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Add news post about Erlang/OTP 28, release candidate 1
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---
layout: post
id: 174
title: "Erlang/OTP 28.0 Release Candidate 1"
lead: "Erlang/OTP 28.0-rc1 is the first release candidate for OTP 28"
tags: "release, OTP, 28.0-rc1, Release Candidate"
date: "2024-02-12"
author: "Björn Gustavsson"
---
## OTP 28.0-rc1

Erlang/OTP 28.0-rc1 is the first release candidate of three before the OTP 28.0 release.

The intention with this release is to get feedback from our users.
All feedback is welcome, even if it is only to say that it works for you.
We encourage users to try it out and give us feedback either by creating an issue at
[https://github.com/erlang/otp/issues](https://github.com/erlang/otp/issues) or by
posting to [Erlang Forums](https://erlangforums.com/).

All artifacts for the release can be downloaded from the
[Erlang/OTP Github](https://github.com/erlang/otp/releases/tag/OTP-28.0-rc1) release
and you can view the new documentation at
[https://erlang.org/documentation/doc-16.0-rc1/doc](https://erlang.org/documentation/doc-16.0-rc1/doc/).
You can also install the latest release using [kerl](https://github.com/kerl/kerl) like this:

```
kerl build 28.0-rc1 28.0-rc1.
```

Starting with this release, a source [Software Bill of Materials
(SBOM)](https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2023-04/sbom-types-document-508c.pdf)
will describe the release on the [Github
Releases](https://github.com/erlang/otp/releases) page. We welcome
feedback on the SBOM.

Erlang/OTP 28 is a new major release with new features, improvements
as well as a few incompatibilities. Some of the new features are
highlighted below.

Many thanks to all contributors!


# HIGHLIGHTS

## New language features

- Comprehensions have been extended with "zip generators" allowing
multiple generators to be run in parallel. For example,
`[A+B || A <- [1,2,3] && B <- [4,5,6]]` will produce `[5,7,9]`.

- Generators in comprehensions can now be strict, meaning that if
the generator pattern does not match, an exception will be raised
instead of silently ignore the value that didn't match.

- It is now possible to use any base for floating point numbers as per
[EEP 75: Based Floating Point Literals](https://www.erlang.org/eeps/eep-0075).


## Compiler and JIT improvements

- For certain types of errors, the compiler can now suggest
corrections. For example, when attempting to use variable `A` that
is not defined but `A0` is, the compiler could emit the following
message: `variable 'A' is unbound, did you mean 'A0'?`

- The size of an atom in the Erlang source code was limited to 255
bytes in previous releases, meaning that an atom containing only
emojis could contain only 63 emojis. While atoms are still only
allowed to contain 255 characters, the number of bytes is no longer
limited.

- The `warn_deprecated_catch` option enables warnings for use of
old-style catch expressions on the form `catch Expr` instead of the
modern `try` ... `catch` ... `end`.

- Provided that the map argument for a `maps:put/3` call is known to
the compiler to be a map, the compiler will replace such calls with
the corresponding update using the map syntax.

- Some BIFs with side-effects (such as `binary_to_atom/1`) are
optimized in `try` ... `catch` in the same way as guard BIFs in
order to gain performance.

## ERTS

- The `trace:system/3` function has been added. It has a similar
interface as `erlang:system_monitor/2` but it also supports trace
sessions.

- `os:set_signal/2` now supports setting handlers for the `SIGWINCH`,
`SIGCONT`, and `SIGINFO` signals.

- The two new BIFs `erlang:processes_iterator/0` and
`erlang:process_next/1` make it possible to iterate over the
process table in a way that scales better than `erlang:processes/0`.

## Shell and terminal

- The erl -noshell mode has been updated to have two sub modes called
`raw` and `cooked`, where `cooked` is the old default behaviour and
`raw` can be used to bypass the line-editing support of the native
terminal. Using `raw` mode it is possible to read keystrokes as they
occur without the user having to press Enter. Also, the `raw` mode
does not echo the typed characters to stdout.

- The shell now prints a help message explaining how to interrupt a
running command when stuck executing a command for longer than 5
seconds.

## STDLIB

- The `join(Binaries, Separator)` function that joins a list of
binaries has been added to the
[`binary`](https://www.erlang.org/doc/apps/stdlib/re.html) module.

- By default, sets created by module
[`sets`](https://www.erlang.org/doc/apps/stdlib/sets.html)
will now be represented as maps.

- Module [`re`](https://www.erlang.org/doc/apps/stdlib/re.html) has
been updated to use the newer PCRE2 library instead of the
PCRE library.

- There is a new `zstd` module that does
[Zstandard](https://facebook.github.io/zstd/) compression.


## Dialyzer

- [EEP 69: Nominal Types](https://www.erlang.org/eeps/eep-0069) has been
implemented.

## SSL

- The data handling for tls-v1.3 has been optimized.

## Emacs mode (in the Tools application)

- The `indent-region` in Emacs command will now handle multiline
strings better.

For more details about new features and potential incompatibilities see the [README](https://erlang.org/download/otp_src_28.0-rc1.readme).

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