path: root/libslang/changes.txt

Changes since 1.4.8
1. src/slarray.c: superfluous call to SLclass_add_math_op removed
   (Michael Noble <mnoble at space.mit.edu>)
2. src/slang.c: foreach (NULL) using("next"){} foo (); caused _NARGS=1
   in foo.
3. src/slarrfunc.c: Fix to prevent sum(NULL) from causing a core-dump.
4. src/slimport.c: import (module, "") made equivalent to
   import(module,"Global");  This way, import(module, current_namespace())
   will work when the current namespace is anonymous.
5. src/slospath.c: Several users have requested that I add the ability
   to define a load path and use that path when loading interpreter
   files.  To this end, several new functions were added to the API:
   
       char *SLpath_get_load_path (void);
       int SLpath_set_load_path (char *path);
         /* Get and Set the path to be searched for files */
       int SLpath_get_path_delimiter (void);
       SLpath_set_path_delimiter (int delimiter);
         /* Get and set the character delimiter for search paths */
       int SLang_load_file_verbose (int verbose);
         /* if non-zero, display file loading messages */
   
   New intrinsics include:

       set_slang_load_path
       get_slang_load_path
       path_get_delimiter
       
   These functions, nor the intrinsics have an effect on applications
   that use SLang_load_file_hook or SLns_load_file_hook for loading
   files.  The change should be transparant to applications that use
   the stock load file mechanism.  The main difference is that if one
   attempts to load a file with no extension, e.g., "foo", but the
   file does not exist, then the interpreter will try to load the more
   recent of "foo.sl" and "foo.slc".
   
   See src/slsh.c for how the functions may be used.

6. slsh/slsh.c: Updated to use the new search path code outlined
   above.  Also, slsh is distributed with a collection of general
   purpose slang functions, including jed's provide/require functions.
   See slsh/README for more information.
7. doc/tm/cslang.tm: Modified the section describing the implemetation
   of intrinsic functions in an effort to clarify the discussion.
8. src/slang.c: tiny memory leak resulting from peephole optimzations
   added earlier found and fixed.
9. src/slarrmisc.c: new intrinsic: cumsum computes the cumulative sum
   of an array via the new SLarray_map_array function.

Changes since 1.4.7
1. src/sldisply.c: make sure SLtt_erase_line leaves the cursor at the
   beginning of a line in all cases.  Previously, this happened only
   for terminals able to delete to the end of line _and_, when
   writing to the last line, the ability to insert a character.
2. doc/tm/cslang.tm: In the discussion of the MAKE_CSTRUCT_FIELD
   macro, SLANG_STRING_TYPE was used instead of SLANG_INT_TYPE
   (mnoble@space.mit.edu).  Similarly, in the discussion of intrinsic
   structures, My_Window was used instead of My_Win
   dburke@head-cfa.cfa.harvard.edu.
3. src/slang.c: peephole optimizations of 1.4.7 were conflicting with __tmp
   optimizations.  This was causing something as simple as
   
       define f() 
       { 
          variable a = [1.0:10.0:1]; 
	  variable b = a * 0.0;
	  return a;
       }
   
    to fail.
4. src/slarray.c Allow ranges to index higher dimensional array.
5. slsh/slsh.c: Updated to allow a user specified search path.  See
   slsh/README for more info.

Changes since 1.4.6
1. src/slclass.c: Change "-??-" to "- ?? -" to avoid its
   interpretation as a trigraph. Miquel Garriga <miquel at icmab.es>
2. src/mkfiles/makefile.all: If compiling with mingw32, use "cp"
   instead of "copy". Miquel Garriga <miquel at icmab.es>
3. src/sllimits.h: Increased the size of the local variable and
   recursion stacks on 32 bit systems.
4. src/slarrfun.c: "sum", "min", and "max" intrinsic functions added.
   Since these may conflict with application defined function, they
   have been placed in their own module.  To get them, use
   SLang_init_array_extra --- SLang_init_all will not pick up this
   module.  Version 2 of the library will add these functions to the
   main array function module.
5. src/sltermin.c: Work around a bug in the solaris 7+8 tset program
   which improperly sets the TERMCAP environment variable
   (Paananen Mikko <mikkopa@cs.tut.fi>).
6. src/slprep.c: Added support for "#stop" and a few other useful
   or convenient features.  See comments at the top of slprep.c for
   more details. (Mark Olesen <molesen@zeunastaerker.de>).
7. src/<misc>.c: "const" qualifier added to several places to put
   constant variables in rdata/text segment to be shared between
   other processes. ("Andrew V. Samoilov" <samoilov@usb.zp.ua>)
8. src/sldisply.c: If colors were defined using the "Sf" capability
   instead of the "AF" capability, then assume those are specified in
   BGR format instead of RGB. (Pavel Roskin <proski@gnu.org>)
9. slsh/slsh.c: "status" was not declared if compiled with
   SLSH_LIB_DIR defined. (mnoble@space.mit.edu)
10. slsh/Makefile.g32: new file to allow slsh to be compiled with
    mingw32.
11. src/sldisply.c,sltermin.c: if running as setuid/setgid, then limit
    access to the environment for such a process. <solar@openwall.com>.
12. src/slstd.c: New intrinsic function _get_namespaces may be used to
    get a list of currently defined namespaces.
13. src/slstruct.c: better support for pushing and popping structures
    from C via the SLang_push/pop_cstruct.  See doc/text/cslang.txt
    for details.
14. slsh/Makefile.in: install target added
15. src/slang.c: additional peep-hole optimizations added
16. src/*.c: fixes it enable the library to be compiled without floating
    support support.

Changes since 1.4.5
1. doc/tm/rtl/struct.tm: Typos in documentation for set_struct_fields
   corrected by Douglas Burke <dburke@head-cfa.harvard.edu>.
2. src/sldisply.c: VMS specific problem: SLang_TT_Write_FD was not
   getting initialized (Hartmut Becker <Hartmut.Becker@compaq.com>).
3. src/slarith.c: On a 64 bit system, it was possible that Int_Type
   objects were not getting properly converted to Double_Type.
4. src/sltoken.c: A unitialized memory reference fixed in the
   error handling of an empty character declaration ('').
5. src/slstd.c: call to _SLinit_slcomplex moved to slmath.c.  This
   means that one does not get complex number support unless math
   support is also enabled.  (suggested by Michael Noble
   <mnoble@head-cfa.harvard.edu>)
6. src/slclass.c: Make sure that when registering a class using
   SLANG_VOID_TYPE, the reserved class ids are not used.
7. src/slmisc.c, src/sltoken.c: moved SLatoi and friends from sltoken
   to slmisc.c.  This avoids linking in the interpreter when it is not
   needed.
8. doc/tm/rtl/array.tm: Documentation for the "where" function
   corrected by <G.Milde@physik.tu-dresden.de>.
9. src/slkeypad.c: support added for F11 and F12 keys
10. src/slimport.c: Better handling of dlopen errors as suggested by
    Michael Noble <mnoble@head-cfa.harvard.edu.
11. src/slstruct.c: make sure field names have legal names.
12. src/slistruct.c: SLns_add_istruct_table added.
13. src/sltoken.c: New name-space specific functions added:
      SLns_load_file, SLns_load_string
    These may be used to load a file or a string into a specified
    namespace.  Simarily, the "eval" and "evalfile" functions may now
    be given a second argument to specify a namespace.
14. src/slstd.c: __eqs function added to test for "sameness" of
    its arguments, __class_type returns information about how an
    object is classified, __class_id to return its class id.  See
    examples/saveobj.sl for an example of the use of these functions.
15. src/slarray.c: a 2-d array can nolonger be specified in-line as,
    e.g., [[1,2],[3,4]].  This now produces a 1-d array: [1,2,3,4].
16. src/slregexp.c: fix for case-insentive matches involving e.g.,
    a\{1,3\} type regexps (Thomas Schultz <tststs@gmx.de>)
17. src/slarray.c: Allow setting elements of pointer type arrays to
    NULL, e.g., a[10] = NULL.
18. src/slsignal.c: If CYGWIN, then assume posix signal handling works.
19. src/slang.c: Do not allow an intrinsic function, variable, etc
    table to be added twice.
20. src/slarray.c: Added _isnull intrinsic for checking for NULL values of
    array elements.  This is useful since something like
    "where(a==NULL)" does not check the individual elements, whereas 
    "where(_isnull(a))" does.
21. src/sldisply.c: typo involving the initialization of Del_Eol_Str 
    for terminals that do not have such capability.
    (Pavel Roskin <proski@gnu.org>)

