisualC)
• [mar-2009] [librun] LargeInteger constant error
• [dec-2008] [libview] bmp file reading fixed in ImageReader
• [nov-2008] [stc] some symbols where missing in the literalArray (some symbol searches failed)
• [oct-2008] [libbasic] workaround a com-interface bug/deadlock in ms-windows, which lead to occasional deadlocks when reading a symbolic link path
• [oct-2008] [libbasic] in rare cases, a locked semaphore was not released if the holding thread was killed, leading to a deadlock
• [sep-2008] [stc] generated wrong code for simple shared ret-arg2 methods
• [aug-2008] [libbasic] Date conversion fixes (1.1.4009)
• [jul-2008] [libbasic] replaceFromTo: did not ignore the 0-byte at the end of a string
• [jul-2008] [libbasic] Date: daysLeftInYear was returning a wrong number of days
• [mai-2008] [stc] temporary variable generation for complicated computed squeak array fixed
• [mar-2008] [librun] another bug when sharing simple nil-, true- or false-returning blocks with numArgs>0
• [jan-2008] [librun] inappropriate block sharing for simple nil-, true- or false-returning blocks when numArgs>0
• [oct-2006] [stc] generated code for squeak computed arrays fixed
• [oct-2006] [stc] generated code for supersends in extensions fixed
• [oct-2006] [librun] initialization order of extension modules fixed
• [oct-2006] [librun] primitiveTimeout argument was not saved from garbage collector
• [sep-2006] [libbasic/win32] GetDiskInfo fix for win2k incompatibility
• [sep-2006] [librun/win32] Dual monitor geometry fixes
• [jun-2006] [librun/win32] API call interruption crash bug fix
• [feb-2006] [libodbc] more bugs fixed; bulk transfer support
• [jan-2006] [VM] jitter-literal GC bug fixed
• [nov-2005] [XWorkstation] device- and gc-handle finalization fixed
• [sep-2005] [libodbc] some bugs fixed
• [aug-2005] [stc] namespace handling bug fixed
• [dec-2004] [stc] blockRef bug fixed
• [nov-2004] [Win32OperatingSystem] processGroup termination fixed
• [oct-2004] [Parser] Const-1 bug fixed
• [oct-2004] [librun] rememberedSet overflow bug fixed
• [oct-2004] [librun] snapshot restart pointer relocation speedup
• [sep-2004] [XWorkstation] clibpoard mechanism fixed for large data blocks
• [sep-2004] [stc] support sharePools
• [aug-2004] [stc] code generator bug in optimized equality compare expression fixed
• [sep-2004] [VM] much faster startup in case of pointer relocation
• [mar-2004] [WinWorkstation] activation event when closing a popup on top of a modal view
• [mar-2004] [WinWorkstation] closing a view on-top of an ST/X view via dbl-click on close created wrong button event in underlyig view
• [mar-2004] [VM] one of the new UTF8 support functions defected the dynamic library loading in some situations
• [jan-2004] [libbasic] some missing STORE-check macros added to fix memory (garbage collector) bugs which occurred in certion situations.
• [jan-2004] [process.c] (WIN32) interruption of blocking API calls fixed
• [nov-2003] [UnixOperatingSystem] segv bug fixed in getAddressInfo
• [nov-2003] [process.c] (WIN32) thread handle leak fixed
• [nov-2003] [WinWorkstation] (WIN32) redraw bug (redraw events were missing when moving/resizing views)
• [nov-2003] [WinWorkstation] (WIN32) pointer enter button-state bug (sometimes assumed that button is pressed when mouse enters a view)
• [oct-2003] [librun] allow grow of oldSpace during startup
• [oct-2003] [librun] allow executable without root-classes (micro-executables)
• [oct-2003] [stc] fixed write barrier bug (store into outer block context)
• [oct-2003] [AbstractLauncherApplication.st,v 1.292;AbstractSettingsApplication.st,v 1.111] fixed bug setting compiler options -removed #always option for stc
• [oct-2003] [stc] cache slot code generator bug (shared cache slots for class & instance methods)
• [sep-2003] [librun] method cache bug fixed in interpreted code (wrong method was called occasionally when many processes where scheduled)
• [mai-2003] [librun] context of a method called with #valueWithReceiver was wrong after GC if selector was nil
• [mai-2003] [librun] bug in the GC, which sometimes clobbered the freeList when hitting the memory limit.
• [feb-2003] [XWorkstation] clipboard mechanism now X-clipboard compliant (used to be xterm compliant)
• [jan-2003] [ProcessorScheduler] fixed race when freeing VM's process structure (leak)
• [jan-2003] [librun] fixed malloc-bug when shrinking lifoRemSet (crash)
• [jan-2003] [librun] bug in nil-block optimization fixed
• [nov-2002] [Parser] WorkspaceVariables are only autoDeclared if they appear on the left side of an assignment.
• [nov-2002] [VM] wrong code with more than 256 literals (on some machines).
• [sep-2002] [libbasic] oops - "String new:-1" crashed ST/X (on some systems)
• [sep-2002] [stc] code generator bug with private classes named Method or Block
• [sep-2002] [Class] fileOut did not include initialize expression for private classes
• [jul-2002] [stc, Scanner] handle 3-character binops; allow for ! and # as binop.
• [jul-2002] [libview] fixed automatic graphic queue flush (draw from non-GUI process)
• [jul-2002] [libview] fixed automatic finish of event dispatcher process (when last view closes)
• [jul-2002] [libbasic] fixed i/o stream shuffling in OS command execution
• [apr-2002] [stx] symbol strings are now in the shared librun; the stx executable itself is now very small.
• [apr-2002] [liboracle] many bug fixes in the oracle interface
• [apr-2002] [stc] code generator bug with trivial or:
• [oct-2001] [VM] 2-pass compressing garbage collect fixed.
• [sep-2001] [Class] changeFile entry for private subclasses within a nameSpace was wrong (did not prefix namespace)
• [sep-2001] [stc] did not scan empty symbol constants
• [sep-2001] [stc] scanned string constants with embedded #'' wrong
• [jun-2001] [VM] code generator bug with RISC machines and method-arg access from within a cheap block
• [jun-2001] [stc] code generator bug with array»at:put: (only if array was previously assigned from a constant)
• [feb-2001] [stc] did not correctly compile private subclasses of nil (no instVars were allowed)
• [dec-2000] [VM] subclasses of Block where sometimes handled as non-blocks (w.r.t. their home context)
• [sep-2000] [libbasic/ExternalStream] malloc/free non-reentrancy bug workaround (in fopen/fclose)
• [sep-2000] [stc] code generator bug with +optSpace3 option; ignored UNLIMITEDSTACK pragma (sparc only)
• [sep-2000] [stc] code generator now generates a context with UNLIMITEDSTACK pragma
• [sep-2000] [VM] JIT bug with inlined min:/max: and literal-SmallInt receiver (some CPU-architectures only)
• [aug-2000] [VM] bug in 2-pass compressor
• [aug-2000] [VM] JIT bailOut bug with inlined not
• [aug-2000] [MenuPanel] flush cached font geometry when starting an image on a different display
• [aug-2000] [Display] image startup on different depth display clobbered colors
• [jul-2000] [VM] JIT bug with inlined ifTrue:ifFalse: and non-block (value) args fixed
• [jul-2000] [MenuPanel & friends] better (fixed) shortCutKey and MnemonicKey handling
• [jun-2000] [VariablePanel] snap handle option
• [20-feb-2000] [View hierarchy] fixed tabbing and focus handling
• [feb-2000] [GenericException] missing method #raiseRequestWith:in: added
• [feb-2000] [SubCanvas] release vs. releaseAsSubCanvase
• [18-feb-2000] [Smalltalk] fixed renaming of a nameSpace class into another namespace
• [10-feb-2000] [VM] cache flush bug with SmallInt/UndefObject polymorph messages

