
    Hereby, we proudly present the distribution of:

***********************************************************************
 *                                                                     *
  *                            GNU Sather                               *
   *                                                                     *
    ***********************************************************************

The project has just come out of the transition from  ICSI, where it was
started out and developed until Middle of 1998, to GNU, where it will be
developed in an open style in future.

Although I have done much work on this, there are still many points, where
the distribution does not yet meet GNU standards (like installation,
command-line options and even some of the required files.) Some points
will need a lot of work, others I simply did not think of, yet. Please
feel free to help out at that point, and - in any case - be patient with me...

This is a stable release, for which only bug-fixes and small changes are
taken, preferredly in form of patches to a recent version. If you have
patches to a release of ICSI Sather, you could take much work of us, if you
tried to work them into a recent version of GNU Sather yourself and send us
patches to that, (Of course, if you do not find the time to do that, we'll be
happy about the patches anyway...)

Be warned that a complete rework of Sather (esp. the library) is coming up
from a group in Waikato, New Zealand (beta release is planned end of 1999),
so any work you invest in this version might not make it into the new release.
Still, it may be some time until the new version comes up to production
quality, so bugfixes are still gladly accepted for this one.

***************************************************************************

Note for installation: The Boehm garbage collector has been taken out of
this package to be distributed, compiled and installed separately. See 
Doc/Installation.html for details.

***************************************************************************

The only platform this code is well tested on right now is Linux. If you
have possibilities to check the other Platforms we would be grateful for
a report on it. Also for future: All the platforms will only be maintained
to that extend as there is somebody who has access to some machine to test
it on. Right now, I only know of developers using Linux. If you use
something different, we'll be thankful for your help. Additional ports are
always welcome.

***************************************************************************

There may still be references and mail addresses at icsi.berkeley.edu.
People there are not active in Sather development any more, so you will
probably not want to contact them, but use the addresses mentioned below
in this file instead. Just file a bugreport, if you find such a old address.

***************************************************************************

For more information, see the files in Doc/ - they need much work as well,
but you might still find a lot of useful information in there anyway. 

***************************************************************************

If you want to get in contact with the GNU Sather developers, just look at
our Sather home site:

	http://www.gnu.org/software/sather

The newest version of this distribution can be found at:

	ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/sather

For questions and public discussion (on using Sather as well as on further
development of language and implementation) mail to our general mailing list:

	<info-sather@gnu.org>
	
(You can subscribe by sending a mail to <info-sather-request@gnu.org>,
subject: "subscribe")

The newsgroup

	comp.lang.sather
	
is mirrored both ways by this mailing list.

For bugreports and other things not meant for public discussion, mail to:

	bug-sather@gnu.org

Right now, mail to this address will simply reach me (Nobbi) directly.

***************************************************************************	

We really hope, you enjoy using Sather. If you want to contribute to our
effort in any way, you are welcome to join in.

            			    Norbert "Nobbi" Nemec <nobbi@gnu.org>
