Release 1.12.0

_releases/2024-04-09-1.12.0-released.md

@@ -0,0 +1,222 @@
+---
+title: Crystal 1.12.0 is released!
+version: 1.12.0
+date: 2024-04-09
+author: straight-shoota
+---
+
+We are announcing a new Crystal release with several new features and bug fixes.
+
+Pre-built packages are available on [GitHub Releases](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/releases/tag/1.12.0) and our official distribution channels.
+See [crystal-lang.org/install](https://crystal-lang.org/install/) for instructions.
+
+## Stats
+
+This release includes [140 changes since 1.11.2](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pulls?q=is%3Apr+milestone%3A1.12.0)
+by ZZZ contributors. We thank all the contributors for all the effort put into
+improving the language! ❤️
+
+## Changes
+
+Below we list the most remarkable changes in the language, compiler and stdlib.
+For more details, visit the [full changelog](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/releases/tag/1.12.0).
+
+### Breaking
+
+Respect alignments above `alignof(Void*)` inside union values. **This is an ABI breaking change**. Crystal makes no guarantees about ABI stability. Most users won't be affected by this. ([#14279](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14279))
+
+_Thanks [@HertzDevil]_
+
+### Process termination handler
+
+[`Process.on_terminate`](https://crystal-lang.org/api/1.12.0/Process.html#on_terminate%28%26handler%3AProcess%3A%3AExitReason-%3E%29%3ANil-class-method) replaces [`Process.on_interrupt`](https://crystal-lang.org/api/1.12.0/Process.html#on_interrupt(%26handler%3A-%3E)%3ANil-class-method) as a more potable and portable API for responding to termination requests ([#13694](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/13694)).
+All current uses of `on_interrupt` can be replaced by `on_terminate` with the effect of responding to more termination triggers.
+
+| Method         | Unix                             | Windows                                                                                                                                                 |
+| -------------- | -------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
+| `on_terminate` | `SIGINT`, `SIGHUP` and `SIGTERM` | <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>C</kbd>, <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>Break</kbd>, terminal close, windows logoff  and shutdown signals sent to a console application. |
+| `on_interrupt` | `SIGINT`                         | <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>C</kbd> and <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>Break</kbd> signals sent to a console application                                             |
+
+This removes the need for adding platform-specific handlers in your code base to handle terminations that were previously not covered by `on_interrupt`.
+
+In addition, `on_terminate` also passes an instance of [`Process::ExitReason`](https://crystal-lang.org/api/1.12.0/Process/ExitReason.html) to the handler block, allowing it to react differently to specific termination events.
+
+```crystal
+Process.on_terminate do |reason|
+  case reason
+  when .interrupted?
+    puts "terminating gracefully"
+  when .terminal_disconnected?
+    puts "reloading configuration"
+  else
+    puts "terminating forcefully"
+    Process.exit(1)
+  end
+end
+
+puts "Waiting for termination"
+sleep
+```
+
+_Thanks [@stakach]_
+
+### Concurrency
+
+There are a couple minor improvements for concurrency which are foreshadowing more significant changes for the upcoming multi-threaded runtime enhancement.
+
+- Backtraces for unhandled exceptions in [`spawn`](https://crystal-lang.org/api/1.12.0/toplevel.html#spawn%28%2A%2Cname%3AString%7CNil%3Dnil%2Csame_thread%3Dfalse%2C%26block%29-class-method) are printed at once in multi-threading mode to avoid unreadable interleaving lines ([#14220](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14220)).
+- When opening a [`File`](https://crystal-lang.org/api/1.12.0/File.html), it's now possible to disable blocking mode which is useful for pipes and character devices ([#14255](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14255)).
+- Some issues with atomics and locks got fixed and [`Atomic`](https://crystal-lang.org/api/1.12.0/Atomic.html) operations now receive an optional parameter to define the strength of ordering guarantees as [`Atomic::Ordering`](https://crystal-lang.org/api/1.12.0/Atomic/Ordering.html). New macro [`Atomic.fence`](https://crystal-lang.org/api/1.12.0/Atomic.html#fence%28ordering%3D%3Asequentially_consistent%29-macro) adds explicit memory barriers ([#14293](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14293)).
+- `Thread` got a `name` property to identify the thread. It can be set at initialization or for the current thread with `Thread.name=` ([#14257](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14257)).
+- Init schedulers before we spawn fibers ([#14339](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14339)).
