[pypy-commit] pypy default: start a release announcement, help is welcome

[mattip]

Author: mattip <matti.picus at gmail.com>
Branch: 
Changeset: r73164:e8039184f11e
Date: 2014-08-29 16:52 +0300
http://bitbucket.org/pypy/pypy/changeset/e8039184f11e/

Log:	start a release announcement, help is welcome

diff --git a/pypy/doc/release-2.4.rst b/pypy/doc/release-2.4.rst
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pypy/doc/release-2.4.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
+=================================================
+PyPy 2.4 - ????????
+=================================================
+
+We're pleased to announce PyPy 2.4, a significant milestone on it's own right
+and the proud parent of our recent PyPy3 and STM releases.
+
+This release contains several improvements and bugfixes.
+
+You can download the PyPy 2.4 release here:
+
+    http://pypy.org/download.html
+
+We would like to thank our donors for the continued support of the PyPy
+project, and for those who donate to our three sub-projects.
+We've shown quite a bit of progress 
+but we're slowly running out of funds.
+Please consider donating more, or even better convince your employer to donate,
+so we can finish those projects!  The three sub-projects are:
+
+* `Py3k`_ (supporting Python 3.x): We have released a Python 3.2.5 compatable version
+   we call PyPy3 2.3.1, and are working toward a Python 3.3 compatable version
+
+* `STM`_ (software transactional memory): We have release a first working version, and
+continue to try out new promising paths of acheiving a fast multithreaded python
+
+* `NumPy`_ which requires installation of our fork of upstream numpy, available `on bitbucket`_
+
+.. _`Py3k`: http://pypy.org/py3donate.html
+.. _`STM`: http://pypy.org/tmdonate2.html
+.. _`NumPy`: http://pypy.org/numpydonate.html
+.. _`on bitbucket`: https://www.bitbucket.org/pypy/numpy   
+
+What is PyPy?
+=============
+
+PyPy is a very compliant Python interpreter, almost a drop-in replacement for
+CPython 2.7. It's fast (`pypy 2.3 and cpython 2.7.x`_ performance comparison;
+note that cpython's speed has not changed since 2.7.2)
+due to its integrated tracing JIT compiler.
+
+This release supports x86 machines running Linux 32/64, Mac OS X 64, Windows,
+and OpenBSD,
+as well as newer ARM hardware (ARMv6 or ARMv7, with VFPv3) running Linux. 
+
+While we support 32 bit python on Windows, work on the native Windows 64
+bit python is still stalling, we would welcome a volunteer
+to `handle that`_.
+
+.. _`pypy 2.3 and cpython 2.7.x`: http://speed.pypy.org
+.. _`handle that`: http://doc.pypy.org/en/latest/windows.html#what-is-missing-for-a-full-64-bit-translation
+
+Highlights
+==========
+
+Benchmarks improved after internal improvements in string and bytearray handling,
+and a major rewrite of the GIL handling. Many of these improvements are offshoots
+of the STM work.
+
+We merged in Python's 2.7.8 stdlib in a record time of one week, proving the
+maturity of our underlying RPython code base and PyPy interpreter.
+
+We welcomed more than 12 new contributors, and conducted two Google Summer of Code
+projects XXX details?
+
+Issues reported with our previous release were fixed after reports from users on
+our new issue tracker at https://bitbucket.org/pypy/pypy/issues or on IRC at
+#pypy. Here is a summary of the user-facing changes;
+for more information see `whats-new`_:
+
+* Reduced internal copying of bytearray operations
+
+* Tweak the internal structure of StringBuilder to speed up large string
+handling, which becomes advantageous on large programs at the cost of slightly
+slower small *benchmark* type programs.
+
+* Boost performance of thread-local variables in both unjitted and jitted code
+
+* Move to a mixed polling and mutex GIL model that make mutli-threaded jitted
+  code run *much* faster
+
+* Optimize errno handling in linux
+
+* Remove ctypes pythonapi and ctypes.PyDLL, which never worked on PyPy
+
+* Fix performance regression on ufunc(<scalar>, <scalar>) in numpy
+
+* Classes in the ast module are now distinct from structures used by the compiler,
+  which simplifies and speeds up translation of our source code to the PyPy binary
+  interpreter
+
+* Upgrade stdlib from 2.7.5 to 2.7.8
+
+* 
+
+* Many issues were resolved_ since the 2.3.1 release on June 8
+
+.. _`whats-new`: http://doc.pypy.org/en/latest/whatsnew-2.3.1.html
+.. _resolved: https://bitbucket.org/pypy/pypy/issues?status=resolved
+
+Please try it out and let us know what you think. We especially welcome
+success stories, we know you are using PyPy, please tell us about it!
+
+Cheers
+
+The PyPy Team
+