Pharo 14 released with new tools, RISC-V JIT and a fall schedule
The Pharo Team has announced Pharo 14, a new major version of Pharo, which it describes as a pure object-oriented programming language and a powerful environment focused on simplicity and immediate feedback. The announcement pitches the platform as a language with no constructors, no type declarations, no interfaces and no primitive types, whose full syntax fits on a postcard, and where "objects and messages all the way down" is the model. It also stresses a live environment with immediate feedback while developing, testing and debugging, and a debugger that can step through code, restart methods and create methods on the fly. The whole stack is released under the MIT License and is on GitHub.
The team says the work in this release concentrated on three areas. The first is modernising the development tools: Mission Control and Pulse (the replacement for Spotter) are new, the Method Browser was reworked, the Settings Browser was rewritten, and Epicea and ProfStef were consolidated into NewTools. This continues the migration of the tools to the Spec-based tooling stack.
The second area is the refactoring and command infrastructure. Refactoring commands moved to a driver-based architecture behind a unified command registry, and Pharo's command-line capabilities kept growing, with command-line testing, a command-line debugger and Sindarin script tooling.
The third is the virtual machine. The team unified frames and stack management, added RISC-V JIT support, extended memory management (direct old-space allocation and GC improvements), advanced Slang/C compilation and modernised the cross-platform build infrastructure. The highlights list adds SDL updates, improved CI, cross-build support, updated third-party dependencies and large-scale cleanup across the VM, interpreter, Cogit and PICs.
The announcement also flags a schedule change: starting with this release, Pharo moves from a spring (March to May) release window to fall (September to November), and Pharo 14 is the first version released under it.
Beyond the three headline areas, the highlights list covers TestRunner integration, Calypso fixes, File Browser, Finder and Transcript improvements, scoped extensions and selector semantics, ClassBuilder and trait correctness, a Compiler API split, UnifiedFFI changes, package and baseline modularisation, reduced Morphic and UIManager dependencies, and fixes to FastTable, Zinc and Zodiac.
On the numbers, the team reports 978 Pull Requests integrated just in the Pharo repository and 616 issues closed since Pharo 13. It says the project now counts 432 forks and 1,494 stars on GitHub. Separate projects shipped with every Pharo release also saw work: NewTools, Spec, Iceberg, Roassal, Microdown, BeautifulComments and pharo-vm. The post thanks a large worldwide community for pull requests, bug reports, discussion and feedback.
Key facts
- Pharo 14 introduces Mission Control and Pulse (the replacement for Spotter), reworks the Method Browser, rewrites the Settings Browser, and consolidates Epicea and ProfStef into NewTools.
- Refactoring commands now run on a driver-based architecture behind a unified command registry, and command-line testing, a command-line debugger and Sindarin script tooling were added.
- The VM gains RISC-V JIT support, direct old-space allocation, GC improvements and unified frames and stack management.
- The release is the first on a new fall schedule (September to November), replacing the spring window (March to May).
- The team cites 978 Pull Requests integrated in the Pharo repository and 616 issues closed since Pharo 13; the stack is MIT-licensed.
Why it matters
Pharo is a pure object-oriented language with a live environment, and this release is a broad modernisation of it. The tools are moving onto the Spec-based stack, the refactoring commands get a common registry, and the VM adds RISC-V JIT support, which the team says expands platform coverage and future-proofs VM development. The switch from a spring to a fall release window also changes when the community can expect new versions, and Pharo 14 is the first to follow it.
Who it affects
Existing Pharo users and the people who build frameworks and libraries on it are the main audience, particularly anyone who relies on Spotter, the Method Browser, the Settings Browser, Epicea or ProfStef, since those tools changed or moved. VM developers and people targeting RISC-V are affected by the JIT and memory management work. Anyone planning around Pharo's yearly cycle should note the new September to November window.
How to use it
The announcement points to pharo.org/download to try Pharo, pharo.org/documentation to learn it and pharo.org/features for more on the platform. The full stack is released under the MIT License and is available on GitHub, along with the separate projects included in each release, such as NewTools, Spec, Iceberg, Roassal, Microdown, BeautifulComments and pharo-vm. The command-line testing, command-line debugger and Sindarin script tooling are new entry points for scripted work.
How solid is it
This is the official release announcement from the Pharo Team, the project's own account of its work. Its figures are specific: 978 Pull Requests integrated just in the Pharo repository, 616 issues closed since Pharo 13, and 432 forks and 1,494 stars on GitHub as the project counts them now. It gives no benchmarks or performance figures for the VM, RISC-V JIT or GC changes, so those are described but not measured.
Risks and caveats
Upgrade or migration instructions and breaking changes from Pharo 13 are not described in the announcement, so users of the replaced or consolidated tools (Spotter, Epicea, ProfStef) should check the documentation before moving. The post itself carries an unfilled template placeholder in the community line ("more than [X] contributors"), so it gives no contributor count. The VM and tooling claims are the team's own and come without independent testing.
“Pharo is objects and messages all the way down.”
— The Pharo Team, Pharo 14 release announcement