[Caml-list] First alpha release of OCaml 5.4.0

[Caml-list] First alpha release of OCaml 5.4.0

[Florian Angeletti]

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Dear OCaml users, 

Four months after the release of OCaml 5.3.0, the set of new features for the 
future version 5.4.0 of OCaml has been frozen. We are thus happy to announce 
the first alpha release for OCaml 5.4.0. 

This alpha version is here to help fellow hackers join us early in our bug 
hunting and opam ecosystem fixing fun (see below for the installation 
instructions). More information about the release process is available 
at https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/blob/trunk/release-info/introduction.md. 

The progresses on stabilising the ecosystem are tracked on the 
"opam readiness for 5.4.0 meta-issue" at 

https://github.com/ocaml/opam-repository/issues/27916 

The full release is expected around the end of July. There are more information 
available in the new prospective calendar at 

https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/blob/trunk/release-info/calendar.md . 

If you find any bugs, please report them on OCaml's issue tracker: 

https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues 

If you are interested in the ongoing list of new features and bug fixes, the 
updated change log for OCaml 5.4.0 is available on GitHub at 

https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/blob/5.4/Changes 

Happy hacking, 
Florian Angeletti for the OCaml team 


Installation Instructions 
------------------------------ 

The base compiler can be installed as an opam switch with the following commands 
on opam 2.1 and later: 

opam update 
opam switch create 5.4.0~alpha1 


The source code for the alpha is also available at these addresses: 

* GitHub: https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/archive/5.4.0-alpha1.tar.gz 
* OCaml archives at Inria: https://caml.inria.fr/pub/distrib/ocaml-5.4/ocaml-5.4.0~alpha1.tar.gz 

Fine-Tuned Compiler Configuration 
---------------------------------------------- 

If you want to tweak the configuration of the compiler, you can switch to the option variant with: 


opam update 
opam switch create <switch_name> ocaml-variants.5.4.0~alpha1+options <option_list> 


where `option_list` is a space separated list of `ocaml-option-*` packages. For instance, for a flambda and no-flat-float-array switch: 


opam switch create 5.4.0~alpha1+flambda+nffa ocaml-variants.5.4.0~alpha1+options ocaml-option-flambda ocaml-option-no-flat-float-array 


All available options can be listed with `opam search ocaml-option`. 


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[Caml-list] First beta release of OCaml 5.4.0

[Florian Angeletti]

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Dear OCaml users, 

Two months after the release of the first alpha for OCaml 5.4.0, the release of 
OCaml 5.4.0 is drawing near. 

The internal API of the compiler libraries has been frozen, and most core 
developer tools support (or will support soon) the new version of the compiler. 

We have thus released a first beta version of OCaml 5.4.0 to help you update 
your softwares and libraries ahead of the release (see below for the 
installation instructions). 

Compared to the first alpha release, this beta release brings two notable 
changes. First, this beta partially reverts the changes of symbol names in 
executable (in order to keep current version of `perf` working with OCaml 
executable). Second, this beta fixes a significant performance issue on Apple 
Silicon macOS. 

Beyond these two changes, this first beta release contains a dozen of 
small bug fixes (from the runtime to the error messages) which is usual for 
the stage of the release. We are expecting the release candidate to follow 
this beta release soon in the beginning of August. 

The progresses on stabilising the ecosystem are tracked on the opam readiness 
for 5.4.0 meta-issue: https://github.com/ocaml/opam-repository/issues/27916. 

The full release is expected in the middle of August (see the new prospective 
calendar at https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/blob/trunk/release-info/calendar.md) 
for more information). 

If you find any bugs, please report them on OCaml's issue 
tracker: https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues . 

If you are interested in full list of features and bug fixes of the new OCaml 
version, the updated change log for OCaml 5.4.0 is available at 
https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/blob/5.4/Changes. 

