[pypy-commit] pypy default: First attempt at listing what we did.

[arigo]

Author: Armin Rigo <arigo at tunes.org>
Branch: 
Changeset: r55448:a76be724bd46
Date: 2012-06-06 22:05 +0200
http://bitbucket.org/pypy/pypy/changeset/a76be724bd46/

Log:	First attempt at listing what we did.

diff --git a/pypy/doc/release-1.9.0.rst b/pypy/doc/release-1.9.0.rst
--- a/pypy/doc/release-1.9.0.rst
+++ b/pypy/doc/release-1.9.0.rst
@@ -3,11 +3,77 @@
 ====================
 
 We're pleased to announce the 1.9 release of PyPy. This release brings mostly
-bugfixes, small improvements and overall progress on the `numpypy`_ effort.
+bugfixes, performance improvements, other small improvements and overall
+progress on the `numpypy`_ effort.
 It also brings an improved situation on windows and OS X.
 
-First of all we would like to thank you to all people who donated their money.
-Even though most of the work is not finished yet and in fact, didn't even
-make it to this release, we ...
+You can download the PyPy 1.9 release here:
+
+    http://pypy.org/download.html 
 
 .. _`numpypy`: http://pypy.org/numpydonate.html
+
+
+What is PyPy?
+=============
+
+PyPy is a very compliant Python interpreter, almost a drop-in replacement for
+CPython 2.7. It's fast (`pypy 1.9 and cpython 2.7.2`_ performance comparison)
+due to its integrated tracing JIT compiler.
+
+This release supports x86 machines running Linux 32/64, Mac OS X 64 or
+Windows 32.  Windows 64 work is still stalling, we would welcome a volunteer
+to handle that.
+
+.. _`pypy 1.9 and cpython 2.7.2`: http://speed.pypy.org
+
+
+Thanks to our donators
+======================
+
+But first of all, we would like to say thank you to all people who
+donated some money to one of our four calls:
+
+  * `NumPy in PyPy`_ (got so far $44502 out of $60000)
+
+  * `Py3k (Python 3)`_ (got so far $43563 out of $105000)
+
+  * `Software Transactional Memory`_ (got so far $21791 of $50400)
+
+  * as well as our general PyPy pot.
+
+Thank you all for proving that it is indeed possible for a small team of
+(inexpensive) programmers to get funded like that, at least for some
+time.  We want to include this thank you in the present release
+announcement even though most of the work is not finished yet.  More
+precisely, neither Py3k nor STM are ready to make it an official release
+yet: people interested in them need to grab and (attempt to) translate
+PyPy from the corresponding branches (respectively ``py3k`` and
+``stm-thread``).
+
+
+Highlights
+==========
+
+* This release still implements Python 2.7, using the standard library of
+  CPython 2.7.2.
+
+* Many bugs were corrected for Windows 32 bit.  This includes new
+  functionality to test the validity of file descriptors; and
+  correct handling of the calling convensions for ctypes.  (Still not
+  much progress on Win64.)
+
+* Improvements in ``cpyext``, our emulator for CPython C extension modules.
+  For example PyOpenSSL should now work.
+
+* Sets now have strategies just like dictionaries. This means for example
+  that a set containing only ints will be more compact (and faster).
+
+* A lot of progress on various aspects of ``numpypy``.
+
+* The non-x86 backends for the JIT are progressing but are still not
+  merged (ARMv7 and PPC64).
+
+
+
+XXX should we do something with whatsnew-1.9.txt?