Cobra March 2009 Update

The update for March has been posted. Most notable are HTML syntax highlighting of source files and new sample programs.

Cobra February 2009 Update

February's update includes mixins, lambdas, constants and new documentation. Check out the Cobra February 2009 Update for more information. Or dive in now by getting the latest and exploring the docs and the wiki.

Informal Releases

I've decided to start a lightweight process I call "Informal Releases" which can be made quickly and which leverage the existing install-from-workspace script. However, you don't have to use Subversion to get such a release. You just download a zip file.

Making such a release is much less work for me than an official one, so I expect to make 1 - 4 of these per month. They don't replace the future official releases such as Cobra 0.9, 0.9.1, 1.0, etc. But they do give you early access to new features.

This is for folks are not comfortable installing Cobra out of a Subversion workspace. It's easy enough to do, but users may prefer to download a hand-picked snapshot instead.

Another route could have been to fully automate the build of a nightly package, but then you don't know if you're downloading a stable package when it's blindly made at the same time every day. In contrast, I'll cut an informal release when I'm fairly confident that the Cobra source repository is stable and has something worthwhile to offer over the last one.

You can, of course, continue to use a Subversion workspace.

There is a discussion thread on this topic which includes the link to Cobra 2009-03-01.

Cobra January 2009 Update

January's work was all about refinements. Fixes, better error messages, more docs, etc. Check out the Cobra January 2009 Update for more information. Or dive in now by getting the latest and exploring the docs and the wiki.

Cobra December 2008 Update

Cobra now supports extension methods on generic types, along with several refinements to the language and libraries. Check out the Cobra December 2008 Update for more information.

Cobra November 2008 Update

Cobra now has closures, streams, generic method constraints and more. Check out the Cobra November 2008 Update for more information.

Cobra October Update

Cobra has a new "install-from-workspace" script that is quite handy, and I've posted a Cobra October Update in the discussion forums.

Cobra 0.8 Is Out

Cobra 0.8 is out now. Get it from the downloads page (there are packages for Windows and Unix-like systems). Bugs that blocked the usage of GTK# and Tao have been fixed, so it'll be interesting to see what people do with Cobra and those libraries.

If you haven't discovered the forums yet, check 'em out.

I haven't been blogging much because I've been way too busy working on the compiler in response to feedback. While "1.0" is still a long way off, I feel like I can breathe a bit easier with these various improvements in place. Feedback for Cobra has been largely positive, and it's getting better as Cobra matures.

Tonight I reviewed How to Learn Cobra to see if it needed an update. While it still exhibits the most uninspired page layout possible, the content is totally legit. If you follow the steps, you will definitely become a Cobra coder.

Forums and Press Coverage

InfoWorld has covered Cobra with a general overview and a catchy title.

But I would have preferred "Cobra is faster and more deadly than Python".   :-)

And discussion forums are up! This is the main place for all Cobra discussion. After registering, check for your verification email in both your in-box and your spam folder.

New Cobra

I thought January's release of Cobra would be a 0.0.1 increment, but the progress was substantial enough to call it "0.7". See for yourself in the release notes and get yourself a copy!

In other news:

I added a section that I had forgotten in the Comparison to Python about how Cobra defaults to accurate arithmetic. Adding 0.1 to itself 10 times does not equal 0.999999...

There is a new sample that implements a FORTH interpreter. It needs a lot more work, but it's a good start with support for word definitions.

In less than 10 hours I fly out to Washington for Lang.NET 2008. I'm looking forward to geeking out about languages, compilers, interpreters and more. But I'm disappointed that the Spec# team won't be presenting as they did last time. Cobra also does contracts and I hope to integrate with their static analysis tool at some point.

Getting back to the Cobra language and compiler, I fell shy of the necessary clean up to open the source code, but I'm getting close. So when I get back the plans are:

• Open the source code some time in February. (MIT license)


• Install Trac for issue tracking and wiki.


• Set up discussion forums.


• Get new blogging software?

And then it's on to the next version!

