Rust 1.2 announcement

_posts/2015-08-06-Rust-1.2.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "Announcing Rust 1.2"
+author: The Rust Core Team
+---
+
+Today marks the [completion][install] of the Rust 1.2 stable and 1.3 beta
+release cycles! Read on for the highlight, or check the [release notes][notes]
+for more detail.
+
+[install]: http://www.rust-lang.org/install.html
+[notes]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/RELEASES.md#version-120-august-2015
+
+### What's in 1.2 stable
+
+As we
+[previously announced](http://blog.rust-lang.org/2015/06/25/Rust-1.1.html), Rust
+1.2 comes with two major performance improvements for the compiler:
+
+- **An across-the-board improvement** to real-world compiler
+  performance. Representative crates include [hyper][hyper] (compiles 1.16x
+  faster), [html5ever][html5ever] (1.62x faster), [regex][regex] (1.32x faster)
+  and [rust-encoding][rust-encoding] (1.35x faster). You can explore some of this
+  performance data at Nick Cameron's
+  [preliminary tracking site](http://www.ncameron.org/perf-rustc/), using dates
+  2015-05-15 to 2015-06-25.
+
+- **Parallel codegen** is
+  [now working](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/26018), and produces a
+  33% speedup when bootstrapping on a 4 core machine. Parallel codegen is
+  particularly useful for debug builds, since it prevents some optimizations;
+  but it can also be used with optimizations as an effective `-O1` flag. It can
+  be activated by passing `-C codegen-units=N` to `rustc`, where `N` is the
+  desired number of threads.
+
+Cargo's performance has also improved dramatically:
+
+- Builds that do not require any recompilation ("no-op builds") for large
+  projects are much faster: for Servo, build time went from 5 seconds to 0.5
+  seconds.
+
+- Cargo now supports shared target directories that cache dependencies across
+  multiple packages, which results in significant build-time reduction for
+  complex projects.
+
+The 1.2 release also
+[introduces support](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/25350) for the MSVC
+(Microsoft Visual C) toolchain, as opposed to GNU variants. The upshot is that
+Rust code is now directly linkable against code built using the native Windows
+toolchain. The compiler bootstraps on MSVC, we have preliminary nightlies, and
+we are testing all rust-lang crates against MSVC. Unwinding support is not yet
+available (the process aborts on panic), but work is underway to land it.
+
+On the language side, Rust 1.2 marks the completion of the
+[dynamically-sized type (DST)](http://smallcultfollowing.com/babysteps/blog/2014/01/05/dst-take-5/)
+work, allowing smart pointers like `Rc` to seamless apply to arrays and trait
+objects, so that `Rc<[T]>` is fully usable. This final enhancement applies to
+all smart pointers in the standard library. Support for external smart pointer
+types is available in nightlies, and will be stabilized soon.
+
+[hyper]: https://crates.io/crates/hyper
+[html5ever]: https://crates.io/crates/html5ever
+[regex]: https://crates.io/crates/regex
+[rust-encoding]: https://crates.io/crates/encoding
+
+### What's in 1.3 beta
+
+One of the most exciting developments during the 1.3 cycle was the introduction
+of the [Rustonomicon](https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nomicon/), a new book
+covering "The Dark Arts of Advanced and Unsafe Rust Programming". While it's
+still in its early days, this book already provides indispensable coverage of
+some of Rust's more subtle aspects.
+
+The 1.3 cycle also saw additional focus on performance, though most wins here
+are within the standard library:
+
+- The substring matcher now uses a
+  [more efficient algorithm](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/26327).
+- There were
+  [improvements to zero filling](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/26849)
+  that speed up `Vec::resize` and `Read::read_to_end`.
+- The implementation of `Read::read_to_end` has been
+  [specialized for `stdin` and `File`](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/26950),
+  resulting in additional speedups.
+- The `PartialEq` implementation on slices is now
+  [much faster](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/26884).
+
+We have also made strides in our Windows support, landing
+[preliminary support for targeting Windows XP](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/26601). While
+we do not intend to treat Windows XP as a "first tier" platform, it is now
+feasible to build Rust code for XP as long as you avoid certain parts of the
+standard library.
+
+On the Cargo front, we have landed support for
+[lint capping](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/27260) as specified by an
+[earlier RFC](https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs/pull/1193). The idea is that
+lints in your dependencies should not affect your ability to compile cleanly,
+which in turn makes it easier to tweak the way lints work without undue hassle
+in the ecosystem.
