XPS 0.2.0 Released

Reid Spencer — Tue, 24 May 2005 18:41:40 -0000

After a two year delay while compiler infrastructure and XML validation were being acquired, the XPS project has finally released its benchmark 0.2.0 release. This version of XPS provides an XPL compiler that can simply parse, validate, and regurgitate XPL programs. The xpl-core langauge is finally defined in this version and there is now an LLVM "back end" that can convert LLVM intermediate representation into XPL source code. A comprehensive test suite ensures all this software works correctly. For full details on the release, please visit the release web page at http://x-p-s.org/releases/0.2/docs/ReleaseNotes.shtml

Just When You Though XPS Was Dead ...

Reid Spencer — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 06:21:46 -0000

... it's not! After a 15 month journey assisting with the development of the Low Level Virtual Machine (LLVM), XPS is back on track. We have a new web site (hosted on an XSI server), an IRC channel (irc://irc.oftc.net/xps) and our source code is now managed with Subversion. Check the web site for the details.

XPS 0.1.9 Released

Reid Spencer — Fri, 25 Apr 2003 17:27:52 -0000

After several months of reorganizing the foundation of the project, the XPS project has released the 0.1.9 build of the software. This build removes the dependence of XPS on ACE and provides its own operating system abstraction layer. This simplifies building and using XPS significantly. While ACE is a venerable toolkit, it provided too many features and wasn't configurable enough for use in XPS. However, Doug Schmidt's patterns implemented in ACE will live on in XPS. This release should be the final architectural change before the 0.2.0 release that provides a fully reflective compiler. Other changes of note: initial API documentation was created, the source was reorganized into the "xps" directory instead of the "src" directory, several "under development" modules were removed but will be added again when they are more complete.

XPS API Documentation Available (First Cut)

Reid Spencer — Fri, 25 Apr 2003 11:04:15 -0000

The internal API documentation for XPS has been generated and posted to the project's home page. The documentation was generated from the source code by doxygen. You might be able to glean some understanding of the system by reading this, but caveat emptor! This is a *very* early release of the documentation and there are many deficiencies and errors. These will be corrected and reposted as the project matures. How many projects at release level 0.1.9 do you know that actually *had* documentation?

XPS Web Site Revised & Reorganized

Reid Spencer — Mon, 10 Feb 2003 21:42:04 -0000

The XPS web site has recently been revised and reorganized. The site now uses a rudimentary PHP theme and contains the following sections:

Project: general information about the project.
Team: information about team members.
Vision: a high-level overview of what XPS is all about.
Architecture: XPS architecture plans (under construction).
Components: descriptions of major XPS components (under construction).
Documents: current documentation associated with XPS.

This reorganization should make it much easier to learn about XPS and will make it easier to maintain the XPS web site and keep it up to date. The Architecture and Components sections will be completed over the next few weeks but there is sufficient content in the other sections that it is worth making the announcement now.

E-Panhandling For Development $

Reid Spencer — Thu, 06 Feb 2003 00:18:55 -0000

How do you build the next generation open source software development platform from scratch with little or no help? How do you attract volunteer developers to a project that will take years to come to fruition? The quick answer: You don't!

After investing plenty of my own money, looking for bold investors with the same vision, and attempting to get XPS off the ground at the same time, I have come to the conclusion that I will need to pay developers for their contributions to the project. And, why not? Its a worthy cause and people can't be expected to go uncompensated for their valuable time.

So, inspired by http://www.savekaryn.com/, I have created the web site http://www.savesomegeeks.com/ to attract donations to XPS that will foster its development. I figure that if Karyn can successfully e-panhandle to eliminate her self-induced credit card debt, perhaps there are a few good souls out there who would like to donate their hard earned money to help a group of industrious developers produce some useful software.

I thought long and hard about doing this for many weeks. On the one hand there is the negative association people attribute to panhandlers. On the other hand, I am 100% committed to this project, believe in its vision, and know it will produce a revolution in software development. Only the lack of money is slowing its progress; and that is never a good reason not to do something. I believe it is worthy enough for people to donate or invest their money to help it come to fruition. So, at the risk of a little (or a lot!) ridicule, I have ventured into the world of e-panhandling for my open source project. Who knows? Perhaps this is the long-awaited silver bullet for funding open source development! :)

I'm putting this message out in the hopes that it reaches at least a few philanthropists that have the same bold vision of the Internet future that I do. All I ask is that you go to http://www.savesomegeeks.com/, read the material there, and at least give it some thought. Let me know if you have any questions (contact information is on the web page), I will be more than happy to answer all of them.

This isn't a joke!

XPS In A Nutshell

Reid Spencer — Tue, 31 Dec 2002 11:03:44 -0000

With the coming close of 2002, it was time to reflect on the development of XPS and do some writing. It occurred to me that the home page doesn't succinctly describe XPS nor is there any historical context provided. As a result, there is now a new document, "XPS In A Nutshell" that provides a view of the vision for the system, some historical context, and a quick trip through its main components. If you're new to XPS, you should read this first.

XPS 0.1.8 Released

Reid Spencer — Mon, 30 Dec 2002 04:30:29 -0000

This release includes tested and working versions of much of the infrastructure needed for the 0.2.0 release. Many improvements to the memory system have been made especially typesafe "pointers" in memory regions. The ADT module was overhauled and provides Array and HashTable templates now. The META module was revised to use the new HashTable and Array implementations as well as the new VectorPointer classes. It was also augmented to provide XPL output from a stored metaschema (partial implementation). This is the first release to pass the"make distcheck" target and should be simpler to build. This is a large step closer to getting to a reflective compiler. That is, one that can reproduce the original input from its symbol table. That is the goal for the 0.2.0 release. The next release, 0.1.9, will include a full meta schema for XPL which will be used as the compiler's symbol table. Once that is done, the metaschema will be attached to the xplc compiler so that the metaschema can be produced directly from XPL and hence we arrive at release 0.2.0. The compiler will then be able to correctly report on syntactic, grammatical, and semantic errors. This approach ensures that we've captured all the salient information about a program before moving forward with code generation which is the subject of the 0.3.0 release.

XPS 0.1.6 Released

Reid Spencer — Wed, 18 Dec 2002 01:22:16 -0000

A new release of XPS has been completed. This release supercedes release 0.1.5 by fixing various compilation problems that occurred in non-debug configurations. For full details on the eXtensible Programming System, please visit the Source Forge project named extprosys.

XPS 0.1.5 Released

Reid Spencer — Mon, 16 Dec 2002 15:49:40 -0000

The first release of the eXtensible Programming System is now available. This version provides an initial version of the XPL Compiler that performs schema validation on XPL programs. The main focus of this release is to provide a sane build environment, various utilities, and a skeletal framework for the various XPS programs (xplc, xvm, xvmsh).

The next release 0.2.0 will provide a working version of xplc and better documentation.

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