Happy hacking, 
Florian Angeletti for the OCaml team 

Installation Instructions 
------------------------ 

The base compiler can be installed as an opam switch with the following commands 
on opam 2.1 and later: 

opam update 
opam switch create 5.4.0~beta1 

The source code for the beta is also available at these addresses: 

* GitHub: https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/archive/5.4.0-beta1.tar.gz) 
* OCaml archives at Inria: https://caml.inria.fr/pub/distrib/ocaml-5.4/ocaml-5.4.0~beta1.tar.gz 

Fine-Tuned Compiler Configuration 
--------------------------------- 

If you want to tweak the configuration of the compiler, you can switch to the option variant with: 

opam update 
opam switch create <switch_name> ocaml-variants.5.4.0~beta1+options <option_list> 

where `option_list` is a space separated list of `ocaml-option-*` packages. For instance, for a flambda and no-flat-float-array switch: 

opam switch create 5.4.0~beta1+flambda+nffa ocaml-variants.5.4.0~beta1+options ocaml-option-flambda ocaml-option-no-flat-float-array 

All available options can be listed with `opam search ocaml-option`. 

Changes since the first alpha 
----------------------------- 

Code generation fixes 
--------------------- 

* (*breaking change*) #13050, #14104, +[#14143](https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues/14143): Use '$' instead of '.' to separate module names 
in symbol names on macOS and Windows (including the Cygwin backend). 
This changes mangling of OCaml identifiers on those operating systems from 
`camlModule.name_NNN` to `camlModule$name_NNN`. Additionally it 
changes the encoding of special characters from $xx (two hex digits) 
to $$xx (two dollar signs followed by two hex digits). 
(Tim McGilchrist, with contributions from Xavier Leroy, 
reviewed by Xavier Leroy, Miod Vallat, Gabriel Scherer, 
Nick Barnes and Hugo Heuzard) 

- [#14088](https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues/14088), [#14091](https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues/14091): fix non-deterministic code generation in 
matching.ml (backport of rescript-lang/rescript[#7557](https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues/7557)) 
(Christiano Calgano, review by Gabriel Scherer and Vincent Laviron) 

Performance fix 
-------------- 

- [#13262](https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues/13262), [#14074](https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues/14074): fix performance issue on Apple Silicon macOS by emitting 
`stlr` instead of `dmb ishld; str`. 
(KC Sivaramakrishnan, report by François Pottier, analysis by Frédéric Bour, 
Xavier Leroy, Miod Vallat, Gabriel Scherer and Stephen Dolan, review by Miod 
Vallat, Vincent Laviron and Xavier Leroy) 

Standard library fix: 
--------------------- 

* (*breaking change*) [#14124](https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues/14124): Do not raise Invalid_argument on negative List.{drop,take}. 
(Daniel Bünzli, review by Gabriel Scherer, Nicolás Ojeda Bär) 

Runtime fixes 
------------- 

- [#14057](https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues/14057): Don't update memprof too early at the end of a minor GC. 
(Nick Barnes, review by Damien Doligez). 

- [#13586](https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues/13586), [#14093](https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues/14093): Fix closing an out_channel during flush 
(Stephen Dolan, report by Jan Midtgaard, investigation by Nick Roberts, 
review by Antonin Décimo and Miod Vallat) 

Error message fixes 
------------------- 

- [#13956](https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues/13956) Fix a regression introduced in [#13308](https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues/13308) triggering wrong unused warnings. 
(Ulysse Gérard, review by Florian Angeletti) 

- [#14070](https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues/14070): also point to label mismatches in error messages for labelled tuples 
(Florian Angeletti, review by Gabriel Scherer) 

- [#14135](https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues/14135): Fix a rare internal typechecker error when combining recursive 
modules, polymorphic fields or methods, and constrained type parameters. 
(Florian Angeletti, review by Gabriel Scherer) 

Compilerlibs fixes 
------------------ 

- [#14105](https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues/14105): Fix a loop in Pprintast that could result in a hang when printing 
constructor `(::)` in isolation. 
(Ulysse Gérard, review by Nicolás Ojeda Bär and Florian Angeletti) 

- [#14108](https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues/14108): toplevel, fix a typo in directive type mismatch 
(Florian Angeletti, review by Gabriel Scherer) 

- [#14101](https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues/14101), [#14139](https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues/14139): define atomic helper types inside `caml/misc.h` to improve 
header compatibility with C++ 
(Florian Angeletti, report by Kate Deplaix, review by Gabriel Scherer) 

OCamldoc fix 
------------ 

- [#13896](https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues/13896), [#14098](https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues/14098): ocamldoc, do not wrap module description in a paragraph tag 
inside the table of modules 
(Florian Angeletti, report by John Whitington, review by Gabriel Scherer) 

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