Actor Foundry Mainpage

News

13 January 2000 Version 0.1.14 After a long wait (too long!), Foundry version 0.1.14 has finally been released. A few minor fixes have been added, the manual is a little closer to being finished, and a new shell command has been added.

21 July 1999 Version 0.1.13 Foundry version 0.1.13 is like 0.1.12 except for manual corrections to three java dependency files; minor changes to Makefile.in; version number changes in three README files; and changes to distribution mechanics file. Binary distributions were compiled without assertions.

13 July 1999 Version 0.1.12 Foundry version 0.1.12 includes bug-fixes; revisions to java dependency checks; and a tester package and Tester class that run a test set. Linux/Sparc/W98 binary distributions were compiled without assertions. New document foundry/docs/MAKING_NEW_FOUNDRY_RELEASE describes foundry distribution mechanics.

15 March 1999 Version 0.1.11 Version 0.1.11 of the foundry is out. This release features a few bug-fixes to ashell (thanks to Prasannaa Thati and Mario Veniero) as well as some improved documentation. Also, things are looking pretty stable so I compiled the binary distributions WITHOUT assertions this time. Let me know if you have problems (you should notice a speed increase if you use one of these distributions).
NOTE: See the notes in the link on the left for information about JDK 1.2 support.

21 January 1999 Version 0.1.10 Version 0.1.10 of the foundry is out. This is a relatively minor release which includes support for native implementations, slightly updated documentation, and substantial performance improvements on local message passing.

5 October 1998 Version 0.1.9 Version 0.1.9 of the foundry is finally out. Most of the remaining work before going stable consists of: finishing the manual and adding more assertions.

Old News

Release Schedule

How the Foundry is Released

Foundry releases are patterned after the Linux system for code release, numbered in the form major.minor.subminor with odd-numbered minor revisions being development releases and even-numbered minor revisions being stable releases. For example, 0.1.* releases are development releases. Version 0.2.0 will be the first stable release.

Development releases are test beds for new foundry features. Features found in development releases may vary from time to time. After an odd-minor-number development release is "feature frozen", further subminor releases may differ only via bug-fixes for extant features. After the development release stabilizes, it is copied to an even-numbered stable release. Patches to stable releases are bug fixes only.

	The current release is: 0.1.14
	The next scheduled patch date is: 2/15/2000

Reporting Bugs and Suggesting Tasks for the Next Release

Bugs and tasks are maintained in a GNATS database which may be accessed through these pages.

CLICK HERE TO REPORT A BUG OR SUBMIT A TASK FOR THE NEXT RELEASE.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE CURRENT LIST OF BUGS/TASKS AND THEIR STATUS.

Info & Docs

The following links provide information which describes how to use and program the Actor Foundry.

The Actor Foundry Quickstart

This document, contributed by Thomas Clausen, provides a quick overview of the foundry including several examples which illustrate how to start foundry nodes as well as execute foundry programs.

The Foundry Manual

This document is a partially completed manual describing all aspects of the Actor Foundry.

Foundry Package Documentation

Package documentation (generated by javadoc) for the latest release of the foundry appears with frames or without frames.

Applications

Applications that use the Foundry

The following table contains links and a brief description of projects that have been built using the Foundry. If you have a project you'd like mentioned, CLICK HERE.

Project	Description
example	Creates an actor and sends it 2 messages.

Downloads

Binary Distributions

Three "binary" distributions of the foundry are available. Only the latest release of the foundry is available as a binary distribution. A binary distribution consists of:

README: Various README files giving instructions on how to install and setup the distribution.
LICENSE: A description of the license restrictions governing the foundry.
foundry.conf: A sample configuration file for the foundry.
classes.zip: The .class files necessary to run the foundry.
src.zip: The complete Java source of the foundry.
bin/: Scripts and executables which are necessary to start the foundry.
lib/: Shared libraries for native class implementations.
docs/: Manuals and API (i.e. javadoc generated) documentation for the foundry.

