prc-tools-announce Mailing List for GCC for Palm OS

Version 2.3 of prc-tools has been released.  Source code and binary
packages (for x86 Linux and Microsoft Windows) are available from

	http://prc-tools.sourceforge.net/

New features include a substantially rewritten (partial) standard C
library, new utilities and updates to various existing ones, and an
update to the current releases of binutils, GDB, and, on the ARM
side, GCC.  For further details, see

	http://prc-tools.sourceforge.net/releases.html

The various packages available have the following MD5 checksums:

efd6ba91d23b5f5e67b3b2217dd74894  prc-tools-2.3-1.i386.rpm
ae1d0e0b2aad3ceeb163c4170f322a2c  prc-tools-2.3-1.nosrc.rpm
fb7bef9542d3ce6957535fd8315fcf0f  prc-tools-2.3-cygwin.tar.bz2
038a42a71a984fee6f906abc85a032ec  prc-tools-2.3.tar.gz
dad8cf5ea0a3fdf0c4973fbee628a1e5  prc-tools-arm-2.3-1.i386.rpm
3bc19ac45a9aaee9f790b67f63f8cf97  prc-tools-arm-2.3-cygwin.tar.bz2
982e9fad55c81b90fecfd27fb51e8a6b  prc-tools-htmldocs-2.3-1.noarch.rpm
bfe8f60a69b5ccfa3d247567150d463a  prc-tools-htmldocs-2.3-cygwin.tar.bz2
92ad5fa75398894d0d9e4614b66b711a  prc-tools-htmldocs-2.3.zip

The RPM packages and this announcement have been signed with the PGP/GPG
key 1024D/AC686552, which is available from, amongst other places:

	http://wwwkeys.pgp.net:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xAC686552
	http://prc-tools.sourceforge.net/misc/jmarshall.asc

    John

Version 2.2 of prc-tools has been released.  Source code and binary
packages (for x86 Linux and Microsoft Windows) are available from

       	http://prc-tools.sourceforge.net/

The major new feature is the inclusion of an ARM compiler (in an optional
subpackage) for those who wish to build armlets.  There are also new
features facilitating the building of stand-alone code resources in
general, and thus specifically both armlets and HackMaster hacks.

There are also minor improvements in various error messages, particularly
for single code resource applications hovering around the 32K mark, and
to catch obvious mistakes in build-prc use such as trying to build an
application without supplying a 'code' #1 resource.

For further details, see

   	http://prc-tools.sourceforge.net/releases.html

    John

Version 2.1 of prc-tools has been released.  Source code and binary
packages (for x86 Linux and Microsoft Windows) are available from

	http://prc-tools.sourceforge.net/
	
One major new "feature" for new users, on both Windows and Linux, is
greater ease of installation.  On Windows, directory layout changes in
prc-tools have combined with new functionality of Cygwin's setup utility
to streamline the installation procedure.  On Linux, binaries are now
built on Red Hat 7.2 and link against current versions of libncurses,
instead of requiring an old ncurses-compat package to mimic Red Hat 6.x.

Major new usage features include a new more robust and flexible way
of specifying the locations of SDKs and the like, bug fixes to the
libnoexcept.a C++ support library, and the reinstatement of GLib
buildability (but see the release notes).  For more of a full list,
see
	http://prc-tools.sourceforge.net/releases.html

    John

A new Linux build (in RPM format) of the current (2.1pre2) prc-tools
development code in CVS is now available.  This is a precursor to the
forthcoming release of 2.1.

This prerelease fixes many of the small problems in the 2.0 release:

* All the fixes from the 2.1pre1 release.  See

	http://www.escribe.com/computing/pcpqa/m31038.html

* A new mechanism for handling the "-palmosX" option, which is more
  robust, gives better error messages, and handles "-palmos4" for the
  upcoming Palm OS 4.0 SDK without mucking around in config files.

* Support in m68k-palmos-stubgen for generating assembly language SysLib
  dispatch tables from an export list in the project's definition file.
  (Similar support for GLibs is partially there and is still "coming
  real soon now".)

You can download this prerelease via http://prc-tools.sourceforge.net/

I suggest that people new to prc-tools on Linux use this one rather than
the 2.0 release.  People who have run into the problems mentioned above
will probably want to upgrade.

If you are building from source, there is also a source RPM and a tarball
of the versions used to build this release, or, as always, the latest
versions are available from CVS.

    John

As mentioned in my PalmSource talk on Friday, a Linux binary build (in
RPM format) of the current prc-tools CVS is now available.  This is a
precursor to the forthcoming release of 2.1.

This prerelease fixes many of the small problems in the 2.0 release:

* Multiple code resource applications resident in Flash or on Springboard
  modules no longer crash on exit.

* Floating point libraries are no longer broken.

* Tools are built with non-shared C++ support, solving the "shared library
  not found" problems found when trying to run build-prc or obj-res on
  Linux Mandrake.

* Build-prc option handling corrections, including correctly decoding the
  resource type and id from "subdir/tFRM03e8.bin".

* Build-prc can now read files in PRC format.

It does *not* include these major intended features of 2.1:

* GLibs.  (Much of the groundwork is in place.)

* Build-prc facilities for shared libraries and hacks and the like.

You can download this prerelease via http://prc-tools.sourceforge.net/
Be sure to read the release notes.

I suggest that people new to prc-tools on Linux use this one rather than
the 2.0 release.  People who have run into the problems mentioned above
will probably want to upgrade.

If you are building from source, there is also a source RPM and a tarball
of the versions used to build this release, or, as always, the latest
versions are available from CVS.

    John