Where's Cobra?

The next version of Cobra is still on my hard drive because I'm obsessed with fixing warts and bugs in it. What I'm doing is making the next release more practical for you to sink your teeth into and offer meaningful feedback. (Of course, I make offsite backups to avoid catastrophe!)

The release notes, which I write concurrent to the work, are fairly long and this looks like it will be the largest release yet. Test cases are up to 454 and rising.

I don't have an ETA, but it will be at least two more weeks and possibly longer.

Also, Cobra will be going open source in the future with either the MIT or BSD license. The compiler itself is written in Cobra and much of the source is in an older coding style from when Cobra was less mature so I'll be cleaning that up first. I expect to open the source no later than release 0.7, but hopefully earlier as an independent event.

In non-Cobra news, I've become one of "The Three Hundred". $85/month is a pretty cheap price for longevity!

The 400

Forget about the 300... Cobra hit 400... test cases tonight. It looks like a nice, strong number when the test suite finishes:

400 Tests in 00:04:40.7474784.
Success.

I suppose there are really 401 since the compiler is written in Cobra and forms the last and most complex test case.
So Cobra 0.5 is coming up. It will feature:

• A new trace statement to aid debugging (think "print statements on steroids").


• Support for optional dynamic typing. Pick static or dynamic at your pleasure.


• Better error checking and messages.


• Better "cobra -test" behavior.


• The usual round of refinements and bugfixes.

I'm in the home stretch for this release with more testing, documentation and packaging to do. And I'm pretty excited about carrying Cobra all the way to a 1.0 release this year!

Cobra 0.4 Released, "Why Cobra?"

Cobra 0.4 has been released:

Download Page

Cobra 0.4 Release Notes

Also, a Why Cobra? document has been added and Coding for Quality has been broken out so that it can be directly linked to (it's important).

Feedback is always welcome:
contact -AT- cobralang -DOT- com

Cobra Discussion and Upcoming Release

Some interesting discussion about Cobra is taking place at reddit. Of course, it includes the obligatory dismissal of any language that is new. :-)

The next release is in 2-3 weeks.

New Compiler, New Computer

Yesterday, I released Cobra 0.2. This is the new compiler written in Cobra itself and delivered as a .NET exe (previous versions were Python programs).

Now Cobra will return to a fairly regular release schedule of once per month.

Today, I received a new MacBook Pro 17" 3GB Intel Core 2 Duo. It's bad to the bone. Assuming that Mono runs on it, all future Cobra releases will be tested on Novell Mono on Mac as well as Microsoft .NET on XP Pro. In fact, I plan on running a copy of XP Pro on Parallels on Mac OS X so I can literally use both operating systems at once. I'll have ready access to all that is Mac as well as Visual Studio 2005. Search the Internet and you'll find several existing blog posts of people doing this successfully. In fact, that was the tipping point for me to finally take the plunge into Mac.

By the way, I was a major NeXTstep user back in the day. It feels good to "come home."

Comparison to Python

I have added a Comparison to Python essay on CobraLang.com. This will help Python programmers understand the point of Cobra, including in contrast to IronPython.

New Cobra Compiler

Regarding the new, upcoming Cobra compiler written in Cobra, it will be released this month (November). There will be some minor refinements to the language, improved error checking, faster compilation and the Python dependency will be removed.

I'm about 80%-90% of the way there. I'm really looking forward to getting back to pushing the features and maturity forward after this release.

Rewriting Cobra in Cobra

The current compiler for the Cobra programming language is written in Python, but I'm part way through rewriting the compiler in Cobra itself so I can benefit from increased performance, software contracts, static typing, compile-time nil checking and more. This will also remove the Python dependency for users of Cobra.

After the new compiler catches up to the old compiler's capabilities, I will be continuing with new features including optional dynamic typing. I'm a big fan of Objective-C's support for both static and dynamic typing in the same language. The developer, not the language designer, should decide how much static or dynamic binding goes on in his software.

http://CobraLang.com/