[LLVMdev] llvm 2.1 announcement draft

[Chris Lattner]

Hi All,

Here is my current draft of the LLVM 2.1 release announcement.   
Unlike previous announcements, I'm not planning to largely duplicate  
the release notes in the announcement.

In addition to this, I've checked in the first draft of the release  
notes into llvm/docs/ReleaseNotes.html (http://llvm.org/docs/ 
ReleaseNotes.html).

I'd really appreciate it if anyone who contributed to LLVM 2.1 could  
review the release notes and clean up the description of their (or  
others') contributions.  The ordering in the release notes isn't  
final, and feel free to add items that I've overlooked!

-Chris


Project Notes:
--------------

The LLVM 2.1 has many improvements, including three new front-ends,  
huge reduction in -O3 compile times, a new (beta) MIPS backend, and  
many optimizer/code generator changes that allow LLVM to produce  
better code.  In addition to new features, LLVM 2.1 includes a large  
number of bug fixes found by compiling a huge number of applications,  
OS kernels, and very large open source projects.

Organizationally, the LLVM 2.1 cycle is memorable for several  
reasons.  In this release we switched from CVS to SVN, moved llvm-gcc  
to the main LLVM server (it used to be in a private repository which  
was mirrored publicly once a day), and grew the community very  
rapidly: we added many new commiters.  Another interesting metric is  
the the main LLVM repository (not counting llvm-gcc or other separate  
projects) crossed 500K LOC: http://llvm.org/nightlytest/locgraph.php? 
xsize=900&ysize=600 .

One of the highlights of this release cycle was the ability for many  
of us to get together to meet face to face at the 2007 LLVM Developer  
Meeting: http://llvm.org/devmtg/2007-05/ .  If you're interested,  
many great talks about LLVM are available on that page, including a  
great section where everyone introduces themselves to the world :).

In the end, the most exciting thing about the LLVM project is seeing  
all the ways that people apply the technology and having happy  
users.  If you're currently using LLVM for nifty things or are  
writing papers, please let us know.  There are a bunch of nice new  
publications available (see http://llvm.org/pubs/ ), but I am certain  
that we're missing some.  If you're using LLVM please let us know -  
*particularly* if there is something you don't like about it. :)

Instead of a including a listing of the major features in this  
announcement as I normally do, I'll point you to the LLVM 2.1 release  
notes [ http://llvm.org/docs/ReleaseNotes.html#whatsnew ] which  
includes the high-level items.

This release wouldn't be possible without many people in the LLVM
community: building new features, reporting bugs, testing the pre- 
release
bits, and contributing in many other ways.  Tanya (our release manager)
deserves a lot of credit for this being the smoothest and best  
release so
far, as well keeping our releases coming out on time!

If you have any questions or comments, please contact the LLVMdev
mailing list (llvmdev at cs.uiuc.edu)!

-Chris

Previous Announcement (LLVM 2.0):
http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/pipermail/llvm-announce/2007-May/000023.html