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| --- | ||
| layout: blog | ||
| post-type: blog | ||
| by: Martin Duhem, Guillaume Massé and Denys Shabalin | ||
| title: "What's new with Scala Native?" | ||
| --- | ||
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| It has been a little bit more than two months since Scala Native 0.1 has been | ||
| released. What's new in Scala Native? What should you expect for future | ||
| releases? | ||
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| ## Scala Native 0.2 | ||
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| In April, [Scala Native 0.2 was released][scala-native-0.2-release]. The main | ||
| focus of this release was to increase the coverage of classes from | ||
| the JDK, such that that more programs can be ported to Scala Native without any further | ||
| effort. | ||
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| ### Improvements to the standard library | ||
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| * Support for file I/O APIs from `java.io` was added by [@Duhemm][@Duhemm] | ||
| from the Scala Center with help from [@cedricviaccoz][@cedricviaccoz] and | ||
| [@Korf74][@Korf74] in [#574][#574]. Scala Native now supports enough to read | ||
| and write files. | ||
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There was a problem hiding this comment. Could you lead into the code snippet better? E.g., "this is what it looks like now to do IO in Scala Native:" |
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| ```scala | ||
| import java.io.{DataInputStream, File, FileInputStream} | ||
| val fis = new FileInputStream(new File("hello.txt")) | ||
| val dis = new DataInputStream(fis) | ||
| println(dis.readLine()) | ||
| ``` | ||
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| * In [#588][#588], [@MasseGuillaume] from the Scala Center added support for | ||
| regular expressions. This implementation relies on Google's RE2 engine and | ||
| [uses a syntax slightly different from the JDK][scala-native-doc-regular-expressions]. | ||
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| ```scala | ||
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There was a problem hiding this comment. Same here^ (leading into the code snippet) There was a problem hiding this comment. Same code snippet as the one above? 🤔 |
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| import java.io.{DataInputStream, File, FileInputStream} | ||
| val fis = new FileInputStream(new File("hello.txt")) | ||
| val dis = new DataInputStream(fis) | ||
| println(dis.readLine()) | ||
| ``` | ||
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| * [@densh][@densh] added initial support for Scala's Futures in [#618][#618], | ||
| using an implementation similar to that of Scala.js, where Futures will be | ||
| completed after the `main` method is executed. | ||
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| ```scala | ||
| import java.util.concurrent.Future | ||
| import scala.concurrent.ExecutionContext.Implicits.global | ||
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| object Test { | ||
| def main(args: Array[String]): Unit = { | ||
| println("Start") | ||
| Future { | ||
| println("Hello from the Future") | ||
| }.foreach(_ => ()) | ||
| println("End") | ||
| } | ||
| } | ||
| ``` | ||
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| * Scala Native now supports pointer subtraction. This work has been | ||
| contributed by [@jonas][@jonas] in [#624][#624]. | ||
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There was a problem hiding this comment. Maybe explain what pointer subtraction in one sentence for those people who don't know anything about it? |
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| ```scala | ||
| val carr: Ptr[CChar] = toCString("abcdefg") | ||
| val cptr: Ptr[CChar] = string.strchr(carr, 'd') | ||
| println(cptr - carr) // prints '3' | ||
| ``` | ||
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| * [@ekrich][@ekrich] extended Scala Native's implementation of `String` to | ||
| support `toUpperCase` and `toLowerCase` in [#573][#573]. | ||
| * The implementation of `java.lang.Character` was extended to support | ||
| `Character.Subset` and `Character.UnicodeBlock` by [@densh][@densh] in | ||
| [#651][#651]. | ||
| * [@asoltysik][@asoltysik] implemented support for system properties in | ||
| [#591][#591]. | ||
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| ```scala | ||
| println(System.getProperty("java.version")) // prints '1.8' | ||
| println(System.getProperty("file.separator")) // '\' on Windows, | ||
| // '/' elsewhere | ||
| ``` | ||
| * Scala Native can now read environment variables using `System.getEnv`, | ||
| thanks to [@jonas][@jonas]' efforts in [#606][#606]. | ||
| * `stdin` and `stdout` can reliably be read from and written to, thanks to | ||
| [@fduraffourg][@fduraffourg] and [@densh][@densh] in [#622][#622] and | ||
| [#659][#659]. | ||
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| ### Bugfixes | ||
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| * A bugfix has been contributed by [@jonas][@jonas] to `String.replace`, | ||
| fixing one broken benchmark at the same time. His work can be found in | ||
| [#616][#616]. | ||
| * `System.nanoTime` was fixed by [@brad-rathke][@brad-rathke] in [#549][#549]. | ||
| * [@xuwei-k][@xuwei-k] fixed `nativeAvailableDependencies` which didn't work | ||
| in the `test` configuration in [#565][#565]. | ||
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| ### Improvements to the tooling and integration | ||
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| * [@MasseGuillaume][@MasseGuillaume] and [@densh][@densh] | ||