Changes since 1.4.4
1. Added QNX specific patches and fixed some typos that prevented it
   from compiling when _SLANG_OPTIMIZE_FOR_SPEED is 0. (Tijs Michels
   <tijs@vimec.nl>).
2. Make sure '#ifeval expr' evaluates up to the end of a line and no
   further.
3. src/sldisply.c: Do not look for pad info in the graphic charset
   pairs string.  Also, when comparing space characters, be sure to
   take into account ACS.  (Marek Paliwoda <paliwoda@inetia.pl>)
4. Trivial code cleanups to avoid BCC 5.x warnings.
5. src/mkfiles/makefile.all: BCC-specific tweaks (John Skilleter
   <John.Skilleter@pace.co.uk>)
6. SLang_push/pop_datatype made public
7. src/slutty.c: if tty is not initialized and an attempt is made to
   read from the tty, set errno to EBADF.
8. src/slkeypad.c: New function SLkp_set_getkey_function.  This may be
   used to specify a different function to read keys.
9. src/slcurses.c: If an invalid keysequence is entered, simply return the
   characters of the sequence on successive getkey calls.
10. src/slarray.c: Inline arrays of the form [1f, 0] were not working.
11. src/sldisply.c: Make sure SLtt_get_screen size gets called by
    SLtt_initialize.
12. doc/tm/rtl/struct.tm: typeof in example for get_struct_field_names
    corrected by Chris Baluta.
13. modules/varray.c: example showing how a memory mapped array may be
    created.  It also illustrates the free_fun callback for arrays.
14. examples/life.sl: a S-Lang implementation of Conway's life.
15. src/slclass.c: SLclass_dup_object function added.  Although
    push/pop can be used to achieve a duplicated object, this function
    makes it a little easier.
16. src/slang.h: Prototyes involving "unsigned char" to represent data
    types have been modified to use SLtype, which is typedefed to be
    an unsigned char.  V2 will use a different size for data types.
17. Misc tweaks to aclocal.m4, src/Makefile.in, etc to support MacOSX.
    I have not tested it on that system.
18. The library may now be compiled under CYGWIN using the same
    procedure as under Unix.
19. src/slkeypad.c: Some xterm-specific escape sequences added by
    Denis Zaitsev <zzz@cd-club.ru>. 

Changes since 1.4.3
1.  Fixed a bug that shows up on 64 bit BigEndian machines--- it
    affected no others.
2.  Fixed potential problem in pre-parsing binary strings.
3.  Bug a fixed affecting only pure termcap-based systems.  It has
    been around a while, I am surprised that it took so long to be
    discovered.

Changes since 1.4.2
1.  If init_NAME_module_ns does not exist in a module, then try to
    load init_NAME_module as long as the module is to be imported into
    the Global namespace.
2.  src/sldisply.c: allow more than 200 rows and 250 columns.  Who
    uses such windows?
3.  Allow Void_Type to be specified for the data-type in array_map if the
    function returns nothing.
4.  src/slarray.c: A statement such as [1:-1][[1:-1]] = [1:-1]; was
    causing a core dump.
5.  src/sldisply.c: (Unix/VMS) SLsmg/SLtt routines will write using the file
    descriptor SLang_TT_Write_FD, which, by default, is initialized to 
    fileno(stdout).
6.  src/slposio.c: New C API functions: 
       SLfile_get_fd returns the file descriptor associated with the 
         SLFile object.
       SLfile_dup_fd: duplicate an SLFile object
7.  src/slposio.c: New intrinsics: dup_fd (dup a file descriptor)
8.  SLerrno.c: C API Function: SLerrno_set_errno.
9.  SLerrno.c: More errno values added.
10. Raising complex types to powers supported.
11. slang.c: current_namespace was returning "global" instead of
    "Global" for the global namespace.
12. slang.c: `use_namespace("X");define f();' was not placing `f' into
    `X'.
13. path_is_absolute fixed to return integer
14. src/slarray.c: generate an error when an empty array is passed to
    array_map.
15. src/slarray.c: a=3; a[*] should return an array.
16. Make sure setlocale(LC_NUMERIC,"C") gets called.
17. slvideo.c: SLtt_set_cursor_visibility implemented for win32.
18. slvideo.c: SLtt_get_screen_size corrected for win32 by Zusha P.
19. configure: modified to not automatically assume that -ldl is
    required for dlopen. In addition, molesen@zeunastaerker.de sent
    patches for building dynamically linked library under irix.
20. slsh/Makefile: generated by configure.
21. modules/Makefile: generated by configure
22. src/slimport.c: If no module path has been set, fall back on
    $(prefix)/lib/slang/modules
23. src/Makefile.in: DESTDIR support added by Brad <brad@comstyle.com>.
24. src/Makefile.in: documentation is installed in $(prefix)/doc/slang
    and no longer in $(prefix)/doc/slang/$(slang_version)
25. sleep intrinsic can take a floating point number to sleep
    fractional seconds.
26. src/slang.c: fix SLang_run_hooks to accept a namespace qualifier.
27. New modules added to the module directory: fcntl, select, termios.

Changes since 1.4.1
1.  slang.c: Under certain conditions, the continue statement was not
    properly handled in do..while statements.  src/test/loops.sl added
    for testing.
2.  slparse.c: avoid potential (rare?) infinite loop when slang error occurs
    (Stanis�a Bartkowski <sb@protest.com.pl>).
3.  slsmg.c: When SLsmg_init_smg is called, mark the display as trashed.
4.  It is now possible to add intrinsics to their own namespace via
    new SLns_add* functions.  Moreover, the import function now takes
    an optional additional argument that specifies a namespace.
5.  New namespace intrinsics: use_namespace, current_namespace
6.  Changed inner-product algorithm to minimize the number of cache
    misses.
7.  sldisply.c: Kanji specific patch from Jim Chen
    <jimc@ns.turbolinux.com.cn>.
8.  sldisply.c: Assume that Eterm and rxvt are xterm-like (Michael
    Jennings <mej@valinux.com>).
9.  sldostty.c: mouse support added by Gisle Vanem <giva@bgnett.no>.
10. slsearch.c: avoid infinite loop if search string has no length.    
11. SCO elf support added by Mike Hopkirk <hops@sco.com>.
12. slregexp.c: regexp \d+ was not working properly
13. keyhash.c: typos involving USER_BLOCK keywords corrected.
    (the use of USER_BLOCKs is discouraged).
14. New intrinsic variable: _slang_doc_dir.  This specifies the
    installation location of the doc files.
15. Make sure it can compile with  SLTT_HAS_NON_BCE_SUPPORT set to 0.

