please try out the Kawa binary pre-release

[Per Bothner <per at bothner dot com>]

Grab it from ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/kawa/kawa-latest.zip .

At this point I'm most interested in:
* The REPL, including the JLine3 line-editor, and optionally DomTerm.
* The documentation, especially of new features, and also how usable it is.

I have not recently tested Kawa on Windows, so that would be
extra welcome.

To read the manual (kawa-2.1.91/doc/kawa-manual.epub) see
kawa-2.1.91/doc/README-epub.  Let me know if that is unclear or
you have difficulties ...  The most convenient way to read it is
probably the bin/browse-kawa-manual script, but it does require
JavaFX.

(I'm considering adding a function that starts a http
server, and then uses the Desktop class to create a browser
window.  The tricky part is shutting down the server when the
window is closed.  Let me know if that would be helpful.
The function could be called from your own code, or from the
Kawa command-line.)

For the REPL let me know of any problems or annoying behavior.
Please also try -w to create a Window.  I'm mostly interested
in the new DomTerm-based console window.  (It should say "Kawa (DomTerm)"
in the window top.)  This does require JavaFX.

For the DomTerm window, you can try printing Pictures,
and HTML/XML objects.  For example:
  #<hr/>
displays a horizontal line.

The JaveFX-based console does have some blemishes.  Obviously,
it requires JavaFX and specifically WebView, which are not getting
a lot of love from Oracle.  Copy/Paste are flaky.  I'm considering
prioritizing a browser-based console.  The -w flag would (by default)
start a small web-server (including WebSockets), and then start up
a DomTerm window in your preferred browser.  What do you think?
Most of what's needed is already implemented in Kawa or DomTerm;
it's just a matter of putting them together.  (I think it can be done
without PTYs or native code, which is obviously a plus.)

For extra karma, you could try compiling from Subversion, but
configure --with-jline3 --with-domterm.  It's easiest if you just
use the jars from the binary distribution.
--
	--Per Bothner
per@bothner.com   http://per.bothner.com/