+- Use per-scheduler stack pools, helping recycling stacks ([#14100](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14100)).
+
+_Thanks [@ysbaddaden]_
+
+- Add memory barrier to `Mutex#unlock` on aarch64 ([#14272](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14272)).
+
+_Thanks [@jgaskins]_
+
+### Libraries
+
+We enabled support for OpenSSL 3.2 by fixing a bug in error handling for the OpenSSL 3.x series ([#14219](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14219)).
+
+_Thanks [@ysbaddaden]_
+
+Our own LLVM extension library `libllvm_ext` is no longer required when linking LLVM >= 18 ([#14357](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14357)) because all APIs are now directly exposed in `libllvm` directly. The Makefile automatically skips building `libllvm_ext.o` on LLVM 18 and above.
+
+_Thanks [@HertzDevil]_
+
+### Numeric
+
+- Add [`BigRational#%`](https://crystal-lang.org/api/1.12.0/BigRational.html#%25%28other%3ABigRational%29%3ABigRational-instance-method), [`#tdiv`](https://crystal-lang.org/api/1.12.0/BigRational.html#tdiv(other:BigRational):BigRational-instance-method), [`#remainder`](https://crystal-lang.org/api/1.12.0/BigRational.html#remainder(other:BigRational):BigRational-instance-method) ([#14306](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14306)).
+
+_Thanks [@HertzDevil]_
+
+### Operators with `=` suffix
+
+Operators ending with `=` can now receive multiple parameters and blocks ([#14159](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14159)) and they are properly forwarded by the [`delegate`](https://crystal-lang.org/api/1.12.0/Object.html#delegate(*methods,toobject)-macro) macro ([#14282](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14282)).
+The operator `#[]=` can be called with with a block using method syntax: `x.[]=() { }` ([#14161](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14161))
+
+_Thanks [@HertzDevil]_
+
+### Windows progress
+
+- Handle invalid parameter error in MSVC calls to prevent an immediate process exit ([#14313](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14313))
+- Install system dependencies in the Windows GUI installer ([#14328](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14328))
+- Automatically detect MSVC tools on Windows interpreter ([#14391](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14391))
+- Support `@[Link]`'s DLL search order in the interpreter on Windows ([#14146](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14146))
+- Reserve stack space on non-main threads for crash recovery on Windows ([#14187](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14187)).
+- [`FileUtils.mv`](https://crystal-lang.org/api/1.12.0/FileUtils.html#mv(src_path:Path%7cString,dest_path:Path%7cString):Nil-instance-method) works across filesystems on Windows ([#14320](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14320)).
+
+_Thanks [@HertzDevil]_
+
+### Misc
+
+- The time zone identifier `Etc/UTC` was added as an implicit alias to `UTC` and works without requiring a copy of the time zone database ([#14185](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14185))
+
+  _Thanks [@femto]_
+
+- `Crystal::System::FileDescriptor::Handle` is a generic alias to the platform-specific type representing a file descriptor ([#14390](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14390))
+
+  _Thanks [@straight-shoota]_
+
+- [`Hash#update`](https://crystal-lang.org/api/1.12.0/Hash.html#update(key:K,&:V-%3EV):V-instance-method) ([#14417](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14417)) and [`Hash#put_if_absent`](https://crystal-lang.org/api/1.12.0/Hash.html#put_if_absent(key:K,&:K-%3EV):V-instance-method) ([#14427](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14427)) no longer put duplicate keys if the block inserts the key.
+
+  _Thanks [@HertzDevil]_
+
+- New method [`Signal#trap_handler?`](https://crystal-lang.org/api/1.12.0/Signal.html#trap_handler?-instance-method) returns any existing handler for the signal ([#14126](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14126))
+
+  _Thanks [@stakach]_
+
+- Added macro methods to several AST node types, `lib` & co ([#14218](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14218)), `Primitive` ([#14263](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14263)), `TypeOf` ([#14262](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14262)), `Alias` ([#14261](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14261)), `Asm` and `AsmOperand` ([#14268](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14268)).
+
+  _Thanks [@HertzDevil]_
+
+### Compiler
+
+- Add `CRYSTAL_CONFIG_CC` compiler config variable. This bakes in a reference to a specific compiler which is useful for 3rd party package managers such as Homebrew so that the compiler picks up the appropriate library paths ([#14318](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14318)).
+
+  _Thanks [@straight-shoota]_
+
+- Support for `NO_COLOR` ([#14260](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14260)), `--static` on Windows ([#14292](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14292)), `--single-module` and `--threads` for `eval` and `spec` ([#14341](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14341))