Changes since 1.4.0
1.  slw32tty.c: `v' key was not being handled on win32 systems.  Also,
    Shift-TAB will now generate ^@-TAB.
2.  New intrinsic function: strreplace.  This is more flexible than
    str_replace.
3.  VMSMAKE.COM: slstring added to list of files to get compiled.
4.  slsh/Makefile, modules/Makefile: added patch from Jim Knoble
    <jmknoble@pobox.com> to create elf versions (make ELF=elf).
5.  AIX IBMC patches from Andy Igoshin <ai@vsu.ru>.
6.  autoconf/config.sub: tweaked to properly handle recent alpha
    systems.
7.  If compiling on an alpha, add -mieee compiler flags.
8.  SLang_roll_stack and SLang_reverse_stack functions made public.
9.  SLang_free_function added.  If you call SLang_pop_function, then when
    finished, call SLang_free_function.  This does nothing in 1.X but
    may do something in 2.x.
10. src/slrline.c: Keybindings for ESC O A, etc added.
11. src/slsmg.c: SLsmg_write_nstring: avoid many loops if an extremely
    large value is passed (> 0x7FFFFFFF).
12. src/slregexp.c made thread safe
13. src/slsmg.c: Cursor was not always properly positioned when
    after SLsmg_touch_lines called.
14. If terminal does not have erase to eol capability, then use spaces.
15. doc/tm/strops.sl: doc for strcat updated to reflect its ability to
    concatenate N strings.
16. Documentation updated to indicate that floating point range arrays
    are open intervals such that [a:b] does not include b.  slarray.c
    was modified to enforce this specification.  Previously, whether
    or not b was included in the interval was indeterminate.
17. src/slsmg.c: bug involving SLsmg_set_screen_start fixed.
18. src/slparse.c: parser was failing to catch misplaced `}'.

Changes since 1.3.10
1.  If a floating point exception occurs and the OS allows the library
    to handle it without forcing a longjmp, then SL_FLOATING_EXCEPTION
    will get generated instead of SL_INTRINSIC_ERROR.  Note: Linux
    provides no way to handle floating point exceptions without
    forcing a longjmp.  In my opinion, this is a flaw.
2.  SLang_pop_double was returning the wrong value for short and
    character types.
3.  New intrinsic: is_struct_type(X) ==> non-zero is X is a struct.
4.  typecast operation from user defined type to Struct_Type added.
5.  slkeypad.c: DOS/Windows DELETE_KEY definition added (Doug Kaufman
    <dkaufman@rahul.net>)
6.  slposdir.c: Do not depend upon the existence of rmdir on VMS
    systems.
7.  slang.c: abs, sign, mul2, chs, sqr were not being treated as
    function calls.
8.  sldisply.c:SLtt_cls:  If the terminal is a color terminal but
    being used as a black and white terminal, then reset colors before
    clearing.
9.  path_sans_extname intrinsic added.
10. slimport.c: If module defines deinit_NAME, will be be called prior
    to unloading the module. (Ulrich Dessauer <des@gmx.de>)

Changes since 1.3.9
0.  typedef unsigned short SLsmg_Char_Type added to slang.h.
    Applications that access SLsmg functions read/write_raw and
    SLsmg_char_at should use SLsmg_Char_Type unstead of unsigned short
    because this will be changed to unsigned long in version 2.0.

1.  Documentation patches from Vlad Harchev <hvv@hippo.ru> added.
2.  slstring.c:  offsetof(SLstring,bytes) -->
    offsetof(SLstring,bytes[0]) to avoid compiler warning on some
    systems.
3.  slcmplex.c: an int was used where a double should have beed used.
4.  egcs g++ was optimizing slang.c:SLclass_push_ptr_obj away because
    it was declared as inline.  In my opinion, this is another g++ bug.
5. sscanf intrinsic added.  See docs.
6. SLmake_lut rewritten to correct incorrect handling of ranges with a
   hyphen at the end.
7. Small bug involving non-BCE terminals in SLsmg_set_color_in_region
   fixed.
8. Functions SLcomplex_asinh/acosh/atanh implemented.
9. install-elf will nolonger install .h files twice.
10. @Struct_Type may be used to create a struct.
12. X[i]++, X[i]-=Y, etc implemented.
13. Much of slw32tty.c rewritten to fix several bugs in the win32 tty
    support.  In addition, if SLgetkey_map_to_ansi(1) has been called,
    then function and arrow keys will produce escape sequences that
    allow one to distinguish alt, ctrl, and shift function keys.
14. OS/2 specific typo in slposdir.c corrected (Eddie Penninkhof
    <wizball@xs4all.nl>).
15. slang.c:add_slang_function: On the very rare occasion that this
    function failed, memory would get freed twice.

Changes since 1.3.8
1. Color was not enabled on VMS.
2. If MAKE_INTRINSIC was used to declare a function which takes
   arguments, then a typecast error would result when the function was
   called.  New programs should not use MAKE_INTRINSIC since it
   bypasses argument type-checking.
3. src/sl-feat.h: SLTT_XTERM_ALWAYS_BCE variable added to force the
   assumption of the bce (background-color-erase) capability of xterm.
   The default is 0, which means to accept the terminfo setting.
   To force it to 1 during run-time, set the COLORTERM_BCE environment
   variable.  This is useful when using, e.g., rxvt to login to a
   solaris system where the terminfo file will probably not indicate
   bce.
4. SLw32tty.c:SLang_init_tty: Open CONIN$ instead of using
   GetStdHandle.  This is necessary if stdin has been redirected.
5. SLposdir.c: Stat structure contains new field `st_opt_attrs' that
   may be used to contain system specific information that `struct
   stat' does not provide.  In particular, under win32, this field
   contains the file attributes, e.g., whether or not a file is
   hidden.
6. Appropriate typecasts added to avoid warnings on systems that do not 
   support `void *'.
7. Characters in the range 128-255 are allowed in identifiers.
8. Correction to the documentation for SLang_init_tty (Ricard Sierra
   <irebulle@nexo.es>).
9. SLANG_END_*_TABLE macros added to quiet silly egcs compiler warnings.
10. typo in sltime.c caused it not to compile under Ultrix.
11. Speed improvement of binary operations involving arrays,
    particularly when used in conjunction with the __tmp function.
12. traceback messages include the filename containing the function
13. File local intrinsic variable `_auto_declare' added.  If non-zero, 
    any undefined global variable will be given static scope.
14. __uninitialize intrinsic function added.
15. listdir was returning NULL on empty directories.  It has been
    changed to return String_Type[0].  It will return NULL upon error.
16. slang.h: if __unix is defined, then also define __unix__ (Albert
    Chin-A-Young <china@thewrittenword.com>).
17. foreach using extended to File_Type objects.  See documentation.
18. Tweak to the inner-product operator such that if A is a vector,
    and B is a 2-d matrix, then A will be regarded as a 2-d matrix
    with 1 column.

Changes since 1.3.7
0. configure script updated to autoconf 2.13.  If /usr/include/slang.h
   exists, then the default prefix will be set to /usr.
1. Compile error fixed if _SLANG_HAS_DEBUG_CODE is 0.
2. Bug fix involving typecast(Array_Type, Any_Type).
3. __IBMC__ patches from Eddie Penninkhof <wizball@xs4all.nl>.
4. If A = Assoc_Type[] (Any_Type array), then A[x] automatically
   dereferences the Any_Type object.
5. Bug fixed involving Assoc_Type optimization cache.
6. Tweaks to SLtt_smart_puts for improved performace.
7. array_map modifed such that the first array in its argument list
   controls the number of elements in the output array.  This is a
   backward compatible change and makes the function more flexible.
8. Additional tweaks to speedup array inary functions if
   _SLANG_OPTIMIZE_FOR_SPEED > 1.
9. Patch from Thomas Henlich <henlich@mmers1.mw.tu-dresden.de> fixing
   a problem with the `SLang_define_case' function, which allows
   customization of the upper/lower case tables.
10. strtrans and str_delete_chars intrinsic functions added.
11. tweaks to interpreter for some additional speed.

Changes since 1.3.6
1. Added a modified version of a patch from Martynas Kunigelis
   <martynas@diskena.dammit.lt> to allow writes to the lower left
   corner.
2. SIZEOF_LONG changed to 4 for VMS alpha systems (Jouk Jansen
   <joukj@hrem.stm.tudelft.nl>).
3. MSC patches from gustav@morpheus.demon.co.uk (Paul Moore).  He also
   contributed code for listdir with MSC.
4. SLsmg.c: Background color erase tweaks for terminals that lack this
   capability.
5. Fixed a NULL pointer dereference when doing Struct_Type[2][0].
6. Added slsh/scripts/ls and slsh/scripts/badlinks.  `ls' is designed
   for non-Unix systems and `badlinks' finds all symbolic links in
   specified directories that point to non-existent files.
7. SLang_Version_String and intrinsic variable _slang_version_string
   added.
8. stat_file modified under win32 such that a trailing `\' is stripped
   if present.
9. stat_is intrinsic modified to return a character instead of an
   integer.
10. The matrix-multiplication operator `#' now performs inner-products
    on arrays, e.g.,  if A and B arrays:
         A = A_i..jk
	 B = B_kl..m
    Then, (A#B)_i..jl..m = A_i..jk B_kl..m where k is summed over.
    This means that `#' is a matrix multiplication operator for 2-d
    arrays, and acts as a dot-product operator for 1-d arrays.
    In the process, it has been extended to complex numbers.

