Add news item for OTP 28 RC4

Author: bjorng

_news/179.md

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+---
+layout: post
+id: 179
+title: "Erlang/OTP 28.0 Release Candidate 4"
+lead: "Erlang/OTP 28.0-rc4 is the fourth release candidate for OTP 28"
+tags: "release, OTP, 28.0-rc4, Release date"
+Candidate: "2025-05-05"
+author: "Björn Gustavsson"
+---
+## OTP 28.0-rc4
+
+Erlang/OTP 28.0-rc4 is the fourth release candidate 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,
+and that it installs as it should.
+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-rc4) release
+and you can view the new documentation at
+[https://erlang.org/documentation/doc-16-rc4/doc](https://erlang.org/documentation/doc-16-rc4/doc/).
+You can also install the latest release using [kerl](https://github.com/kerl/kerl) like this:
+
+```
+kerl build 28.0-rc4 28.0-rc4
+```
+
+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 for RC4
+
+- The ancient ASN.1 modules used in `public_key` has been replaced with more
+  modern versions, but we have strived to keep the documented Erlang API for the
+  `public_key` application compatible.
+
+# Highlights for RC2
+
+- Functionality making it possible for processes to enable reception of
+  [priority messages](https://erlang.org/doc/system/ref_man_processes.html#priority-messages) has been introduced in accordance with
+  [EEP 76](https://www.erlang.org/eeps/eep-0076).
+
+# Highlights for RC1
+
+## 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.
+
+- The compiler’s alias analysis pass is now both faster and less
+  conservative, allowing optimizations of records and binary
+  construction to be applied in more cases.
+
+## 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://erlang.org/documentation/doc-16-rc2/lib/stdlib-7.0/doc/html/binary.html) module.
+
+- By default, sets created by module
+  [`sets`](https://erlang.org/documentation/doc-16-rc2/lib/stdlib-7.0/doc/html/sets.html)
+  will now be represented as maps.
+
+- Module [`re`](https://erlang.org/documentation/doc-16-rc2/lib/stdlib-7.0/doc/html/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-rc4.readme).