Thursday, 7 May 2002 Announcement ============ The members of the Components Team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are pleased to announce the beta release of Babel, version 0.7.0. We've designated this as a 0.7 release due to the change in the array API and the change in SIDL.BaseException. ************************ NOTICE ************************ In transitioning to support specification of array ordering we have modified the SIDL DTD resulting in changes to the XML format. If using XML features, you'll need to regenerate your XML; otherwise, the parser will be unable to recognize your old-style XML. ************************ NOTICE ************************ What's New ========== + new FORTRAN Interface File (.fif) documents FORTRAN stub + new array API (see users guide for API description) + new array ordering constructs in the SIDL language + rewrite CCA decaf example to track the emerging CCA standard (in particular BuilderServices and ConnectionEventServices) + add array ordering regression test + SIDL.BaseException.getStackTrace renamed to SIDL.BaseException.getTrace. + change C++ array dim to dimen() (to get the dimension) + initial code work on overloaded functions (not complete) + fix reference counting issue with interfaces in C++ + Add Python calling Python regression tests Bug's fixed (taken from http://www-casc.llnl.gov/bugs/) ======================================================= 234 Method ordering in SIDL file is preserved 269 Preserve non-referenced splicer block sections 281 configure --without-fortran to build without a F77 compiler 305 bool array (C++ destructor) problem fixed 328 boolean in documentation changed to bool where appropriate 359 Fix line break in #include problem. 365 Sun's SDK 1.4.0 compatibility 368 Sun's SDK 1.4.0 compatibility 380 Wrong signature for borrow in SIDL_cxx.h 381 Better array usability (borrowing in particular) 388 name space conflict for enums in C 393 forward decls in C++ stubs to fix mutual include problem 400 Fixed Python stub namespace problem 412 generate FORTRAN 77 API (human readable) 422 better documentation of FORTRAN array alignment problem 423 babel errors identified with "babel:" 424 Better Python error message 428 Added pass in Python splicer blocks What Babel Is ============= Babel is designed to address problems of language interoperability, particularly in scientific/engineering applications. At the simplest level, Babel generates glue code so that libraries written in one programming language are callable from other programming languages. Babel generates this glue code from an interface description written in SIDL, our Scientific Interface Definition Language. Babel supports full Object-Oriented features and exception handling even in non-OO languages such as C or Fortran77. Supported Languages =================== Babel currently supports calling libraries written in C, C++, F77, or Python from drivers written in either C, C++, F77, Python or Java. (Python support also requires the Numerical Python set of extensions at http://numpy.sourceforge.net) Supported Platforms =================== Linux Solaris Cygwin (More expected in next few months.) Caveat ====== Babel is research in progress. This is a beta release looking for more friendly users and now some power users. Babel has been used on a few real projects now, there are still too few examples, but the documentation is improving. Availability ============ The software is available for free download at http://www.llnl.gov/CASC/components User Resources ============== Two email lists have been set up for the Babel community babel-users@llnl.gov (unmoderated discussions) babel-announce@llnl.gov (announcements only) To subscribe to one or both of these email lists, send email to with the text "subscribe babel-announce", "subscribe babel-users", or both (one per line). Contacting the Authors ====================== If you have any questions or concerns with the installation process or usage of Babel, feel free to contact the project team at components@llnl.gov. To report bugs or suggest feature enhancements, please submit a report in the bug database at http://www-casc.llnl.gov/bugs/. $Id: ANNOUNCE-0.7.0.txt 685 2002-08-20 22:06:19Z epperly $