Prepearing SableVM 1.1.7, Generational GC and so on...
As I mentioned last time, the busy-but-quiet vacation season is finished and SableVM development will look active again. We've started preparations to SableVM 1.1.7. My personal list of things to be included would be something like:
- SableVM-Classpath based on new GNU Classpath 0.11 release (and possibly further CVS changes). Etienne has just merged latest code into his private branch to test it before merging into out development branch (staging). I hope to see some more Swing working :-)
- Generational Garbage Collector recently contributed by Carl Lebsack. Preliminary tests show that it improves overall performance a couple of percent (depending on a program). There's still a couple of little things to discuss and iron out before the code makes it into staging, but it should happen soon.
- Support for compressed (.jar/.zip) bootclasspath. I already have working implementation in my sandbox, but it needs cleaning up before it's merged. It will make a big difference for embedded systems with limited storage. I also implemented support for many elements in bootclasspath (previously only one path was possible) so it'll make it easier to override certain base clases when needed.
This is by no means final, full or official list. I just think these elements will most probably be the most important improvements in 1.1.7. Stay tuned!