Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Franz's (+ Lisp Graph) Newsletter - December 2016



In this issue

Allegro CL 10.1 - Call for Beta Testers
acl 10 beta logo

ACL 10.1 New Features

  • 64-bit Linux ARM (aka ARM64 or ARMv8): both SMP and non-SMP
  • New external format: GB18030
  • For macOS and Windows: executable signing
  • Character tables updated to Unicode 9.0.0
  • OpenSSL is dynamically loaded rather than statically linked (this was available as a patch, so you can remove this if you want)
  • defstruct slot-option validation
  • xmlrpc now uses the SAX parser rather than the older, deprecated XML parser
  • The IDE's trace dialog reports the elapsed time for each traced call
  • Iimplements "grab_fast_mutex" for all architectures, leading to performance improvements for multiprocessing on some architectures
  • GC improvements
    • find-gcpath: A new tool to help locate the reason specific objects are being kept alive across garbage collections (see documentation)
    • collected-newstuff: A tool to help analyze the heap allocations made while executing a block of code. (see documentation)
    • Handle exceptions during gc: Exceptions during gc are now reported, with a mechanism for using a low-level (non-lisp) debugger to analyze the problem
    • Misc performance enhancements for the global gc
  • With more than 200 fixes and 150 enhancements (see the release notes for the highlights), this release focuses on stability and some important new features.
Users interested in becoming beta testers should contact info@franz.com for more information.

Tech Corner Article: The New Interface to OpenSSL
openssl-logo
The interface between Allegro CL and OpenSSL was significantly changed in updates released in July, 2016. Before the update, an OpenSSL library was included with the Allegro CL distribution and newer OpenSSL libraries had to be included in an Allegro CL update before they could be used. Now, OpenSSL libraries are loaded dynamically on startup so Allegro CL and its applications can benefit from new releases as soon as they become available.

See The new interface to OpenSSL for more information about this change.

The 10th European Lisp Symposium, April 3-4, Brussels, Belgium
European Lisp Symposium
The purpose of the European Lisp Symposium is to provide a forum for the discussion and dissemination of all aspects of design, implementationand application of any of the Lisp and Lisp-inspired dialects, including Common Lisp, Scheme, Emacs Lisp, AutoLisp, ISLISP, Dylan, Clojure, ACL2, ECMAScript, Racket, SKILL, Hop and so on. We encourage everyone interested in Lisp to participate.
This year's ELS will be co-located with the Programming 2017 Conference!


For additional information about the conference, see here.

The Express Version's Expiration Date has been Updated
acl logo
The original 10.0 Express expired on 2016-12-16. Downloads after August 15, 2016 include a license that expires on 2017-12-16. If you downloaded prior to August 15, 2016 and do not wish to download the new version, you can download just the new devel.lic and replace your current one with this new version. Look in your devel.lic for the Expiration date to find out if you need to update it. If you are not running version 10.0, then please download the latest Express version.


See here for additional information and to download the software.

KM World article - How does precision medicine become a reality?
KMW logo
One of the prominent problems plaguing the current healthcare system is the narrow scope of patient data used to facilitate most aspects of care, from initial diagnoses to treatment. According to Dr. Parsa Mirhaji, director of clinical research informatics at Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the vast majority of research findings are based on averages of middle-aged white males: "We don't really know much about women, other ethnicities, children, you name it - there's no evidence," he says.
The White House launched The Precision Medicine Initiative in 2015 as a means of redressing the situation and expanding the breadth of patient data to personalize treatment for individuals and historically underrepresented groups. Achieving that objective requires not only amassing patient-specific data for wider demographics, but also storing, accessing and analyzing them with a number of avant-garde data management technologies...
See here to read the full article.

ODBMS Industry Watch article - On data analytics for finance. Interview with RavenPack's Jason S.Cornez
oodbms logo
Roberto V. Zicari interviews RavenPack's Chief Technology Officer - "Understanding human language remains a difficult problem. The challenges here are not only technical, but there is also a perception from popular culture that computers today perform at the level we see in science fiction. So there is a gap between what is expected and what is possible." - Jason S.Cornez.

Visit here to read the full article...

Building a Fun Ethereum Game, by Conrad Barski
Ethereum logo
Conrad Barski is building a Fun Ethereum Game. (Author's note: The goal of this series of posts will be to build a minimally viable multiplayer game on the ethereum blockchain, with support for scarce resources and appropriate protections against economic attacks.) Edwalt had finally found the nightshade, obsidian vapors, and mantis mushrooms he needed to open the magic portal into the next realm...


Visit his website to get in the game...

Recent Articles about Franz - AllegroGraph 


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Training Schedule
Gruff

LabBECOME ALLEGRO CERTIFIED - To obtain your Allegro CL Certification enroll in our LIVE Program which offers developers an opportunity to learn and improve their Lisp programming skills from the comfort of their home or office while interacting with the Franz instructor.
Lisp Programming Series Level I: Basic Lisp Essentials - Feburary 8, 15, and 22
Lisp Programming Series Level II: Specialized Components of Lisp - March 8, 15, and 22
For additional information and to register, see here.

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Allegro CL v10.1 Beta - Now Available

New Allegro CL 10.1 features

    • 64-bit Linux ARM (aka ARM64 or ARMv8): both SMP and non-SMP
    • For macOS and Windows: executable signing
    • Character tables updated to Unicode 9.0.0
    • OpenSSL is dynamically loaded rather than statically linked
    • defstruct slot-option validation
    • xmlrpc now uses the SAX parser rather than the older, deprecated XML parser
    • The IDE's trace dialog reports the elapsed time for each traced call
    • Implements "grab_fast_mutex" for all architectures, leading to performance improvements for multiprocessing on some architectures
    • GC improvements
      • find-gcpath: A new tool to help locate the reason specific objects are being kept alive across garbage collections
      • collected-newstuff: a tool to help analyze the heap allocations made while executing a block of code
      • Handle exceptions during GC: Exceptions during GC are now reported, with a mechanism for using a low-level (non-lisp) debugger to analyze the problem
      • Miscellaneous performance enhancements for the global GC
    • New external format: GB18030
    • Source-level stepper improvements (these are not yet documented but will be during the beta period):
      • Top-level stepper is less verbose and stays with source forms, instead of macroexpanding
      • IDE stepper is better integrated with the base Lisp, and shows steps more intuitively
    • With more than 200 fixes and 150 enhancements (see the release notes for the highlights), this release focuses on stability and some important new features.
Download  - http://franz.com/beta10.1_ae3527fb/index.lhtml