svn commit: r47622 - head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status

Sun Oct 18 22:21:49 UTC 2015

Author: bjk
Date: Sun Oct 18 22:21:48 2015
New Revision: 47622
URL: https://svnweb.freebsd.org/changeset/doc/47622

Log:
  Add bootloader Ficl update from Colin Lord

Modified:
  head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2015-07-2015-09.xml

Modified: head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2015-07-2015-09.xml
==============================================================================

--- head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2015-07-2015-09.xml	Sun Oct 18 22:06:12 2015	(r47621)
+++ head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2015-07-2015-09.xml	Sun Oct 18 22:21:48 2015	(r47622)
@@ -3241,4 +3241,50 @@
     </help>
   </project>
 
+  <project cat='proj'>
+    <title>Update Ficl in Bootloader</title>
+
+    <contact>
+      <person>
+	<name>
+	  <given>Colin</given>
+	  <common>Lord</common>
+	</name>
+	<email>clord at FreeBSD.org</email>
+      </person>
+    </contact>
+
+    <links>
+      <url href="https://wiki.FreeBSD.org/SummerOfCode2015/UpdateFiclInBootloader">Wiki
+	Page</url>
+    </links>
+
+    <body>
+      <p>The &os; bootloader has used Ficl 3 for quite some time, so
+	this project was intended to update the version of Ficl in use
+	to Ficl 4.  Ficl 4 is not only faster but also has a smaller
+	memory footprint, both being important advantages for a
+	bootloader.</p>
+
+      <p>As part of the Google Summer of Code program, I worked on
+	importing the Ficl 4 sources to get a bootloader running Ficl 4.
+	The first half of the summer consisted of setting up my test
+	environment, as well as arranging the sources in the tree properly
+	and modifying the build files to point to the new locations.  Once
+	that was complete, the sources had to be modified to build
+	correctly and to add back in some of the &os;-specific parts from
+	Ficl 3.  Unfortunately, after all those tasks were completed, a
+	few bugs in the Ficl project were discovered that delayed the
+	bootloader update, so it is not finished.  The Illumos project has
+	faced similar issues with Ficl 4 so I received some good tips from
+	them, but since school has started back up I haven't been able to
+	put much work into fixing the bugs.
+      </p>
+    </body>
+
+    <sponsor>
+      Google Summer of Code 2015
+    </sponsor>
+  </project>
+
 </report>
