[Viana-pm] Parrot 0.4.7

[Alberto Simões]

On behalf of the Parrot team, I'm proud to announce Parrot 0.4.7!

What is Parrot? Parrot is a virtual machine aimed at running all dynamic 
languages. The Parrot project home page is parrotcode.org. You may now 
grab Parrot 0.4.7 from: 
http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/CHIPS/parrot-0.4.7.tar.gz

New in Parrot 0.4.7:

     * New languages: PHP ("Plumhead"), Forth
     * Updated languages: Ruby ("Cardinal"), Tcl, Lua
     * Active Python language development is hosted at 
pirate.tangentcode.com
     * Compilers:
           o PGE updated with more expressions, latest changes to S05
           o new Perl6 grammar compiler
     * Integration:
           o Perl 5 module "Parrot::Embed" allows easy embedding of a 
Parrot runtime into a Perl 5 program
     * PIR:
           o new :init pragma for subs that must run before the main 
function
           o new :vtable pragma to identify subs that override PMC 
vtable methods, eliminating the need for special subroutine names
           o PIR parser/compiler does not stop on first syntax error
           o Vanilla register allocator ("register alligator") greatly 
improves performance compiling large functions
           o Eliminated limit on number of PIR macros
     * PMCs:
           o hash lookups return null instead of None for missing keys
     * Design:
           o PDD13 "Bytecode files: format and manipulation" - new
           o PDD10 "Embedding" - new
           o PDD25 "Concurrency" - rewritten
           o PDD15 "Objects" - new section on redesign requirements
           o PDD07 "Coding standards" - significant updates and 
automated tests
     * Test Suite:
           o Many many more new tests
     * Build Process:
           o autoconf compatible install options
     * Misc:
           o Namespace refinements
           o Coroutine improvements
           o An impressive swarm of other bugfixes and enhancements

If you'd like to develop on Parrot (or help develop Parrot itself), we 
recommend that you keep up with the latest and best Parrot code by using 
Subversion or SVK to access our source code repository; see instructions).

Thanks to all our contributors for making this possible, and our 
sponsors for supporting this project.

Share & Enjoy!

Chip