Win32 Binary Distribution: New! foundry-0.1.14 [see notes 2 and 3]

SPARC/Solaris 2.7 Binary Distributions: New! foundry-0.1.14 [see note 1]

x86/Linux Binary Distribution (glibc): New! foundry-0.1.14 [see note 1]

Note 1: The Solaris and Linux distributions include "fshell", which is compiled against the Tcl8.* library. You'll need this library in order to run "fshell" in these distributions.

Note 2: The 0.1.14 Win32 distribution works with MS Windows 98 and MS Windows NT service pack 5 or later.

Note 3: The 0.1.14 Win32 distribution did not work with MS Windows NT service pack 3.

Source Distributions

The current foundry release can be downloaded as a tarred gzipped archive, or as a snapshot of current CVS development tree, or in binary distributions listed above. Early releases are available from the CVS development tree.

CVS Snapshots

All major and minor releases of the source are available via anonymous CVS. If you don't have CVS or don't know what it is, check out this link. CVS is available for most flavors of UNIX and there's even a version that runs on Windows 95 and its ilk. Here's what you do to download the source:

Login to the CVS Server: First log in to the server as cvsguest using the cvsguest account:
```
     cvs -d :pserver:cvsguest@osl.cs.uiuc.edu:/osl login
```
When you are prompted for a password, type `guest'.
Download the Source: Change to the directory where you want the foundry directory to be. CVS will create a foundry hierarchy when you download the source as follows:
```
     cvs -d :pserver:cvsguest@osl.cs.uiuc.edu:/osl checkout -r v0_1_14 foundry
```
where v0_1_14 may be replaced with whatever version you wish to obtain (releases v0_1_1 through v0_1_14 are currently available). If you want the latest version of the source you can omit the -r option as follows:
```
     cvs -d :pserver:cvsguest@osl.cs.uiuc.edu:/osl checkout foundry
```
Source obtained by omitting the -r option sometimes corresponds to the latest major or minor release, but during the weeks or days before a new release may be a transient version of no certain status. Most users should use tags as shown above and obtain tagged, tested foundry versions.

That's all there is to it. If you are interested in hacking on the foundry and submitting updates or patches, please see the maintaince guidelines above.

Mark Astley

Last modified: Thu Jan 13 10:05:34 EST 2000

	13 January 2000	Version 0.1.14	After a long wait (too long!), Foundry version 0.1.14 has finally been released. A few minor fixes have been added, the manual is a little closer to being finished, and a new shell command has been added.
	21 July 1999	Version 0.1.13	Foundry version 0.1.13 is like 0.1.12 except for manual corrections to three java dependency files; minor changes to Makefile.in; version number changes in three README files; and changes to distribution mechanics file. Binary distributions were compiled without assertions.
	13 July 1999	Version 0.1.12	Foundry version 0.1.12 includes bug-fixes; revisions to java dependency checks; and a tester package and Tester class that run a test set. Linux/Sparc/W98 binary distributions were compiled without assertions. New document foundry/docs/MAKING_NEW_FOUNDRY_RELEASE describes foundry distribution mechanics.
	15 March 1999	Version 0.1.11	Version 0.1.11 of the foundry is out. This release features a few bug-fixes to ashell (thanks to Prasannaa Thati and Mario Veniero) as well as some improved documentation. Also, things are looking pretty stable so I compiled the binary distributions WITHOUT assertions this time. Let me know if you have problems (you should notice a speed increase if you use one of these distributions). NOTE: See the notes in the link on the left for information about JDK 1.2 support.
	21 January 1999	Version 0.1.10	Version 0.1.10 of the foundry is out. This is a relatively minor release which includes support for native implementations, slightly updated documentation, and substantial performance improvements on local message passing.
	5 October 1998	Version 0.1.9	Version 0.1.9 of the foundry is finally out. Most of the remaining work before going stable consists of: finishing the manual and adding more assertions.

Old News

Old News