Still at work on the next Minnow update. Here’s where we are today:

• Re-work Aquarium so that local actors have fair and even performance characteristics: done. This was the first piece completed, and although we lose some performance in the Threadring benchmark, we gain it back in most other benchmarks. The end result is also much simpler and easier to maintain.
• Re-work the C++ lexer/parser for Minnow: done. The lexer and parser for Minnow from alpha 4 and earlier showed some decent ideas but was generally messy and hard to extend. The new alpha will use a parser I created for another language project, which I’ll talk about here shortly. The new parser is more modular, which will make it easier to incorporate in language checkers and editors, for example.
• Decide on a polymorphism story that covers generic programming in an easy way: in progress. I have yet to settle on just how Minnow will approach generic programming, and won’t be satisfied until the code you write in Minnow looks and feels as lightweight as possible.

Once this last piece is complete, the next alpha should finally be able to get out the door.