path: root/NEWS

GNU m4 NEWS - User visible changes.
Copyright (C) 1992, 1993, 1994 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Version 1.4 - October 1994, by Franc,ois Pinard

(No user visible changes)

Version 1.3 - September 1994, by Franc,ois Pinard

* Diversions are created as needed.  Option `-N' is still accepted, but
otherwise ignored.  Users should use only negative diversion numbers,
instead of high positive numbers, for diverting to nowhere.

* Diversions should also work faster.  No temporary files will be needed
at all if all diversions taken altogether do not use more than 512K.

* Frozen state files may be produced with the `--freeze-state' (-F)
option and later brought back through the `--reload-state' (-R) option.

Version 1.2 - July 1994, by Franc,ois Pinard

* In patsubst(STRING, REGEXP, REPLACEMENT), \& in REPLACEMENT has been
changed to represent this part of STRING matched by the whole REGEXP,
instead of the whole STRING as before.  \0 does the same, but emits a
diagnostic saying it will disappear in some subsequent release.

* eval(EXPR) emits a diagnostic if EXPR has suffixed crumb.  The same for
other numeric conversions in incr(), decr(), divert(), etc.

* `--fatal-warnings' (-E) stops execution at first warning.

* `--nesting-limit=LEVEL' (-L LEVEL) sets a limit to macro nesting.
It is initially fixed at 250.

* `--word-regexp=REGEXP' (-W REGEXP) modifies macro name syntax, like
does the new `changeword(REGEXP)' macro.  This feature is experimental,
tell me your opinions about it.  You do need --enable-changeword at
configure time to get these things.  Do *not* depend on them yet.

* Trace output format is scannable by GNU Emacs' next-error function.

* Stack overflow is detected and diagnosed on some capable systems.

* Various bugs have been corrected, m4 should be more portable.  See the
ChangeLog for details.

Version 1.1 - November 1993, by Franc,ois Pinard

Changes which might affect existing GNU m4 scripts:

* Option `-V' has been removed, use `--version' instead.  `--version'
writes on standard output instead of standard error, and inhibits any
script execution.

* `--no-gnu-extensions' has been renamed `--traditional'.

* In `eval', `^' used to indicate exponentiation, use `**' instead.

* The automatic undiversion which takes place at end of all input is
forced into the main output stream.

Changes which are unlikely to affect existing scripts:

* `--help' prints an usage summary on standard output.  Script execution
is then inhibited.

* `--prefix-builtins' (-P) prefixes all builtin macros by `m4_'.

* Most builtin macros for which arguments are mandatory, called without
any arguments, are no more recognized as builtin macros: they are
consequently copied verbatim to the output stream.

* `define' and `pushdef' are usable with only one argument, they give
this argument an empty definition.

* `eval' new operators for binary representation handling: `^' for
exclusive-or, `~' for the bitwise negation, `<<' and `>>' for shifts.

* `eval' recognizes the notation 0bDIGITS for binary numbers and the
notation 0rRADIX:DIGITS for numbers in any radix from 1 to 36.

Version 1.0.3 - December 1992, by Franc,ois Pinard

Changes for the user:

* `dnl' outputs a diagnostic if immediately followed by `('.  Usually,
`dnl' is followed by newline or whitespace.

* `ifelse' accepts without complaining the common idiom of having only
one argument.  This is useful for introducing long comments.

* `eval' always expresses values as signed, whatever the radix.

* M4OPTS environment variable is no longer obeyed.

* `--no-warnings' option is renamed `--silent'.

* Debug lines use a new format more compatible with GNU standards.

* Various bugs have been corrected.  See the ChangeLog for details.

Changes for the installer:

* GNU m4 now uses an Autoconf-generated configure script, and should be
more easily portable in many ways.  (Cray is not supported yet).

* `make check' has been made more portable, expect no errors.

Changes for the programmer:

* Sources have been fully reindented to comply with GNU standards, and
cleaned up in many ways.

* Sources have been protoized.  Non-ANSI compilers are automatically
detected, then sources are unprotoized on the fly before compilation.

* GNU m4 uses newer versions of obstack, regex, getopt, etc.

Version 1.0 - October 1991, by Rene' Seindal

* Uses GNU configure, taken from the gdb distribution.

* Uses GNU getopt(), with long option names.

* The -Q/+quiet option is added, which suppresses warnings about missing
or superflous arguments to built-in macros.

* Added default options via the M4OPTS environment variable.

* Several minor bugs have been fixed.

Version 0.99 - July 1991, by Rene' Seindal

* The builtins `incr' and `decr' are now implemented without use of
`eval'.

* The builtin `indir' is added, to allow for indirect macro calls
(allows use of "illegal" macro names).

* The debugging and tracing facilities has been enhanced considerably.
See the manual for details.

* The -tMACRO option is added, marks MACRO for tracing as soon as it
is defined.

* Builtins are traced after renaming iff they were before.

* Named files can now be undiverted.

* The -Nnum option can be used to increase the number of divertions
available.

* Calling changecom without arguments now disables all comment handling.

* A bug in `dnl' is fixed.

* A bug in the multi-character quoting code is fixed.

* Several typos in the manual has been corrected.  More probably persist.

Version 0.75 - November 1990, by Rene' Seindal

* Implemented search path for include files (-I option and M4PATH
environment variable).

* Implemented builtin `format' for printf-like formatting.

* Implemented builtin `regexp' for searching for regular expressions.

* Implemented builtin `patsubst' for substitution with regular
expressions.

* Implemented builtin `esyscmd', which expands to a shell commands output.

* Implemented `__file__' and `__line__' for use in error messages.

* Implemented character ranges in `translit'.

* Implemented control over debugging output.

* Implemented multi-character quotes.

* Implemented multi-character comment delimiters.

* Changed predefined macro `gnu' to `__gnu__'.

* Changed predefined macro `unix' to `__unix__', when the -G option is
not used.  With -G, `unix' is still defined.

* Added program name to error messages.

* Fixed two missing null bytes bugs.

Version 0.50 - January 1990, by Rene' Seindal

* Initial beta release.

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