| worked on refactoring Scala Native's sbt plugin to make it more idiomatic in | ||
| [#568][#568] and [#630][#630], which lead to fixing [#562][#562]. | ||
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There was a problem hiding this comment. What's #562? More detail here please. |
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| * Follow up fixes were contributed by [@jonas][@jonas], and include [#639][#639] | ||
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There was a problem hiding this comment. This isn't helpful. Please explain in prose what these PRs do. |
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| and [#653][#653]. | ||
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| ### Preparing for a better garbage collector | ||
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| In this release, [@LukasKellenberger][@LukasKellenberger] introduced in | ||
| [#539][#539] a new setting in the sbt plugin that lets users select what | ||
| implementation of the garbage collector should be used. Currently, BoehGC | ||
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| and no GC are supported. | ||
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There was a problem hiding this comment. I'd put it a bit differently. "It lets you to completely disable the garbage collector." |
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| This work was done in preparation for [the improved GC that will be shipped | ||
| with Scala Native 0.3][#726]! | ||
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| ## A community effort | ||
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| As shown, many of the improvements that were brought by Scala Native 0.2 have | ||
| been contributed by members of the vibrant community that is developing itself | ||
| around Scala Native. Thank you! | ||
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There was a problem hiding this comment. Can we make a list of the people who contributed to Scala Native? It'd also be cool to list the LOC added/removed to show that people are doing big things! There was a problem hiding this comment. We have a list of contributors for 0.2 in the end of https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/releases/tag/v0.2.0 |
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| The combination of these improvements was enough to get a prototype of | ||
| `scalafmt` running on Scala Native by [@olafurpg][@olafurpg], showing a blazing | ||
| fast startup time! | ||
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| <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"> | ||
| <p lang="en" dir="ltr"> | ||
| <a href="https://twitter.com/adriaanm">@adriaanm</a> | ||
| <a href="https://twitter.com/den_sh">@den_sh</a> | ||
| <a href="https://twitter.com/scala_native">@scala_native</a> OMG IT WORKS :D 30x faster! | ||
| <a href="https://t.co/M7V9udU5bT">pic.twitter.com/M7V9udU5bT</a> | ||
| </p> | ||
| — Ólafur Páll Geirsson (@olafurpg) | ||
| <a href="https://twitter.com/olafurpg/status/857559907876433920">April 27, 2017</a> | ||
| </blockquote> | ||
| <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> | ||
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| ## What to expect for Scala Native 0.3? | ||
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| The plans for the next release of Scala Native include a new garbage collector, | ||
| a better integration with sbt and more addition to the standard library. | ||
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| ### Improved garbage collector | ||
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| The first releases of Scala Native use Boehm GC. A new and improved garbage | ||
| collector has been under development by [@LukasKellenberger][@LukasKellenberger] | ||
| and will be presented at Scala Days during Denys' talk. Stay tuned! | ||
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There was a problem hiding this comment. I'd elaborate it a bit: There was a problem hiding this comment. I'd also link to Denys's talk and post the date of Scala Days, so that people who aren't closely following everything in the Scala universe know how soon they'll hear more about the new GC. |
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| The pull request introducing the new garbage collector can be found in | ||
| [#726][#726]. | ||
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| ### Running tests from sbt | ||
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| Currently, testing frameworks such as utest or scalacheck cannot be used with | ||
| Scala Native. An effort to enable support for sbt-compatible testing | ||
| frameworks has been undertaken by [@Duhemm][@Duhemm] from the Scala Center and | ||
| is expected to land in Scala Native's third release. | ||
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| ### Support for `java.nio`, `java.util.{jar, zip}` | ||
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| The existing I/O capabilities of Scala Native have been extended in this | ||
| release by adding support for the classes defined in the packages `java.nio`, | ||
| `java.util.jar` and `java.util.zip`. | ||
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| ### Smaller binaries | ||
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| In [#686][#686], [@densh][@densh] started work to reduce the size of the | ||
| binaries compiled by Scala Native, using a technique called selector-based | ||
| row displacement. | ||
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| These improvements make the dispatch table 10 times smaller. | ||
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There was a problem hiding this comment.