• [1-sep-1999] [stc] fixed various bugs related to include-file finding with private classes within a namespace.

• [1-sep-1999] [stc] stc can now compile class-less (methods only-) files. This allows for addOns to be compiled into a shared class library.

• [1-sep-1999] [stc] fixed the lexer, which crashed with very long lines. (workaround a lex bug).

• [1-sep-1999] [stmkmp] fixed the script to generate a usable Make.proto.

• [1-jul-1999] [Class, Autoload] Superclass autoload failed for private classes
  When filing in a private class, which was derived from an autoloaded class, the superclass was not loaded automatically.

• [20-jun-1999] [WeakArray] occasional bad access to weakArray
  Reads could return an already collected object; writes could sometimes lead to a missing registration within the VM. Both errors could lead to bad object references in certain situations.

• [16-apr-1999] [TerminalView] restart shell when restarted
  The original shell command is now restarted when an image is restarted from a snapshot image with an open terminalView.

• [12-apr-1999] [mcompiler.c/send.c] JIT bug with Sun Ultra
  Fixed the icache flush code - this was responsible for the JITC to fail on ultra sparcs.

• [12-apr-1999] [new.c] IGC failure when interrupted by reclaimSymbols
  The IGC left over some unmarked objects, when interrupted by reclaimSymbols.

• [30-jul-1998] [send.c 1.937, interpret.c 1.148, lookup.c 1.67] private methods not understood
  Due to a change done in Jan97 (!), the privacy mechanism failed to work in some situations (no one seems to use this mechanism, since we did not get an error report !).

• [6-jul-1998] [mcompiler.c 1.937] bad code generated
  JIT compiler: fixed & and | for non-boolean receivers.
  JIT compiler: code for increment-var generated a subtract for non-integers

• [6-jun-1998] [GLXView] image restart
  Fixed image restart bug with open animated GL-views.

