2013-03-10 New release 2.1

This release should be mostly source and binary compatible with 2.0 series but it is recommended to rebuild your apps. If you bump into the following error 
[Error] else unexpected here
then remove semicolon ";" before "else".
Features in new release:
UNIX DEVICES
Basic support of Unix /dev nodes. Implemented nodes:

Special files:

  • /dev/null
  • /dev/zero
  • /dev/random

Per-process streams:

  • /dev/stdin
  • /dev/stdout
  • /dev/stderr
Serial devices (infrared, usb, etc.) automatically detected and mapped to device files like /dev/usb1
COMPILER IMPROVEMENTS
1) New basic types
  • Byte - signed 8-bit integer
  • Short - signed 16-bit integer
  • Char - single character

2) No more ambiguous types BArray and CArray. They still work but you can just use [Byte] and [Char].

3) Guarded blocks seem to work stable and option -Xtry is not needed anymore.

4) Constructors:
define as "new" method 

Type.new(arg: Int) {
  this.field = arg
}
use with "new" keyword 
var t = new Type(0)
Constructors were added for all standard types, so you may use new List() etc...

5) Operator overloading: 

a + b  =>  a.add(b)
a - b  =>  a.sub(b)
a * b  =>  a.mul(b)
a / b  =>  a.div(b)
a % b  =>  a.mod(b)
a << b =>  a.shl(b)
a >> b =>  a.shr(b)
a>>>b  =>  a.ushr(b)
a & b  =>  a.and(b)
a | b  =>  a.or(b)
a ^ b  =>  a.xor(b)
-a     =>  a.minus()
!a     =>  a.not()
a == b =>  a.eq(b)
a != b =>  !a.eq(b)
a < b  =>  a.cmp(b) < 0
a <= b =>  a.cmp(b) <= 0
a > b  =>  a.cmp(b) > 0
a >= b =>  a.cmp(b) >= 0
See working example with complex numbers [2].

6) Global variables and structure fields can now be initialized right in place. 

type Person {
  name: String = "Joe",
  age: Int = 20
}

7) Function arguments now support default values
Declaration: 

def test(a: Int, b: Int = 0);
Now can be used with one or two arguments: 
test(1,1)
test(3)   // == test(3, 0)

8) Cast can be used with more convenient syntax, like method 

(3.0 / 2.0).cast(Int)
CORE LIBRARY IMPROVEMENTS
New string methods: 
String.startswith(prefix): Bool
String.endswith(suffix): Bool
String.replace(oldchar, newchar): String
New I/O methods: 
IStream.readfully()  // returns [Byte] array
IStream.reset() // rewinds input to the beginning of file
New system methods: 
sys_property()  // returns named system property
UI LIBRARY IMPROVEMENTS
1) form now generates EV_ITEMSTATE events when contents of any item changes. This can be useful for interactive forms.

2) Menu types, as requested by several users. Menu type is passed in constructor as optional argument, e.g. 

var yes = new Menu("Yes", 1, MT_OK)
[1] http://code.google.com/p/alchemy-os/downloads/list
[2] http://e.alchemy-os.googlecode.com/git/examples/3-complex/
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