11. _reshape intrinsic function added.  Unlike `reshape', this
    function creates a new array and returns it.
12. Array indexing via characters works again, e.g., A['a'].
   
Changes since 1.2.2
0. New assignment operators: *= /= &= |=
   The addition of these operators meant that some of the internal
   byte-codes had to be modified.  This change should only cause
   problems with byte-compiled or preprocessed .sl files.  As far as I
   know, only the JED editors uses this feature.  So, after upgrading
   the library, and before running JED, do the equivalent of
   
        rm $JED_ROOT/lib/*.slc

   That is, delete the byte-compiled .slc files.

1. Now the language supports `!if ... else' statements.  
2. New intrinsics: 

       __is_initialized:  This may be used to see whether or
          not a variable is initialized, e.g, __is_initialized (&variable);
       __get_reference: Returns a reference to an object with a
          specified name.
       rmdir, rename, remove (slfile.c): these return 0 upon success, -1 upon
          failure and set errno
       getpid, getgid, getppid (slunix.c)
       _typeof: This is similar to `typeof' except in the case of
          arrays where it returns the data type of the array
       __pop_args, __push_args: see documentation
       fseek, ftell, and symbolic constants SEEK_END, SEEK_CUR, SEEK_SET
       sleep
       usage

3. `Conj' function added to get the complex conjugate
4. New array module that implementes additional array functions, e.g.,
   transpose, matrix multiplication, etc...  Use `SLang_init_array' to
   initialize.
5. An array such as [[1,2,3],[4,5,6]] is interpreted as a 2-row
   3-column array.
6. Amiga patches from J�rg Strohmayer <j_s@gmx.de>.
7. New table types:

       SLang_IConstant_Type
       SLang_DConstant_Type
       
   These are useful for defining symbolic constants.  See slmath.c and
   slfile.c for examples of their use.

8. A new pseudo-function: __tmp
   This `function' takes a single argument, a variable, and returns
   the value of the variable, and then undefines the variable.  For
   example,
   
        variable x = 3;
	variable y;
	y = __tmp(x);

   will result in `y' having a value of `3' and `x' will be undefined.
   The purpose of this pseudo-function is to free any memory
   associated with a variable if that variable is going to be
   re-assigned.  For example, consider:

        variable x = [1:10:0.1];
        x = 3*x^2 + 2;

    At the time of the re-assignment of `x' in the last statement, two
    arrays will exist.  However,

        x = 3*__tmp(x)^2 + 2;
    
    results in only one array at the time of the assignment, because
    the original array associated with `x' will have been deleted.  This
    function is a pseudo-function because a syntax error results if
    used like
    
        __tmp (sin(x));

9.  New low-level push/pop functions that are designed specifically
    for use in constructing the push/pop methods of application
    defined data types.  These functions have names of the form:
    
        SLclass_push_*_obj
        SLclass_pop_*_obj
	
    where * represents int, long, char, short, ptr, double, float.
    See sltypes.c to see how they are used by, e.g., SLANG_INT_TYPE.

10. New module import facility.  See modules subdirectory for
    examples.  To enable this, use

        SLang_init_module
	
    in you application.  Modules will be searched in the following order
    
        1.  Along the path specified by the `set_import_module_path'
	    function, or by the C functiion SLang_set_module_load_path.
	2.  Along the path given by the SLANG_MODULE_PATH environment 
	    variable.
	3.  Along a system dependent path, e.g., LD_LIBRARY_PATH
        4.  In the current directory.

    New interpreter intrinsics include:
    
        import (String_Type MODULE_NAME);
	set_import_module_path (String_Type PATH);
	String_Type get_import_module_path ();

11.  New integer and floating point types added to the language.  Now
     all basic C signed and unsigned integer types are supported:

       C bindings             S-Lang bindings
       ---------------------------------------
       SLANG_CHAR_TYPE        Char_Type
       SLANG_UCHAR_TYPE       UChar_Type
       SLANG_SHORT_TYPE       Short_Type
       SLANG_USHORT_TYPE      UShort_Type
       SLANG_INT_TYPE         Int_Type
       SLANG_UINT_TYPE        UInt_Type
       SLANG_LONG_TYPE        Long_Type
       SLANG_ULONG_TYPE       ULong_Type
       SLANG_FLOAT_TYPE       Float_Type
       SLANG_DOUBLE_TYPE      Double_Type
       
    For example, `Long_Type[10]' creates an array of 10 longs.

12. New intrinsic: set_struct_field.  See function reference for more
    info.

----- snapshot slang1.3_981030 made available -----

13. Type synonyms added: 

        Int16_Type, UInt16_Type   (16 bit (un)signed integer)
        Int32_Type, UInt32_Type   (32 bit (un)signed integer)
        Int64_Type, UInt64_Type   (64 bit (un)signed integer)
        Float32_Type              (32 bit float)
        Float64_Type              (64 bit float)

    Not all systems support 64 bit integers.  These synonyms are
    useful when one needs integers and floats of a definite size.

14. array_sort changed to use qsort.  The main reason for this is that
    the previous sorting method was derived from a numerical recipes
    merge sort.

15. New namespace manipulation functions available.  When a function
    or variable is declared as `static', it is placed in the private
    namespace associated with the object being parsed (a file).  By
    default, there is no way of getting at that function or variable
    from outside the the file.  However, the private namespace may be
    given a name via the `implements' function:
    
         implements ("A");

    Then the private variables and functions of the namespace A may be
    accessed via A->variable_name or A->function_name.  The default
    global namespace is called `Global'.  For example, the intrinsic
    function `message' is defined in the global namespace.  One may
    use either of the following forms to access it:
    
         message ("hello");
	 Global->message ("hello");

----- snapshot slang1.3_981104 made available -----

16. New intrinsics: 

        strtok  (See documentation)
	length  (Get the length of an object)

17. New data type added: Any_Type.  An array of such a type is capable
    of holding any object, e.g.,
    
         a = Any_Type [3];
	 a[0] = 1; a[1] = "string"; a[2] = (1 + 2i);
	 
    Dereferencing an Any_Type object returns the actual object.  That
    is, @a[1] produces "string".
    
18. Associative arrays added.  See documentation.
19. New `foreach' statement.  See the section on `foreach' in
    doc/text/slang.txt as well as the examples in examples/assoc.sl
    and src/calc.sl.
20. Oops.  sign function was broken.
21. array_sort modified to also accept &function_name.

----- snapshot slang1.3_981116 made available (1.3.4) -----

22. Before, it was necessary for the aplication to to call
    SLang_init_slassoc to enable associative array support.  This is
    nolonger necessary if associative array support is enabled in
    sl-feat.h.

23. Examples in the documentation modified to use foreach whenever a
    simplification occurred.

24. Max screen size for 32 bit systems inclreased to 256 rows.

25. `private' keyword added to prevent access to an object via the
    namespace.  This works exactly like `static' except that `static'
    objects may be accessed via the namespace.

26. structure access methods now available for application defined
    types (cl_sput, cl_sget).  Also, note that array access methods
    are also available.  See slassoc.c for examples.

27. If x is a string, then x[[a:b]] produces a string composed of the
    characters x[a], ... x[b].

29. New intrinsics: 

       listdir:  This returns the filenames in a specified
                 directory as an array of strings.