• [6-jun-1998] [smalltalk.rc] source access if GNU-st is installed
  Remove system library from sourcePath, if a GNU-Smalltalk distribution is found there (to avoid autoloading the wrong classes)

• [25-feb-1998] [libwidg2/MenuPanel.st 1.77]
  Short-clicked menu did not stay open.

• [25-feb-1998] [stc/codeexpr.st 1.144]
  inlined code now checks for singleStepInterrupt pending. This allows for things like #at:/#at:put: to be single stepped - even if the code is inlined.

• [25-feb-1998] [libbasic/Object.st 1.223]
  #perform: family of methods did not care for pending singleStepInterrupts. This prevented the debugger from single stepping into #perform: methods.

• [25-feb-1998] [librun/mcompiler.c 1.790] bad code generated
  fix: bug in delaySlot optimizer - globbered register sometimes (sparc only)

• [20-feb-1998] [librun/mcompiler.c 1.785] bad code generated
  fix: bad register reuse in JIT compiler (in special/rare situations) fix: bad temp-slot use for value of conditional (in special situations)

• [2-feb-1998] [libbasic/Metaclass.st 1.122]
  fix: lost class methods if classInstVars changed fix: class instvar changes clobbered class methods of subclasses.

• [1-feb-1998] [Slider.st 1.22]
  fix: care for range & step

• [25-oct-1997] [libbasic/Integer.st]
  fix: \\, // and gcd: returned a wrong result for certain largeInteger receivers, due to a bug in gcd:. This also affected certain fractions with largeInteger numerator.

• [14-aug-1997] [libbasic/String.st 1.95]
  fix: some search methods (index*) failed with national characters (high bit set). Must use unsigned character compares.

• [9-aug-1997] [stc/scan.l 1.75]
  fix: fixed the HTML-View from image restart problem (image fetcher thread not restarted)

• [7-aug-1997] [stc/scan.l 1.75]
  fix: float constants with exponent and decimal point scanned wrong

• [5-aug-1997] [libview/WSensor.st 1.106, libview/WGroup.st 1.118]
  fix: expose event sometimes lost after remap of a view

• [24-jul-1997] [libbasic/Fraction.st 1.37, librun/float.c 1.37]
  fix: fractions with negative denominator could be generated

• [24-jul-1997] [libcomp/ObjFLoader.st 1.144]
  path of executable with dynamic loading under linux-a.out
  dynamic object loading under linux-a.out did not work, if the stx executable was not found in the current directory.

• [24-jul-1997] [libview2/GIFReader.st 1.55]
  maskPixel handling fixed
  images with mask did not always work

• [2-jul-1997] [libview/WSensor.st 1.104, libview/WGroup.st 1.116, libview/DSurface.st 1.30]
  no-deviceID error (debugger) with destroy arriving while waiting for a scroll-expose event to arrive.

• [1-jul-1997] [libbasic/CharacterArray.st 1.123] [HP only]
  some hp fonts use non-iso8859-1 encoding. National characters were not displayed correctly sometimes.
  Translation tables were added for hp-to-iso8859 character translation. Notice, that not all iso8859-1 characters are available in those fonts.

• [25-jun-1997] [libview/WSensor.st 1.103]
  deadlock situation with interruptActions during eventQueue handling
  If interrupted while being in the eventQueues critical region, a deadlock occurred when another event was pushed in the interruptAction.

• [25-mar-1997] [libbasic/Unix.st 1.198, libbasic/ProcSched.st 1.125]
  waiting forever for UNIX Processes
  ST/X sometimes didn't recognize the termination of UNIX-subprocesses on SUNOS and AIX before another process has been started.

• [7-mar-1997] [librun/errhandler.c 1.48] restarting a doesNotUnderstand-context
  a doesNotUnderstand context could not be restarted, after the missing method was accepted in a browser.

• [1-mar-1997] [libbasic/codecls.c 1.108] sub-subclass recompilation
  occasionally, sub-subclasses were not recompiled after a superclass- or instvar change in a baseclass.

• [1-mar-1997] [stc/codecls.c 1.109] superclass with inderscore in name
  occasionally, stc generated wrong C-code for superclasses with underscores in their name (missing external declaration, leading to a C compilation error).

• [27-feb-1997] [librun/new.c 1.249] idenitytHash clobbered in #become:
  in certain situations, #become: did not exchange the hashKeys, which lead to trouble with objects being held in a set or dictionary.

• [27-feb-1997] [librun/new.c 1.249] growing oldSpace memory
  ST/X allocated more memory than required, if the fastMoreOld flag was on and the compression limit already reached.

• [26-feb-1997] [stc/codeexpr.c 1.116] inline float multiplication
  stc generated syntactically incorrect C-code for inlined float multiplications, (i.e. multiplication with float-value-hinted values)

• [15-feb-1997] [libbasic/MthdDict.st 1.18] ever growing methodDictionary
  methodDictionary resized itself wrong when entries where removed

• [14-feb-1997] [stc/codeexpr.c 1.115] here-send in class methods
  'here' send did not work in class methods - this only happened in stc-compiled code (i.e. bytecode worked ok)