+
+  _Thanks [@HertzDevil]_
+
+- Preliminary support for Solaris/illumos has landed in the compiler and stdlib.
+
+  _Thanks [@HertzDevil]_
+
+- New CLI option `--frame-pointers` to control preservation of frame pointers ([#13860](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/13860))
+
+  _Thanks [@refi64]_
+
+- `short_reference` for top-level macros was changed to `::foo` instead of `top-level foo` ([#14203](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14203))
+
+  _Thanks [@femto]_
+
+### Compiler dependencies
+
+The compiler's own dependencies are now managed with `shards` ([#14365](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14365)). The source code in `lib/` stays vendored in the repository, so `shards` is not required in order to build the compiler. It's only used for updating the dependencies in a much easier way than than with the previous approach based on `git subtree`.
+
+_Thanks [@straight-shoota]_
+
+### `crystal tool flags`
+
+This release brings a new compiler tool: `crystal tool flags` ([#14234](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14234)).
+It prints all values passed to calls to [macro `flag?`](https://crystal-lang.org/api/1.12.0/Crystal/Macros.html#flag?(name):BoolLiteral-instance-method) so you can extract all compile time flags that a program recognizes.
+
+_Thanks [@straight-shoota]_
+
+### Formatter enhancements
+
+Improved the formatter for `ProcLiteral`s ([#14209](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14209)), `asm` with comments ([#14278](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14278)), white space in `a.[b]` syntax ([#14346](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14346)), calls without parentheses followed by doc comment ([#14354](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14354)), whitespace in `foo ()` ([#14439](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14439)).
+
+_Thanks [@HertzDevil], [@straight-shoota]_
+
+### Shards 0.18.0
+
+The bundled shards release was updated to [0.18.0](https://github.com/crystal-lang/shards/releases/tag/v0.18.0).
+
+This new shards release brings a couple of enhancements for Windows support, particularly
+support for more cache directories ([#612](https://github.com/crystal-lang/shards/pull/612)), detection of symlink creation capability ([#617](https://github.com/crystal-lang/shards/pull/617)) and a lot more improvements on internal tooling.
+Starting with this release, shards' output by default is only colored if stdout is a TTY instead of always ([#620](https://github.com/crystal-lang/shards/pull/620)).
+
+_Thanks [@HertzDevil], [@straight-shoota]_
+
+### Experimental: `ReferenceStorage`
+
+Originally introduced in 1.11.0, the `ReferenceStorage` type was removed again in 1.11.1 due to compatibility issues with older versions of the standard library ([#14207](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14207)).
+
+We now have an improved implementation that shows no compatibility issues.
+[`ReferenceStorage`](https://crystal-lang.org/api/1.12.0/ReferenceStorage.html) represents a static buffer for a reference allocation.
+
+These APIs are still experimental and might be subject to change. We expect more features in this direction in future releases. Join the discussion about custom reference allocation at [#13481](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/13481).
+
+_Thanks [@HertzDevil]_
+
+### Deprecations
+
+- Setter methods for timeouts with `Number` parameter ([#14372](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14372)).
+- Compile time flag `openbsd6.2` got removed ([#14233](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14233)).
+- The spec runner's state moved into `Spec::CLI`. This is only relevant for code which monkey-patches into the spec library ([#14170](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/14170)).
+
+---
+
+> **THANKS:**
+> We have been able to do all of this thanks to the continued support of [84codes](https://www.84codes.com/) and every other [sponsor](/sponsors).
+> To maintain and increase the development pace, donations and sponsorships are
+> essential. [OpenCollective](https://opencollective.com/crystal-lang) is
+> available for that.
+>
+> Reach out to [crystal@manas.tech](mailto:crystal@manas.tech)
+> if you’d like to become a direct sponsor or find other ways to support Crystal.
+> We thank you in advance!
+
+[@stakach]: https://github.com/stakach
+[@ysbaddaden]: https://github.com/ysbaddaden
+[@jgaskins]: https://github.com/jgaskins
+[@HertzDevil]: https://github.com/HertzDevil
+[@femto]: https://github.com/femto
+[@straight-shoota]: https://github.com/straight-shoota
+[@refi64]: https://github.com/refi64

_sass/base/_typography.scss

@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ code {
 pre,
 :not(pre) > code {
   margin: 0;
-  font-size: font-size(xsmall);
+  font-size: 80%;
 
   &:not(.low-key) {
     background-color: var(--code-bg);