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Discussion of the Essence# programming language, and related issues and technologies.

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2006-03-05

Chronos Version B1.80 Published

Chronos Version B1.80 has been publised ("Beta Release 1--build 80".) Chronos B1.80 is available for VisualWorks only--although the Chronos Seed Archive for B1.80 is also available. The Squeak version hasn't changed. Avi Bryant (who is responsible for the Squeak distribution) has been busy getting well-deserved awards and recognition (go Avi!)

Unless you have done so previously, you will also need to obtain and install the Chronos Time Zone Repository, according to the Chronos Installation Instructions.

Chronos Version B1.80 can be obtained from the Chronos Web Site, or from the Cincom Public StORE Repository. Or you can use the direct download link.

About Chronos Version B1.80


Mostly, B1.80 fixes bugs. I have spent considerable time over the past few days running tests, thinking up new things to test, and browsing the code for inspiration about what might go wrong. I found a few things, too--some of them surprised me.

Also, I have been working on making Chronos more robust with respect to having a new version loaded from a module/version management system such as StORE or Monticello. It's actually much harder to correctly reinstall a new version on top of an old one, than it is to do a clean install from the ground state. It's something I always test before I promote the blessing level to Released.

Finally, I have been working on making it possible to load time zone rule sets from a remote server over the internet. In connection with that, I have also been working on an XML representation of time zone rulesets, so that even non-Chronos systems could consume the information. This issue is driving a rethinking of the Chronos time zone rule model, to ensure it's as general and comprehensive as it ought to be for general use over the internet. The requirements for a public interchange format are not the same as those of an internal, private repository.

As part of that project, I have implemented the Visitor design pattern for Chronos time zones. It can be used to convert a Chronos time zone into something else, such as a serialized object stream for network transmission, XML files for the same purpose, or binary tz files (Unix.)


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