
    Hereby, we proudly present the distribution of:

***********************************************************************
 *                                                                     *
  *                            GNU Sather                               *
   *                                                                     *
    ***********************************************************************

Right now, this project is still right in the middle of the transition from
ICSI, where it was started out and developed until Middle of 1998, to GNU,
where it will be developed in an open style in future.

This is a preliminary version for the first real release from GNU, which
will have the version 1.2.0. For now, only bug-fixes and small changes are
taken, preferredly in form of patches to a recent version. If you have
patches to a release of ICSI Sather, you could take much work of us, if you
tried to work them into a recent version of GNU Sather yourself and send us
patches to that.

Be warned that a complete rework of Sather is coming up (beta release is
planned end of August 1999), so any work you invest in this version might
not make it into the new release. Still, it may be some time until the new
version comes up to production quality, so bugfixes are still gladly
accepted for this one.

There is still a long way to go before this package will meet all the 
standards of GNU software. It is our goal to get there some day, and be
able to offer you all the comfort you know from GNU programs. We hope for
your understanding until we have reached that goal, while things like
autoconfiguration, standard makefiles, standard command line options,
standard runtime behaviour, are still evolving. Thanks.

***************************************************************************

Note for installation: The Boehm garbage collector has been taken out of
this package to be distributed, compiled and installed separately. See 
Doc/Installation.html for details.

***************************************************************************

The only platform this code is well tested on right now is Linux. If you
have possibilities to check the other Platforms we would be grateful for
a report on it. Also for future: All the platforms will only be maintained
to that extend as there is somebody who has access to some machine to test
it on. Right now, I only know of developers using Linux. If you use
something different, we'll be thankful for your help. Additional ports are
always welcome.

***************************************************************************

There may still be references and mail addresses at icsi.berkeley.edu.
People there are not active in Sather development any more, so you will
probably not want to contact them, but use the addresses mentioned below
in this file instead. We hope to clean everything up as soon as possible.

***************************************************************************

For more information, see the files in Doc/ - they need much work as well,
but you might still find a lot of useful information in there anyway. 

***************************************************************************

If you want to get in contact with the GNU Sather developers, just look at
our Sather home site:

	http://www.gnu.org/software/sather

mail to our general mailing list

	info-sather@gnu.org
	
(You can subscribe by sending a mail to <info-sather-request@gnu.org>,
subject: "subscribe your-email@anywhere.in.the.world")

The newsgroup

	comp.lang.sather
	
is mirrored both ways by our mailing list.

For bugreports and other things not meant for public discussion, mail to:

	bug-sather@gnu.org

Right now, mail to this address will simply reach me (Nobbi) directly.

***************************************************************************	

We really hope, you enjoy using Sather. If you want to contribute to our
effort in any way, you are welcome to join in.

                                                  Norbert "Nobbi" Nemec