+
+### Contributors to 1.2
+
+The 1.2 stable release represents the hard work of 180 fine folks:
+
+- Aaron Turon
+- Abhishek Chanda
+- Adolfo Ochagavía
+- Aidan Hobson Sayers
+- Akshay Chiwhane
+- Alex Burka
+- Alex Crichton
+- Alex Stokes
+- Alexander Artemenko
+- Alexis Beingessner
+- Andrea Canciani
+- Andrew Foote
+- Andrew Kensler
+- Andrew Straw
+- Ariel Ben-Yehuda
+- Austin Hellyer
+- Barosl Lee
+- Ben Striegel
+- Björn Steinbrink
+- Brian Anderson
+- Brian Campbell
+- Brian Leibig
+- Brian Quinlan
+- Carol (Nichols || Goulding)
+- Chris Hellmuth
+- Christian Stadelmann
+- Chuck Bassett
+- Corey Farwell
+- Cornel Punga
+- Cruz Julian Bishop
+- Dave Huseby
+- David Campbell
+- David Stygstra
+- David Voit
+- Eduard Bopp
+- Eduard Burtescu
+- Eli Friedman
+- Emilio Cobos Álvarez
+- Emily Dunham
+- Eric Ye
+- Erik Michaels-Ober
+- Falco Hirschenberger
+- Felix S. Klock II
+- FuGangqiang
+- Geoffrey Thomas
+- Gleb Kozyrev
+- Guillaume Gomez
+- Gulshan Singh
+- Heejong Ahn
+- Huachao Huang
+- Huon Wilson
+- Ivan Ukhov
+- Iven Hsu
+- Jake Goulding
+- Jake Hickey
+- James Miller
+- Jared Roesch
+- Jeremy Schlatter
+- Jexell
+- Jim Blandy
+- Johann Tuffe
+- Johannes Hoff
+- Johannes Oertel
+- John Hodge
+- Jonathan Reem
+- Joshua Landau
+- Kevin Ballard
+- Kubilay Kocak
+- Lee Jeffery
+- Leo Correa
+- Liigo Zhuang
+- Lorenz
+- Luca Bruno
+- Luqman Aden
+- Manish Goregaokar
+- Marcel Müller
+- Marcus Klaas
+- Marin Atanasov Nikolov
+- Markus Westerlind
+- Martin Pool
+- Marvin Löbel
+- Matej Lach
+- Mathieu David
+- Matt Brubeck
+- Matthew Astley
+- Max Jacobson
+- Maximilian Haack
+- Michael Layzell
+- Michael Macias
+- Michael Rosenberg
+- Michael Sproul
+- Michael Woerister
+- Mihnea Dobrescu-Balaur
+- Mikhail Zabaluev
+- Mohammed Attia
+- Ms2ger
+- Murarth
+- Mário Feroldi
+- Nathan Long
+- Nathaniel Theis
+- Nick Cameron
+- Nick Desaulniers
+- Nick Fitzgerald
+- Nick Hamann
+- Nick Howell
+- Niko Matsakis
+- Nils Liberg
+- OlegTsyba
+- Oliver 'ker' Schneider
+- Oliver Schneider
+- P1start
+- Parker Moore
+- Pascal Hertleif
+- Paul Faria
+- Paul Oliver
+- Peer Aramillo Irizar
+- Peter Atashian
+- Peter Elmers
+- Philip Munksgaard
+- Ralph Giles
+- Rein Henrichs
+- Ricardo Martins
+- Richo Healey
+- Ricky Taylor
+- Russell Johnston
+- Russell McClellan
+- Ryan Pendleton
+- Ryman
+- Rémi Audebert
+- Sae-bom Kim
+- Sean Collins
+- Sean Gillespie
+- Sean Patrick Santos
+- Seo Sanghyeon
+- Simon Sapin
+- Simonas Kazlauskas
+- Steve Gury
+- Steve Klabnik
+- Steven Allen
+- Steven Fackler
+- Steven Walter
+- Sébastien Marie
+- Tamir Duberstein
+- Thomas Karpiniec
+- Tim Ringenbach
+- Tshepang Lekhonkhobe
+- Ulrik Sverdrup
+- Vadim Petrochenkov
+- Wei-Ming Yang
+- Wesley Wiser
+- Wilfred Hughes
+- Will Andrews
+- Will Engler
+- Xuefeng Wu
+- XuefengWu
+- Yongqian Li
+- York Xiang
+- Z1
+- ben fleis
+- benaryorg
+- bluss
+- bors
+- clatour
+- diwic
+- dmgawel
+- econoplas
+- frankamp
+- funkill
+- inrustwetrust
+- joliv
+- klutzy
+- marcell
+- mdinger
+- olombard
+- peferron
+- ray glover
+- saml
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+- webmobster