Memory Pool System Kit Readme
=============================
:author: Richard Brooksby
:organization: Ravenbrook Limited
:date: 2002-05-20
:revision: $Id$
:confidentiality: public


This is the Memory Pool System Kit -- a complete set of sources for
using, modifying, and adapting the MPS.  This document will give you a
very brief overview and tell you where to find more information.


Overview of the MPS
-------------------

The Memory Pool System (MPS) is a very general, adaptable, flexible,
reliable, and efficient memory management system.  It permits the
flexible combination of memory management techniques, supporting manual
and automatic memory management, in-line allocation, finalization,
weakness, and multiple concurrent co-operating incremental generational
garbage collections.  It also includes a library of memory pool classes
implementing specialized memory management policies.

The MPS has been in development since 1994 and deployed in successful
commercial products since 1997. Bugs are almost unknown in production.
It is under continuous development and support by `Ravenbrook
<http://www.ravenbrook.com/>`__.

The MPS is distributed under an open source license (see
`<license.txt>`_). The license is designed to make it possible for you
to use the MPS in your own projects, provided that you either don't
distribute your product, or your product is open source too.

If the licensing terms aren't suitable for you (for example, you're
developing a closed-source commercial product or a compiler run-time
system) you can easily license the MPS under different terms from
Ravenbrook. Please write to us at [email protected]
for more information.


Getting started
---------------

The MPS Kit is a complete set of sources and documentation to enable
you to use, modify, and adapt the MPS: source code, manuals,
procedures, design documentation, and so on. See
`<manual/html/index.html>`_ for an index.

The MPS Kit is distributed in source form.  You need to build it before
using it.  The basic case is straightforward on supported platforms
(see below)::

    cd code
    cc -O2 -c mps.c     Unix / macOS (with Xcode command line)
    cl /O2 /c mps.c     Windows (with Microsoft SDK or Visual Studio 2010)

This will produce an object file you can link with your project.  For
details of how to configure the MPS, build libraries and tests, use
IDEs, autoconf, etc. see `Building the MPS <manual/build.txt>`__.

For an example of using the MPS, see the `Scheme interpreter
example <example/scheme/>`_.

Then, to program and integrate the MPS you'll definitely need to read
the `manual <manual/html/index.html>`_.


Supported target platforms
--------------------------

The MPS is currently supported for deployment on:

- Windows Vista or later, on IA-32 and x86-64, using Microsoft Visual
  C/C++;

- Linux 2.6 or later, on IA-32 using GCC and on x86-64 using GCC or
  Clang/LLVM;

- FreeBSD 7 or later, on IA-32 and x86-64, using GCC or Clang/LLVM;

- macOS 10.4 or later, on IA-32 and x86-64, using Clang/LLVM.

The MPS is highly portable and has run on many other processors and
operating systems in the past (see `Building the MPS
<manual/guide/build.html>`__). Most of the MPS is written in very pure
ANSI C and compiles without warnings on anything.

.. warning::

    If you are running a multi-threaded 32-bit application on 64-bit
    Windows 7 via the WOW64 emulator, then you must install this
    hotfix from Microsoft:
    `<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2864432/en-us>`__. See
    `<http://zachsaw.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/wow64-bug-getthreadcontext-may-return.html>`__
    for a description of the problem.


Getting help
------------

You can obtain expert professional support for the MPS from `Ravenbrook
Limited <http://www.ravenbrook.com/>`__, the developers of the MPS, who
have many years of experience in commercial memory management systems.
Write to us at [email protected] for more information.

You might also want to join the MPS discussion mailing list.  To join,
visit http://mailman.ravenbrook.com/mailman/listinfo/mps-discussion .


Document History
----------------

==========  =====  ======================================================
2002-05-20  RB_    Original author: Richard Brooksby, Ravenbrook Limited.
2002-05-20  RB_    Created based on template from P4DTI project.
2002-06-18  NB_    Minor updates and corrections.
2002-06-18  RB_    Removed obsolete requirement for MASM.
2002-06-19  NB_    Added note on self-extracting archive
2006-01-30  RHSK_  Update from "1.100.1" to "1.106.1".
2006-03-30  RHSK_  Add section 2: What's new.
2006-04-11  RHSK_  Update from "1.106.1" to "1.106.2".
2006-04-14  RHSK_  Merge updates from version/1.106 back to master.
2006-06-29  RHSK_  Note fixed job001421, job001455.
2006-12-13  RHSK_  Release 1.107.0
2007-07-05  RHSK_  Release 1.108.0
2007-12-21  RHSK_  Release 1.108.1
2008-05-01  RHSK_  Release 1.108.2
2010-03-03  RHSK_  Release 1.109.0
2012-08-14  RB_    Updating build instructions for new platforms.
2012-09-05  RB_    Considerably reduced ready for version 1.110.  Now 
                   brought to you in glorious reStructuredText.
2014-01-13  GDR_   Updated supported platforms.
2014-07-04  GDR_   Link to hotfix for WOW64 bug.
2016-03-24  RB_    Adding support for FreeBSD with Clang/LLVM.
==========  =====  ======================================================

.. _GDR: mailto:[email protected]
.. _NB: mailto:[email protected]
.. _RB: mailto:[email protected]
.. _RHSK: mailto:[email protected]


Copyright and Licence
---------------------

Copyright (C) 2001-2018 Ravenbrook Limited. All rights reserved. 
<http://www.ravenbrook.com/>. This is an open source license. Contact
Ravenbrook for commercial licensing options.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
   documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

3. Redistributions in any form must be accompanied by information on how
   to obtain complete source code for this software and any
   accompanying software that uses this software.  The source code must
   either be included in the distribution or be available for no more than
   the cost of distribution plus a nominal fee, and must be freely
   redistributable under reasonable conditions.  For an executable file,
   complete source code means the source code for all modules it contains.
   It does not include source code for modules or files that typically
   accompany the major components of the operating system on which the
   executable file runs.

**This software is provided by the copyright holders and contributors
"as is" and any express or implied warranties, including, but not
limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a
particular purpose, or non-infringement, are disclaimed. In no event
shall the copyright holders and contributors be liable for any direct,
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(including, but not limited to, procurement of substitute goods or
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