30. Source code for intrinsic functions reorganized in a more coherent
    fashion.  In particular, SLang_init_slfile and SLang_init_slunix
    are obsolete (though still available) and applications should call
    a combination of the new functions:
    
          SLang_init_stdio()   /* fgets, fopen, ... */
          SLang_init_posix_process () /* getpid, kill, ... */
          SLang_init_posix_dir () /* mkdir, stat, ... */

    Note that `unix_kill' has been replaced by `kill'.  So, if you use
    unix_kill in your application, change it to `kill'.

31. It is now safe to redefine an object while executing the object,
    e.g., this is now ok:

       define f(x) { eval ("define f(x) { return x; }"); }

32. Binary strings added.  This means that it is now possible to use
    strings with embedded null characters.  Too fully exploit this new
    feature, `fread' and `fwrite' functions were added to the stdio
    module.  In addition `pack', `unpack', `sizeof_pack',
    `pad_pack_format' were added for converting between binary strings
    and other data types.  See Stdio chapter of the documentation for
    more information.

33. New structure intrinsic: set_struct_fields.  This is useful for
    setting the fields of a structure without doing each one
    individually.

34. Interpreter now understands __FILE__ and __LINE__ as referring to
    the file name and line number of the object being parsed.

35. New intrinsic: array_map.  This applies a function to each element
    of an array and returns the result as an array.

36. The documentation for the intrinsic functions has been updated and
    organized into a more coherent form.

37. New interface to C structures.  See the documentation.

38. Modifications to the interpreter integer types so that short and
    int are equivalent whenever sizeof(short)==sizeof(int).  Ditto for
    int and long.  This reduces the code size.

39. NULL is equivalent to 0 in while and if statements, e.g.,

       x = NULL;
       if (x) { never_executed (); }
       while (x) { never_executed (); }

40. `public' made a keyword to for symmetry with `private' and
    `static', e.g.,
      
         public define a_public_function ();
	 public variable a_public_variable;
	 
41. semantics of `implements' modified such that the default variable
    and function declarations are `static', i.e.,
    
        define xxx ();  % ==> public function
	implements ("foo");
	define yyy ();  % ==> static function

42. Patch from Martynas Kunigelis <kunimart@pit.ktu.lt> adding more
    line and symbol drawing characters.  Also a patch from
    k-yosino@inatori.netsweb.ne.jp forcing a flush when disabling
    use of the terminal's status line.

--- Version 1.3.5 released ---

43. Corrected the name of SLang_(sg)et_array_element to be consistent
    with the documentation.

44. Fixed a bug involving orelse and andelse statements when
    _debug_info is non-zero.

45. The _apropos intrinsic modified to work with namespaces.  In fact,
    it now returns an array of matches, or if called with out a
    namespace argument, it returns values to the stack for backward
    compatibility.

46. strchop and strchopr functions modified to return arrays. (this
    changes was actually made in 1.3.5).

47. Semantics of strcompress modified to be more useful.  The new
    semantics are probably more natural and should pose no
    compatibility problems.

48. The `*' operator may be used in array index expressions and is
    equivalent to `[:]', e.g., a[*,1] means all elements in column 1
    of the 2d array.

49. New intrinsics to convert bstrings <--> arrays:
  
        bstring_to_array
	array_to_bstring

50. New timing intrinsics: tic(); toc(); times ();  Also, unix_ctime
    renamed to ctime (This change occurred in 1.3.5).

51. strcat modified to accept more than 2 arguments:

       strcat ("a", "b", ..., "c") ==> "ab...c";

52. %S in format specifiers will convert the object to its string
    representation and use it as %s.

53. strtok defaults to using " \t\r\n\f" if called with one argument.

54. fgetslines takes optional second argument that specifies the
    number of lines to read.

55. If typeof(A) is IStruct_Type, and the corresponding C pointer is
    NULL, then pushing A will result in pushing NULL.  This allows A
    to be compared to NULL.

56. More optimization of arithmetic operations to improve speed.  My
    tests indicate that the resulting code involving arithmetic
    operations are about twice as fast as python (1.5) and about 20%
    faster than perl 5.

57. Patches from Andreas Kraft <kraft@fokus.gmd.de> disabling the
    listdir intrinsic function if compiled with MSC.  Apparantly, the
    MSC compiler does not support posix functions such as opendir
    (although other vendors, e.g, Borland, have no problem with this).

58. `array_sort' intrinsic may be used without a comparison function.
    See docs.

59. Spelling errors in slang.tm corrected by Uichi Katsuta
    <katsuta@cced.mt.nec.co.jp> (Thanks!).

60. Default install prefix changed from /usr to /usr/local

61. Changes made to SLtt/SLsmg code so that when a color definition is
    made via, e.g., SLtt_set_color, then the SLsmg interface will be
    get automatcally notified so that the next SLsmg_refresh will
    produce the correct colors.  In addition, SLsmg_touch_screen added.

62. It is now possible to evaluate S-Lang expressions with the
    S-Lang preprocessor e.g.,
      
        #ifeval (_slang_version > 9900) || (x == 1)

63. sl-feat.h: Patch from J�rg Strohmayer <j_s@gmx.de> to define
    _SLANG_MAP_VTXX_8BIT=1 for AMIGA.

64. New intrinsics: 
      strjoin.  This joins elements of a string array.
      localtime, gmtime

65. New SLsmg function: SLsmg_reinit_smg.  Instead of calling
    SLsmg_reset_smg followed immediately by SLsmg_init_smg when
    processing SIGWINCH signals, call SLsmg_init_smg instead.  This
    will allow SLsmg based code to properly redraw themselves when
    running in a SunOS cmdtool window by working around a bug in
    cmdtool.

===========================================================================

Changes since 1.2.1
 1. slcmd.c was not parsing characters in single quotes correctly,
    e.g., 'a'.

Changes since 1.2.0
 1. Oops.  A NULL pointer could be referenced in slcmd.c.

Changes since 1.0.3 beta

-1. The SLKeyMap_List_Type structure has been modified to allow the
    name of the keymap be be an arbitrary length.  Unfortunately, this
    change breaks backward compatibility.  So, if you have programs
                                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    that are dynamically linked to previous BETA versions of 1.0, you
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    will have to recompile those applications!!!
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

0. The variable SLsmg_Newline_Moves has been renamed to
   SLsmg_Newline_Behavior with the following interpretation:
#define SLSMG_NEWLINE_IGNORED	0      /* default */
#define SLSMG_NEWLINE_MOVES	1      /* moves to next line, column 0 */
#define SLSMG_NEWLINE_SCROLLS	2      /* moves but scrolls at bottom of screen */
#define SLSMG_NEWLINE_PRINTABLE	3      /* prints as ^J */

1. Added patches from Joao Luis Fonseca <joaolf@centroin.com.br> 
   to src/mkfiles/makefile.all and a necessary OS/2 specific
   declaration to slvideo.c.  I also added the Watcom patches from
   Bill McCarthy <WJMc@pobox.com> to makefile.all.
2. The terminfo code is now aware of the complete set of terminfo
   definitions.  However, the screen management routines support a
   small subset. (Eric W. Biederman <ebiederm+eric@npwt.net>).
3. Improvements to the SLsmg scrolling alogorithm.
4. SLang_process_keystring and SLang_make_keystring now return NULL upon
   failure.
5. SLcomplex_sqrt branch cut modifed to be consistent with FORTRAN.
6. If the system supports vsnprintf and snprintf, they are used.  The
   assumption is that they return EOF upon failure.  My linux man page
   for these functions have conflicting statements regarding this.

7. Simplified handling of memory managed types.  Now it is possible to
   pass the managed object directly to the intrinsic function.  See
   slfile.c for an explicit example of this technique.  Similarly,
   references may also be passed and the function SLang_assign_to_ref
   may be used to assign values to the referenced object.  This is
   also illustrated in slfile.c.

