[slang-users] slang 2.2.0 release candidate 1 available

["John E. Davis" <davis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I am pleased to announce the availability of the first release candidate
of slang-2.2.0.  It is available from the snapshots webpage at
<http://www.jedsoft.org/snapshots/>.  I intend publically release
slang-2.2.0 at the end of the month.

This version is binary compatible with previous version 2 releases.
It includes bug-fixes and performance enhancements.  A brief description
of some new features is given below.  For a detailed list of changes,
consult the changes.txt file in the distribution.

Thanks,
--John

Interpreter Enhancements
========================

   1.  The ternary expression was added:  
   
           expression = condition ? val1 : val2

       If condition is non-zero, then expression = val1, 
        otherwise expression = val2

   2.  The break and condition statements support an optional integer
       that indicates how many loop levels the statement affects, e.g.,
       the break statement in

           while (1)
	     {
	         loop (10)
		    {
		        break 2;
		    }
	     }
	
       will cause both loops to be terminated.
       
   3.  Multiline strings have been added:
   
           "This is a \
	    multiline \
	    string"
	    
           `This is
	    another multiline
	    string that 
	    does not require 
	    a \ for continuation`

    4.  List_Type objects may be indexed using an array of indices
        instead of just a single scalar index.
	    

Modules
=======
 
   1.  zlib: A module that wraps the popular z compression library.

   2.  fork: A module that wraps the fork, exec*, and waitpid functions.
   
         slsh/lib/process.sl utilizes this module to allow an
	 application to easily create subprocesses and pipelines.

   3.  sysconf: Module that implements interfaces to the posix
       sysconf, pathconf, etc. functions.
	   

Intrinsic Functions
===================

   The following intrinsic functions have been added for 2.2:
   
      sumsq           
          equivalent to sum(x*x)

      expm1           
          More accurate version of exp(x)-1 for x near 0.

      log1p           
          More accurate version of log(1+x) for x near 0

      list_to_array   
          Creates an array from a list.

      string_matches
          A convenient alternative to string_match and string_match_nth
	  functions.
		       
      _close          
          Close an integer descriptor
      _fileno        
          Returns the descriptor as an integer

      dup2, getsid, killpg, getpriority/setpriority:
          Wraps the corresponding system functions.
	  
      ldexp, frexp:
          If x == a*2^b, where 0.5<=a<1.0 then (a,b)=frexp(x), 
	  and x=ldexp(a,b).

   The following functions have been enhanced:
      
      hypot
          If given a single array argument, it returns the equivalent
	  of sqrt(sum(X*X)).

      polynom
          The calling interface to this function was changed and
	  support added for arrays.

Misc
====

   Unicode tables updated to version 5.1.