Short:        E compiler, r6b (24.11.2022)
Author:       Chris Handley
Uploader:     temp cshandley co uk
Type:         dev/e
Version:      r6b (24.11.2022)
Architecture: m68k-amigaos >= 3.0.0; ppc-amigaos >= 4.1.7; i386-aros; ppc-morphos; other

Portabl E is my recreation of AmigaE from scratch, along with most of the 
improvements I have wanted. And while AmigaE only worked on AmigaOS3, Portabl E 
also works on AmigaOS4, AROS, MorphOS, as well as even Linux & Windows!

Portabl E works by translating your E code into C++, and then using GCC to 
compile it into an executable that you can run. But you don't usually need to 
worry about those details, because the PEGCC program will do it for you. 
Portabl E does need an installation of GCC, which is free & easily installed.

Previous version of Portabl E were aimed at existing AmigaE users, but the 
r6 release of Portabl E aims to be attractive for new users too.

Current status
--------------
Portabl E is capable of generating code for the C++ language (as well as for 
AmigaE itself!), which is then compiled to a proper executable. It supports 
Linux, Windows, AmigaOS3, AmigaOS4, AROS & MorphOS.

Portabl E has native executables for Linux (64bit x86), Windows, AmigaOS3, 
AmigaOS4, AROS (x86) & MorphOS, because Portabl E is written in E itself!


It comes with portable modules to cover stuff like file & directory access, 
shell parameter parsing, graphics, sound & GUIs. These portable modules are NOT 
always supported by all OSes, especially not by Linux & Windows yet. You can 
find a complete list & description of all of them in the "Standard 
Functionality" document, but essentially Linux & Windows only supports 
Shell-like stuff.

Many Amiga modules are also provided for AmigaOS3/OS4/AROS/MorphOS.

For Amiga-like OSes, 256MB of installed memory is the recommended minimum.  A
stack of at least 100KB is also required.

The biggest recent changes
--------------------------
The changes in the r6b release:
* Amiga: Fixed the installer still failing at "Copying executables..." in some 
  cases.  Many thanks to Benedetto Lorello for reporting the bug & assisting 
  with testing (as it didn't happen for me).
* AmigaOS4: Worked-around a bug in the latest OS4 SDK (54.16), which has 
  problems compiling C++ code, unless you use GCC v6.4.0 .  Many thanks to 
  Benedetto Lorello for reporting the problem.

The changes in this r6a release:
* AmigaOS4: Fixed the 'std/cGui' module failing to compile (MUIA_Dtpic_Name
  not declared), due to the SDK not using MUI4+ by default.
* Linux: Fixed 32-bit hex values > $7FFFFFFF not being interpreted as 
  negative by the type checker.
* AROS: Fixed Install_AROS not offering to install the extra C header files
  (although they're not really needed).

The biggest changes since the last r6 beta release include:

* This is the finished r6 release, with the "beta" tag removed, although it 
  hasn't really been beta since the last couple of release.
* I've renamed the language from "PortablE" to "Portabl E" with a space, in the 
  hope of making it more easily searchable on the internet (as well as 
  clarifying how to pronounce it).  But the "PortablE" command name itself is 
  unchanged.
  
* Added basic Linux support (64bit x86 only), to the same level as Windows, i.e.
  Shell-only, with no graphics or internet access.  This was a major effort, 
  partly due to all the differences (64-bit pointers, case-sensitive filing 
  system, mount-points anywhere, etc), and partly due to all the C headers that 
  needed to be converted.
* Linux: PEGCC now supports cross-compilation (for Amiga & Windows) using the 
  TargetOS parameter, as long as an appropriate GCC cross-compiler is installed.
* Windows/Linux: In 'std/cPath', added a per-user Assignments.txt file, but 
  removed the per-program-start-folder Assignments.txt file.
  
* Programs will now compile using the latest SDK of AmigaOS4, AROS and MorphOS.
* All OS procedures that can support unlimited parameters now do so, including 
  the Amiga's SystemTags().
* AmigaOS3: No-longer needs a modified "intuition/classusr.h" file.
* Added the 'std/pUnsigned' module, to provide basic support for unsigned number
  types, and the example program "Examples/std/Shell/crc32.e".  Useful for 
  porting certain C algorithms.
* Added the procedures InStrNoCase(), BigMax(), BigMin(), BigFastMod(), 
  IsBigEndian() & IsLittleEndian().
* In 'std/pTime', improved CurrentTime() to take a timezone parameter.
  
* Fixed FastNew() (and so NEW) which would trash memory, instead of raising the 
  "MEM" exception, if it failed to allocate memory.  Thanks to Dimitris 
  Panokostas for reporting symptoms of this long-standing bug, especially as I 
  don't see out-of-memory errors on the OSes I normally use.
* Amiga: The installer would fail at "Copying executables..." if the 
  user-specified path for executables did not contain any (sub) folders, such as
  "C:" (which sadly was the default).  Many thanks to "Zendarion" for the bug 
  report.
* Windows: In 'std/pTime', CurrentTime() now returns the correct time when DST 
  is in effect.

See the main manual for what has changed since r5.  

Please see the History chapter of the main manual for more details.

Further information
-------------------
Portabl E comes with documentation, but you can always find the latest 
version & on-line documentation from it's homepage:
http://cshandley.co.uk/portable