8. QNX specific tweak to slfile.c from Pavanas Abludo Incusus
   <pavanas@ccia.com>.

9. Fixed a problem where, e.g., 

        x = Double_Type [7,8,9];
	y = x[0,[:],[:]];
   
   returned y = Double_Type[8*9] instead of the more intuitive result
   Double_Type[8,9];

10. SLcmd_Cmd_Table_Type structure changed to permit an unlimited
    number of arguments.  The changed should be backward compatible
    except that a recompilation of the application will be necessary.
11. New SLsmg function: SLsmg_set_color_in_region may be used to set
    the color of a specified region.  See demo/smgtest.c for an
    example of how this is used.  Another use would be to draw shadows
    around a box.
12. OS2 ICC patches from Eddie Penninkhof <eddie.penninkhof@tip.nl>.
13. Grammar tweaked to make the pow (^) operator postfix-unary.  This
    makes more sense mathematically so that:
    
        a^b^c ==> a^(b^c);
	-(a)^b ==> -(a^b);

14. New struct specific intrinsics:

       get_struct_field_names
       get_struct_field_value
       _push_struct_field_values

    See function reference for more information on these.

Changes since 1.0.2 beta
0. SLtt_init_video, SLtt_reset_video, SLsmg_resume_smg,
   SLsmg_suspend_smg have been modifed to return 0 upon success, or -1
   upon error.
1. Configure script modified to report slang version as 1.0.x instead
   of 1.0.0x.
2. Bug fix involving automatic detection of color (Unix)
3. slvideo.c bug fixed (WIN32, Thanks Chin Huang <cthuang@vex.net>)
4. Slsignal modified so that fork is not used for CYGWIN32, suggested
   by vischne@ibm.net.
5. Solaris ELF patches integrated into configure.in.  Now ELF support
   is available for Linux and Solaris.  Thanks Jan Hlavacek
   <lahvak@math.ohio-state.edu>.
6. The library now works with MING32 and should work with CYGWIN as
   well.  See INSTALL.pc and src/mkfiles/README for more information.
   Do NOT use the configure script under these environments.
7. A new IBMPC_SYSTEM function added that affects WIN32, MSDOS, and
   OS/2 systems: 
     
         SLang_getkey_map_to_ansi (int enable);
	 
   If `enable' is non-zero, arrow and function keys will be mapped to
   the ansi equivalents.
8. The WIN32 terminal support has been modified to be more consistent with
   the other platforms.  In particular, mouse button press reporting
   has been added (SLtt_set_mouse_mode), and bright color support
   appears to have been fixed.  Note: For MINGW32 and CYGWIN32, use
   src/mkfiles/makefile.all.  Do not use the Unix configure script
   because WIN32 is NOT Unix.
9. Several changes to slvideo.c that deals with the proper use of the
   scroll region for DOS/Windows type systems.
10. demo/smgtest.c has been enhanced.
11. Some cleanup performed to src/slprepr.c
12. WIN32 and WIN16 preprocessing symbols are defined when appropriate.


Changes since 1.0.1 beta
1. More VMS patches.  Thanks Andy.

Changes since 1.0.0 beta
1. Fixed a bug in the automatic detection of color terminal
2. Patches to get it to compile on OS2 and VMS
3. Replaced \r\n in slarray.c with \n

Changes since 0.99-38
0. Many, many changes to the interpreter.  See documentation.

1. SLang_free_intrinsic_user_object shortened via define on VMS.
2. Make sure slang.h does not defined REAL_UNIX_SYSTEM on OS/2.
3. New search paths for termin directories include $HOME/.terminfo and
   /usr/share/terminfo.
4. SLsystem function added.  This is a replacement for `system'.  It 
   implements POSIX semantics for POSIX systems.  Although Linux
   claims to be a POSIX system, it's `system' routine is broken.
5. color names color0 ... color7, brightcolor0, ... brightcolor7
   added for Unix and VMS systems.

Changes since 0.99-37
1. SLang_input_pending returns -1 if Ctrl-Break pressed (DOS specific).
2. SLtty_VMS_Ctrl_Y_Hook added for Ctrl-Y trapping.  Keep in mind that
   this is called from an AST.
3. Documentation updates
4. Fixed bug dealing with keymaps with escape sequences involving
   characters with the high bit set.
5. slkeypad code ported to DOS
6. SLsmg_write_raw and SLsmg_read_raw functions added.
7. Compilation error under QNX fixed.
9. Small change involving SLang_flush_input.


Changes since 0.99-36
1. Oops fixed a bug in alternate character set handling when
   SLtt_Use_Blink_For_ACS is set.  This bug only affected DOSEMU.
2. slvideo.c modification that affects DJGPP version of library.  Now
   the screen is saved and restored.
3. Updates to slcurses.c by Michael Elkins.
4. If a color called `default' is specified, the escape sequence to
   set the default color will be sent.  Be careful, not all terminals
   support this feature.  If your terminal supports it, e.g., rxvt,
   then using
   
        setenv COLORFGBG default
     
   is a good choice.

Changes since 0.99-35
1. Fixed alt char set bug introduced in 0.99-35.
2. New intrinsic: _stk_reverse
3. New demos: keypad, smgtest, pager
4. The environment variable COLORFGBG may be used to specify default
   foreground background colors, e.g., in csh use:
   
        setenv COLORFGBG   "white;black"
	
   to specify white on black as the default colors.  This also means
   that a color name of NULL or the empty string "" will get mapped to
   the default color.
5. Improved curses emulation provided by Michael Elkins
   (me@muddcs.cs.hmc.edu).
6. Small bug fix to SLang_flush_output provided by Balakrishnan k
   <MDSAAA27@giasmd01.vsnl.net.in>.
7. Updated some documentation in doc/cslang.tex (Gasp).
8. Update vmsmake.com file provided by Martin P.J. Zinser
   (m.zinser@gsi.de).

Changes since 0.99-34
0. OS/2 video problem solved by Rob Biggar (rb14@cornell.edu).

1. The way the interpreter internally handles strings has changed.
   This should not affect programs which utilize the library.  Now all
   strings returned by the function SLang_pop_string should be freed
   after use.  The SLang_pop_string function will always set the value
   of the second parameter passed to it to a non-zero value.  For this
   reason, programs should use the new function SLpop_string and
   always free the string returned by it after use.

2. If SL_RLINE_NO_ECHO bit is set in the readline structure, the
   user response will not be echoed.
   
3. If terminal is xterm, the TERMCAP environment variable will be
   ignored.  This change was necessary because of the braindead
   TERMCAP setting created by the latest version xterm.
   
4. Some of the keymap routines were re-coded.  Now it is possible to
   have lowercase characters as part of the prefix character sequence.

5. New modules.  See demo/pager.c for information.  See also the slrn
   source code for a more sophisticated use.

      SLscroll: may be useful for routines that deal with displaying
                linked lists of lines.
      SLsignal: POSIX signal interface for programs that use SLsmg and
                SLtt modules.  doc/signal.txt may also prove useful.
      SLkeypad: Simplified interface to SLang keymaps.
      SLerrno:  System independ errno routines

Changes since 0.99-33
1. A couple of interpreter bug fixes.

2. Some macros, e.g., MEMSET, removed from slang.h.  I do not feel
   that they belong there and it is unlikely that they are used by
   others.  I made them avalable in the file src/jdmacros.h for anyone
   whose code depends on them.
   
3. The functions jed_mem??? have been renamed to SLmem???.

4. New intrinsic: _obj_type returns type information about object on top
   of stack.

Changes since 0.99-32
1. appropriate header files added for VMS
2. Oops.  0.99-32 introduced a bug positioning cursor. :(

Changes since 0.99-31
1. Simple minded curses emulation added.  This should help those migrating
   from curses.  See slang/src/curses/*.c for sample curses demo programs
   that the SLsmg routines can handle.  See also slang/src/slcurses.c for
   some wrapper functions.
2. Changed <config.h> to "config.h" in all source files.
3. If system lacks terminfo directories, it is compiled with termcap
   support.  This generalizes and replaces the test for NeXT.   
4. New functions for slang/src/sldisply.c:

    void SLtt_get_screen_size (void);
    SLtt_Char_Type SLtt_get_color_object (int);
    void SLtt_set_color_fgbg (int, SLtt_Char_Type, SLtt_Char_Type);
    
   The first function attempts to deduce the correct values of
   SLtt_Screen_Rows and SLtt_Screen_Cols.  This function is called by
   sltt_get_terminfo.
   
