Alice 1.0 released

[Andreas Rossberg]

We are happy to announce version 1.0 of the Alice programming
system:

      http://www.ps.uni-sb.de/alice/

Alice ML is a functional programming language that enriches the
statically typed, closed functional world of ML with extensive
support for type-safe programming of concurrent, distributed
and open systems. It also features cutting-edge constraint
programming technology in the tradition of Oz/Mozart.

Alice ML is a mostly conservative extension of Standard ML
featuring:

   Futures
      selective laziness and light-weight concurrency with
      implicit dataflow synchronisation
   Higher-order modules
      higher-order functors and abstract signatures
   Packages
      dynamically typed ML modules as first-class values
   Pickling
      type-safe, generic & platform-independent marshalling,
      including code, types and full modules
   Components
      type-safe lazy dynamic linking across the Internet
   Distribution
      type-safe remote functions and network mobility
   Constraints
      constraint propagation and programmable search for
      solving hard combinatorical problems
   Virtual Machine
      portable implementation with support for just-in-time
      compilation
   Interactive tools
      graphical browsers for data structures and search spaces

The highlights of this release are:

   SEAM Virtual Machine
      A newly designed VM with support for just-in-time compilation
      improves execution speed by a factor of up to 5 compared to
      previous versions. Mozart is no longer required to run Alice.
      [http://www.ps.uni-sb.de/seam/]
   GECODE Constraint Library
      Constraints are now based on Gecode, an up-coming, cutting-edge
      constraint library that is more than 10 times faster than the
      previous implementation and features a significant number of
      new, state-of-the-art constraints. [http://www.gecode.org]
   Graphical Tools
      Inspector and Explorer have been reimplemented, providing
      more functionality and better looks.
   Component Model Overhaul
      The component system has been cleaned up and is now more
      flexible. Components are fully dynamic.
   Standard Library
      Now contains all mandatory modules of the Standard ML Basis.
      [http://www.standardml.org/Basis]

For a detailed list of changes see:

      http://www.ps.uni-sb.de/alice/download/CHANGES

Alice is open source under a BSD-style license. Binary packages
are currently available for Linux and Windows.

Enjoy,

         - The Alice Team