gEDA: Icarus Verilog 19990903 snapshot

[Stephen Williams <steve@icarus.com>]

Functions! Well, mostly. First of all, where to get it:

    <ftp://ftp.geda.seul.org/pub/geda/contrib/verilog-19990903.tar.gz>

This snapshot adds support for user defined functions within behavioral
code. I do not yet simulate functions in structural code, but I think
that most often, functions appear in behavioral code anyhow. Structural
functions are hard.

There is also a shiny new man page for the "verilog" program, which
by the way should work fine now, including the "make install" target.
I think you will find that it is much easier to use the "verilog"
command to compile your program. See the verilog man page after you
install it.

I've added a new "Sorry" statement, for delayed non-blocking procedural
assignments. I expect to fully implement this for the stable release.

I've also started to add support for structural adders, so that addition
in continuous assignments works. In fact, I'm starting down the path
of adding internal representations for all the LPM 2 1 0 modules. This
is a step towards complete synthesis capabilities.

Continuous assignment statement lists syntax has been added, thanks to
contributions, and other bugs have been fixed, again thanks to various
patches sent to me. (Thanks, all!)

I have *fixed* the make install target. In fact, I even *tested* it:-)
It should work now, complete with all the gadgets that surround the
compiler. Finally, after numerous complaints, I got this right. (whew!)

TO DO

I've been hoping to stabilize things for a while, in preparation for a
stable release. It's not going to be a full-featured release, but I would
like it to work properly such as it is. Therefore, I am specifically
interested in reports of problems with the existing capabilities of the
compiler.

I also hope to sneak into the stable release some structural arithmetic
operators and delayed procedural non-blocking assignments. The latter
seems to be the greatest source of irritation in existing code. I would
like to start making release candidates before the end of the month,
so get your patches in early!

Onward!

-- 
Steve Williams                "The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
steve@icarus.com              But I have promises to keep,
steve@picturel.com            and lines to code before I sleep,
http://www.picturel.com       And lines to code before I sleep."