Pharo 7.0 released with 64-bit support, a new build process and more

The release of Pharo 7.0 was announced in a blog post yesterday. The seventh major release of the object-oriented programming language, Pharo 7.0 is the most important release yet.

We look at the major features in Pharo 7.0.

Pharo 7.0 comes in 64-bit versions for Linux and OSX. The performance and stability have improved. The 64-bit versions are stable for Linux and OSX. For Windows, the 64-bit version is still in the preview stage. Pharo 7.0 includes the new version of the PharoLauncher. It is a very useful tool to manage distributions you are working with.

The new Pharo build comes with a completely new build process that supports its full bootstrap from sources. This new build process will enable the production to some images.

The git client for Pharo, Iceberg has also been significantly improved. Iceberg is now the default CMS. Calypso replaces Nautilus as the new system Pharo browser in Pharo 7.0. Calypso brings improved remote working and enhanced browsing capabilities.

IoT is now an important part of Pharo. Installing PharoThings provides an impressive amount of tools to develop applications in small devices. The unified foreign function interface (UnifiedFFI) is improved significantly for compatibility with 64-bit Windows. UnifiedFFI is used for interfacing with the outside world in Pharo.

The Pharo blog post says: "Pharo 70’s new infrastructure and process set the stage for a new generation of version. The visibility of GitHub combined with the powerful tools that have been validated with more than one year of beta testing is massively pay off.”

About 2142 issues have been closed in this release. There were more than 75 people contributing to the success of Pharo 7.0’s main image.

These were the highlights of the new features in Pharo, for more details, you can view the release notes.