slang 1.4 officially released

["John E. Davis" <davis>]

Version 1.4.0 of the multi-platform slang programmer's library is now
available from:

   ftp://space.mit.edu/pub/davis/slang/v1.4/

and the mirrors:

   ftp://ftp.uni-stuttgart.de/pub/unix/misc/slang/
   ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/pub/unix/news/slrn/
   ftp://ftp.ntua.gr/pub/lang/slang/
   ftp://ftp.plig.org/pub/slang/

For more information about the library and programs that utilize it,
visit the slang web site at http://www.s-lang.org.

Version 1.4.0 is the culmination of considerable testing and use of
the 1.3.x development series.  It is _not_ development code.  The last
non-development code release was nearly two years ago when version
1.2.2 was made available.  Although many changes and enhancements to
the library have been made since then, version 1.4 should be binary
compatible with version 1.2.

Major improvements over 1.2 include:

  * Support for multiple namespaces (both public and private)

  * Dynamic linking of modules via 'import' (See modules/README).

  * The interpreter now supports all basic C integer and floating
    point types.
    
  * Many more built-in intrinsic functions and improved documentation.

  * Associative Arrays
  
  * Binary Strings, i.e., the interpreter allows strings to contain
    embedded \0 characters.
    
  * A slang-shell program called slsh that can run slang scripts (See
    slsh subdirectory).

Changes since 1.3.10 include:
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@xxxxxxxxx>)
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@xxxxxx>)

-- 
John E. Davis                   Center for Space Research/AXAF Science Center
617-258-8119                    One Hampshire St., Building NE80-6019
http://space.mit.edu/~davis     Cambridge, MA  02139-4307