   New constants such as SLSMG_COLOR_BLACK, SLSMG_COLOR_RED, ... have been
   added to slang.h to facilitate the use of SLtt_set_color_fgbg.

5. Improved error messages
6. ELF support.  Do: make elf; make install-elf

Changes since 0.99.30

1. Small bug fixed that affects 64 bit machines with a certain byte
   ordering.   
2. slutty.c: _POSIX_VDISABLE is used if defined.

Changes since 0.99.29

0. BIG change in handling keymaps.  Specifically, this change effects the
   change of the `f' field of the SLang_Key_Type structure.  Before, this
   was VOID_STAR, now it is a union.  The new change is much more portable.
   In addition, the function `SLang_define_key1' has been removed and
   replaced by `SLkm_define_key'.  See src/slrline.c for the use of this new
   interface.  For a short time, the old interface will be available if the
   preprocessor symbol `SLKEYMAP_OBSOLETE' is defined when slang is compiled.
   See jed and slrn source for more examples.  
   
1. SLang_getkey now reads from /dev/tty (unix).
2. If the first argument to SLang_init_tty is -1, the current value of the
   interrupt character will not be changed (unix).
3. New intrinsic: time
Changes since 0.99.28
1.  Oops! Horrible bug in src/slmemcmp fixed.
2.  slvideo: init_video modified to be more consistent with VMS/Unix routine.

Changes since 0.99.27
1.  More changes to the configure script
2.  It looks like hpterm support is in place.  This terminal has a glitch
    that prevents efficient screen updating.
3.  New SLsmg function: 
     
     void SLsmg_write_color_chars (unsigned short *s, unsigned int len)
     
    This function may be used to write a string of characters with
    attributes.

Changes since 0.99.26
1.  Slang now uses a configure script under Unix to configure itself.
2.  New intrinsic functions include _stk_roll, strchop, strchopr.
3.  Terminals which require an escape sequence to make their arrow keys work
    are now sent the escape sequence.

Changes since 0.99.25
1.  New SLsmg variables:
     SLsmg_Newline_Moves
     SLsmg_Backspace_Moves
    These variables control the interpretation of newline and backspace
    characters in smg.     

Changes since 0.99.24
1.  SLSMG_RTEE_CHAR, etc... added to OS/2 part of slang.h
2.  Small fix for aix-term

Changes since 0.99.23
0.  The makefile for unix has been completely re-written. 
1.  Some problems dealing with certain color terminals have been resolved.
2.  `g' generic type added to SLcmd.

Changes since 0.99.22
0.  The Macro `VOID' has been removed.  The whole point of this macro was to
    mimick `void *' declarations for compilers that did not support such a
    construct.  Instead of `VOID *', slang.h now defines `VOID_STAR' and all
    `VOID *' declarations have been renamed to `VOID_STAR'.  
    
    If you use the VOID macro in your application, you have two choices: 
    
       1.  Rename all occurances of VOID * to VOID_STAR
       2.  Add: #define VOID void somewhere appropriate.

1.  \< and \> regular expressions added.

Changes since 0.99.21
1.  Oops.  I added too much linux stuff (see 3 below).  Some of it backed
    out to Linux only.

Changes since 0.99.20
1.  Problem on some VMS systems which lack prototype for atof fixed.
2.  New function: SLtt_set_mouse_mode.  This is used to turn on/off mouse
    reporting on Unix and VMS systems.
3.  The terminal type `linux' is now recognized by the SLtt interface---
    even if there is no termcap/terminfo entry for it.

Changes since 0.99.19
1.  User definable types must now have object identification numbers larger 
    than 127.  The lower limit used to be 100 but this comflicts with many 
    applications (as well as slang itself) using lower case letters as the
    object number, e.g., create_array ('s', 10, 1); which creates an array
    of 10 strings (object number 's' = 115).

2.  New intrinsic: array_info available.
3.  regular expression matching bug involving \{m,n\} expressions fixed.
4.  New module: slprepr.c.   This gives programs the ability to use the slang
    preprocessor.
5.  News slsmg functions: SLsmg_suspend_smg () and SLsmg_resume_smg ().
    These are designed to be used before and after suspension.  The SLsmg
    state is remembered and a redraw is performed by the resume_smg function.
6.  The function `sltty_set_suspend_state' is now available for Unix
    systems.  It may be used to turn on/off processing of the suspend
    character by the terminal driver.
7.  If SLtt_Try_Termcap is 0, the TERMCAP variable will not be parsed.
8.  SLang_TT_Read_FD variable is now available for unix.  This is the file
    descriptor used by SLang_getkey.
9.  New preprocessor symbols available:
     SLMATH      : If math functions are available
     SLUNIX      : If unix system calls are available
     SLFILES     : Stdio functions available
     FLOAT_TYPE  : Floating point version
     
Changes since 0.99.18
1.  New intrinsic function: strcompress.  This collapses a string by removing
    repeated characters.  For example,
    
           define collapse (f)
	   {
	      while (str_replace (f, " ", ",")) f = ();
	      return strcompress (f, ",");
	   }

           collapse (",  ,a b c ,,,d e,f  ");
      
    returns: "a,b,c,d,e,f"
    
2.  QNX support added.  
3.  New Functions (unix only): SLtt_tgetstr, SLtt_tgetnum, SLtt_tgetflag.
4.  Fixed parsing of Octal and Hex numbers so that incorrect values are
    flagged as errors.  Also, both lower and uppercase values may be used in
    HEX numbers, e.g., 0xa == 0XA == 0Xa == 0xA.
5.  MS-Windows support added.  Compile using makefile.msw.  This creates
    `wslang.lib'.
6.  New SLsmg functions:  SLsmg_get_row, SLsmg_get_column.  These return the
    current position.

Changes since 0.99.17
1.  I have added limited termcap support although slang is still a terminfo
    based system.  The support is provided via the TERMCAP environment
    variable.  If this variable exists and contains a termcap entry for which
    there is no reference to another entry (via tc field), it will be used 
    to setup the terminal.   If the TERMCAP variable does not exist, or it 
    refers to a file, terminfo is used instead.  This is not really a
    limitation since one can set this variable in a way that slang likes by
    using `tset -s'.
    
    The motivation for this support is two-fold:
       a. Slang programs can now run inside the screen program which sets
          the TERMCAP variable appropriately.
       b. A user can now correct defective termcap entries (e.g., for Linux),
          and have those corrections made available to slang via the `tset' 
	  command, e.g., by putting something analogous to:
	     
	       setenv TERMCAP /corrected/termcap/file/absolute/path/name
	       eval `tset -s terminal-name`
	       
	  in the .login file.
       c. This also means that I can distribute corrected termcap entries for
          common terminals.
	  
Changes since 0.99.16
1.  Inadequate terminfo entries for `linux' terminal are compensated for.
2.  Terminals with the ``Magic cookie glitch'' are flagged as having an
    unusable highlighting mode.

changes since 0.99.15
1.  Better checking of parameters passed to search routines.
2.  Problem with line drawing characters fixed.

changes since 0.99.14
1.  Ran code through purify.  Fixed one problem reported in slkeymap.c
2.  Fixed a bug in sldisply.c regarding mono-attributes.
3.  Code ready for ELF
changes since 0.99.13
1.  SLtt_Has_Alt_Charset variable added to xterm.c.  This is motivated by the
    sad, pathetic fact that although some termcap/terminfo databases suggest 
    that the terminal can do line drawing characters, the terminal cannot.
2.  SLsmg_write_nstring function added.  This function may be used to write
    only n characters of a string padding wit hblanks if necessary.
3.  If the environment variable COLORTERM exist, SLtt_get_terminfo will set 
    SLtt_Use_Ansi_Colors to 1.
4.  Sltt_set_cursor_visibility function added.  If passed a zero integer value,
    the cursor is hidden; otherwise, it is made visible.
    
changes since 0.99.12
1.  SLsmg now uses the `te' and `ti' termcap entries if present.  Apparantly
    some terminals need to be put in cursor addressing mode.  This also has
    the effect of restoring the screen of the xterm to what it was before
    the program was executed.
2.  For some types of code, slang is 20% faster!  This is especially
    noticeable for branching constructs inside tight loops or recursive
    functions.
    
changes since 0.99.10
1. New version control added:
    
    A new preprocessor symbol was added: SLANG_VERSION
    This is a 6 digit integer of the form: abcdef 
    This corresponds to version number ab.cd.ef.  So for version 0.99.11:
    #define SLANG_VERSION 9911
    
    In addition, the intrinsic variable `SLang_Version' was changed from a 
    string to an integer that has the value SLANG_VERSION.  This also implies
    that the interpreter variable _slang_version is now an integer.

changes since 0.99.9
1. The terminfo code failed to recognize the automatic margin flag.  This
   has been corrected.  In addition, the display code nolonger resets the
   character set upon initialization.  This is considered to be a good thing.

2. There is a new program in slang/doc called `texconv' that will produce a
   nicely formatted ascii document from the tex formatted ones.  In
   addition, new documentation has been added: slang.tex which describes the
   syntax of the slang programming language and cslang.tex which describes
   the C interface to the library.  The latter document is far from complete
   but it is a start.
   
3. A new variable declaration keyword has beed added: global_variable
   This keyword is useful for declaring global variables from within
   functions.  Such a feature simplifies some scripts.
   
4. The SLsmg line drawing functions are now in place.
   
changes since 0.99.8
1. \d may now be used in regular expressions to specify a digit.  In addition,
   \e specifies an escape character.  So for example, `\e\[\d;\dH' matches
   an ANSI cursor position escape sequence.
2. Small bug in dealing with terminals that have automatic margins has been
   fixed.
3. When compiled with -DSLANG_TERMINFO will use terminfo.  This means that
   there is no need to link to termcap.
   
changes since 0.99.7
1. New function added to the readline package:
     int SLang_rline_insert (char *s);
   this may be used to stuff strings into the rline buffer.  SLSC exploits
   this feature.

changes since 0.99.6

1. ALL macros beginning with LANG have been changed to use SLANG as the
   prefix.  For example, the macro LANG_IVARIABLE has been renamed to
   SLANG_IVARIABLE.  If you have used one of these macros, please make the
   change.
   
2. Application defined types.  See demo/complex.c for an example that
   defines complex numbers and overloads the binary and unary operators to
   work with them.
   
changes since 0.99.5


1. New interface for application defined objects.  Functions include:

   extern SLuser_Object_Type *SLang_pop_user_object (unsigned char);
   extern void SLang_free_user_object (SLuser_Object_Type *);
   extern void SLang_push_user_object (SLuser_Object_Type *);
   extern SLuser_Object_Type *SLang_create_user_object (unsigned char type);
				

  This means that S-Lang scripts do not have to worry about freeing
  structures, arrays, etc...  A consequence of this fact is that the
  intrinsic function `free_array' has been removed.  See examples of this
  exciting new feature in slang/demo.
  
2. Better documentation and examples.  See slang/doc/*.* as well as examples
   in slang/demo.
  
3. Memory allocation macros have changed from MALLOC to SLMALLOC, etc...
   Applications are encouraged to use these rather than `malloc' because by
   compiling your application AND the slang library with the -DMALLOC_DEBUG
   will link in code that checks if you have corrupted memory, freed
   something twice, etc...  Use the function `SLmalloc_dump_statistics' for
   a report of memory consumption by your program.
   
changes since 0.99.4
1. cleaned up the source some and I changed the names of the hooks
   user_whatever to `SLang_User_Whatever'.  This makes them more consistent
   with other external functions and variables and helps avoid name space
   pollution.
changes since 0.99.3
* added screen management stuff
* added a new help file reader (see help directory)
* DOUBLE precision is now the default.  I think that this makes more sense
  for an interpreted langauge.
* searching routines added.
changes since 0.99.2
* added low level tty support for VMS, DOS, and Unix
* slang readline added
* keymap support
* files restructured so that programs can link, say, the readline library
   and not get the whole interpreter linked in.
   
changes since 0.99.1
*  obscure bug in regular expression fixed
*  optimizing performed for 10% speed increase in speed for some language
     constructs

changes since 0.99.0
*  semantics of the `switch' statement changed to be more C-like with the
   addition of the `case' keyword.  For example, one can write:
   
        switch (ch)
	{ case 'A':  
	    something ();
	}
	{ 
	  case 'B':  
	    something_else ();
	}
	{ case 3.14: 
	    print ("Almost PI");
	}
	{ case "hello":  
	    print ("hi");
	}
   
   Note that one may mix data types without the possibility of a type
   mismatch error. 
   
changes since 0.98:
*  matrix package added.  Currently only matrix multiplication and addition
   is supported.  More functions will be added (determinants, inverse, etc..)
   This support is provided by the `init_SLmatrix ()' call.  This support 
   provides the following S-Lang intrinsics:
   
         matrix_multiply, matrix_add
	  
   
*  New S-Lang core intrinsic:

         copy_array  :  copys the contents of one array to another

changes since 0.97:
 
*  Double precision floating point supported.  
   Use the -DFLOAT_TYPE -DUSE_DOUBLE compiler flags to enable this.
   Note that S-Lang does not support single precision and double precision
   floating point number SIMULTANEOUSLY.  You must choose one or the other
   and stick with it!
   
*  Byte compiling is now more than simple preprocessing.  This results in
   about a 20% decrease in loading time.  This also means that if you
   rebuild your application, you MUST re-bytecompile.
   
*  New syntax added:  Consider a function f that returns multiple values.
   Then to assign these values to, say var_1, and var_2, simply write:
   
       (var_1, var_2) = f ();
       
    This is an alternative to:  
    
        f (); =var_2; =var_1;
	
Changes since 0.96:

  It is now possible to use short circuit boolean evaluation of logical
  expressions is the `orelse' and `andelse' constructs.  Previously, these
  constructs were only available at the infix level.  The new syntax looks
  like (example taken from JED's rmail.sl):
  
     if (orelse 
	 {re_bsearch("^\\CFrom:.*<\\(.+\\)>");}
	 {re_bsearch("^\\CReply-To: *\\([^ ]+\\) *");}
	 {re_bsearch("^\\CFrom:.*<\\(.+\\)>");}
	 {re_bsearch("^\\CFrom: *\\([^ ]+\\) *");}
	 {re_bsearch("^\\cFrom +\\([^ ]+\\) *");}
       )
     {
	from = rmail_complex_get_from(from);
     }
     

  Modified some of the array code to use handles to arrays instead of actual
  arrays.  This adds alot more protection for the use of arrays.  The
  downside is that there is a limit on the number of active arrays.  This
  limit has been set to a default value ot 256.  An ``active'' array is an
  array that has been created but not freed.
  
  Fixed a parse error that occurred when an `if' statement imediately follow
  the `:' in a switch statement.
  
  putenv intrinsic added.

  EXIT_BLOCK:  if an exit block is declared, it is called just before the
               function returns to its caller. 

It is now possible to perform assignments in variable declaration
statements, e.g.,

variable i = 0, imax = 10, n = strlen (name);

Condition compilation of S-Lang source possible.  See .sl files in the jed
distribution.

A bug which prevent assignment to a global C floating point variable was
fixed. 

Changes to `calc':

   `apropos' function added to calc.sl.  For example, `apropos("str")'
      creates a list of all intrinsic functions that contain the substring
      "str"  (strcmp, strcat, etc...)
      
    Command line arguments are now loaded as S-Lang source files.  This makes
      it possible to create a Unix executable such as:
      
         #! /usr/local/bin/calc
	 
	 define hello_world () { print ("hello world"); }
	 loop (10) hello_world ();
	 quit ();