Swarm 1.4.1 changes

[Ho-Sheng Hsiao]

Hi.

Its been a while since I've used Swarm. The last version I used
(very successfully) was 1.3.x Well a year or so has gone by ... and now I
have a need for the lib again (thanks to all you developers).

Consider me a born-again-swarm-newbie :-) I have a couple of questions:

 - Is gcc 2.8.1 really needed? I know 2.8.x has some upgrades to the objc
core. However, the last I've heard, 2.8.x wasn't suitable for compiling
critical components (like the kernel or other software). Has 2.8.x
stabalized? Or is there a way to run the 2.7.x version by default, but run
only 2.8 when compiling Swarm?

 - I've noticed the Lisp and the HDF5 backends. What I got from the docs
and source is that this is a serialization method. I've never heard of
HDF5 -- what the heck is it?

 - Is there a way to compile the core Swarm libraries (non-gui:
defobject, collection, activity, objectbase, random) only? I don't need
the GUI tools yet, and so I'd rather not go around compiling BLT, tk, and
tcl. 

 - Finally: the two libraries, libffi and ffcall (same thing, or not?)
what role do these play in the library?

Well, thanks in advanced. I hope I havn't taken up too much of your time.

---hhh (Qaexl)                                    address@hidden
Time flows only once.                             Lost Realities Developer
Life is a suicide mission: you gotta do what you should.


                  ==================================
   Swarm-Support is for discussion of the technical details of the day
   to day usage of Swarm.  For list administration needs (esp.
   [un]subscribing), please send a message to <address@hidden>
   with "help" in the body of the message.