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| ## 0.4 and beyond | ||
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| Some features are already in the works for Scala Native 0.4. | ||
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| ### Windows support | ||
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| [@muxanick][@muxanick] has been working on a port of Scala Native to Windows. | ||
| The advancement of his work can be consulted in [#691][#691]. | ||
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| ### Automatic binding generation | ||
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| A prototype of [automatic binding generation][#642] is in development by | ||
| [@jonas][@jonas]. The goal is to be able to generate automatically bindings | ||
| for C libraries. For instance, given the following C header `test.h`: | ||
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| ```C | ||
| enum color { | ||
| RED = 1, | ||
| GREEN, | ||
| BLUE = 100 | ||
| }; | ||
| typedef int SomeInt; | ||
| char *strchr(const char *s, int c); | ||
| ``` | ||
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| We want to generate the following definitions: | ||
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| ```scala | ||
| @extern | ||
| object Test { | ||
| object color { | ||
| val RED = 1 | ||
| val GREEN = 2 | ||
| val BLUE = 100 | ||
| } | ||
| type SomeInt = CInt | ||
| def strchr(s: CString, c: CInt): CString = extern | ||
| } | ||
| ``` | ||
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| Ultimately, this tool will make it much easier to providing bindings for C's | ||
| stdlib and external libraries. | ||
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| [scala-native-0.2-release]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/releases/tag/v0.2.0 | ||
| [@asoltysik]: https://github.com/asoltysik | ||
| [@brad-rathke]: https://github.com/brad-rathke | ||
| [@cedricviaccoz]: https://github.com/cedricviaccoz | ||
| [@densh]: https://github.com/densh | ||
| [@Duhemm]: https://github.com/Duhemm | ||
| [@ekrich]: https://github.com/ekrich | ||
| [@fduraffourg]: https://github.com/fduraffourg | ||
| [@jonas]: https://github.com/jonas | ||
| [@Korf74]: https://github.com/Korf74 | ||
| [@LukasKellenberger]: https://github.com/LukasKellenberger | ||
| [@MasseGuillaume]: https://github.com/MasseGuillaume | ||
| [@muxanick]: https://github.com/muxanick | ||
| [@olafurpg]: https://github.com/olafurpg | ||
| [@xuwei-k]: https://github.com/xuwei-k | ||
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| [scala-native-doc-regular-expressions]: http://scala-native.readthedocs.io/en/latest/lib/javalib.html?highlight=regex#regular-expressions-java-util-regex | ||
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| [#539]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/539 | ||
| [#549]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/549 | ||
| [#562]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/562 | ||
| [#565]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/565 | ||
| [#568]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/568 | ||
| [#573]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/573 | ||
| [#574]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/574 | ||
| [#588]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/588 | ||
| [#591]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/591 | ||
| [#606]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/606 | ||
| [#616]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/616 | ||
| [#618]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/618 | ||
| [#621]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/621 | ||
| [#622]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/621 | ||
| [#624]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/624 | ||
| [#630]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/630 | ||
| [#639]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/639 | ||
| [#642]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/642 | ||
| [#651]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/651 | ||
| [#653]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/653 | ||
| [#659]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/659 | ||
| [#686]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/686 | ||
| [#691]: https://github.com/scala-native/scala-native/pull/691 | ||
| [#726]: https://github.com/scala-native/scal-anative/pull/726 | ||
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Could you expand more on what this means for the layman? Let's say someone doesn't know anything about Scala Native at all. What does this mean to them? It means you can use more Java classes that you're already used to using in Scala Native.
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Since you go on to detail the stuff you added to Scala Native, I'd add a sentence at the end here which better leads into the rest of the article. Because it doesn't really connect well at the moment.
E.g.,:
What parts of Java do we now support in Scala Native? Lots! We've added support for IO and regular expressions: