| 1 | GNU m4 NEWS - User visible changes. |
|---|
| 2 | Copyright (C) 1992, 1993, 1994 Free Software Foundation, Inc. |
|---|
| 3 | |
|---|
| 4 | Version 1.4 - October 1994, by Franc,ois Pinard |
|---|
| 5 | |
|---|
| 6 | (No user visible changes) |
|---|
| 7 | |
|---|
| 8 | Version 1.3 - September 1994, by Franc,ois Pinard |
|---|
| 9 | |
|---|
| 10 | * Diversions are created as needed. Option `-N' is still accepted, but |
|---|
| 11 | otherwise ignored. Users should use only negative diversion numbers, |
|---|
| 12 | instead of high positive numbers, for diverting to nowhere. |
|---|
| 13 | |
|---|
| 14 | * Diversions should also work faster. No temporary files will be needed |
|---|
| 15 | at all if all diversions taken altogether do not use more than 512K. |
|---|
| 16 | |
|---|
| 17 | * Frozen state files may be produced with the `--freeze-state' (-F) |
|---|
| 18 | option and later brought back through the `--reload-state' (-R) option. |
|---|
| 19 | |
|---|
| 20 | Version 1.2 - July 1994, by Franc,ois Pinard |
|---|
| 21 | |
|---|
| 22 | * In patsubst(STRING, REGEXP, REPLACEMENT), \& in REPLACEMENT has been |
|---|
| 23 | changed to represent this part of STRING matched by the whole REGEXP, |
|---|
| 24 | instead of the whole STRING as before. \0 does the same, but emits a |
|---|
| 25 | diagnostic saying it will disappear in some subsequent release. |
|---|
| 26 | |
|---|
| 27 | * eval(EXPR) emits a diagnostic if EXPR has suffixed crumb. The same for |
|---|
| 28 | other numeric conversions in incr(), decr(), divert(), etc. |
|---|
| 29 | |
|---|
| 30 | * `--fatal-warnings' (-E) stops execution at first warning. |
|---|
| 31 | |
|---|
| 32 | * `--nesting-limit=LEVEL' (-L LEVEL) sets a limit to macro nesting. |
|---|
| 33 | It is initially fixed at 250. |
|---|
| 34 | |
|---|
| 35 | * `--word-regexp=REGEXP' (-W REGEXP) modifies macro name syntax, like |
|---|
| 36 | does the new `changeword(REGEXP)' macro. This feature is experimental, |
|---|
| 37 | tell me your opinions about it. You do need --enable-changeword at |
|---|
| 38 | configure time to get these things. Do *not* depend on them yet. |
|---|
| 39 | |
|---|
| 40 | * Trace output format is scannable by GNU Emacs' next-error function. |
|---|
| 41 | |
|---|
| 42 | * Stack overflow is detected and diagnosed on some capable systems. |
|---|
| 43 | |
|---|
| 44 | * Various bugs have been corrected, m4 should be more portable. See the |
|---|
| 45 | ChangeLog for details. |
|---|
| 46 | |
|---|
| 47 | Version 1.1 - November 1993, by Franc,ois Pinard |
|---|
| 48 | |
|---|
| 49 | Changes which might affect existing GNU m4 scripts: |
|---|
| 50 | |
|---|
| 51 | * Option `-V' has been removed, use `--version' instead. `--version' |
|---|
| 52 | writes on standard output instead of standard error, and inhibits any |
|---|
| 53 | script execution. |
|---|
| 54 | |
|---|
| 55 | * `--no-gnu-extensions' has been renamed `--traditional'. |
|---|
| 56 | |
|---|
| 57 | * In `eval', `^' used to indicate exponentiation, use `**' instead. |
|---|
| 58 | |
|---|
| 59 | * The automatic undiversion which takes place at end of all input is |
|---|
| 60 | forced into the main output stream. |
|---|
| 61 | |
|---|
| 62 | Changes which are unlikely to affect existing scripts: |
|---|
| 63 | |
|---|
| 64 | * `--help' prints an usage summary on standard output. Script execution |
|---|
| 65 | is then inhibited. |
|---|
| 66 | |
|---|
| 67 | * `--prefix-builtins' (-P) prefixes all builtin macros by `m4_'. |
|---|
| 68 | |
|---|
| 69 | * Most builtin macros for which arguments are mandatory, called without |
|---|
| 70 | any arguments, are no more recognized as builtin macros: they are |
|---|
| 71 | consequently copied verbatim to the output stream. |
|---|
| 72 | |
|---|
| 73 | * `define' and `pushdef' are usable with only one argument, they give |
|---|
| 74 | this argument an empty definition. |
|---|
| 75 | |
|---|
| 76 | * `eval' new operators for binary representation handling: `^' for |
|---|
| 77 | exclusive-or, `~' for the bitwise negation, `<<' and `>>' for shifts. |
|---|
| 78 | |
|---|
| 79 | * `eval' recognizes the notation 0bDIGITS for binary numbers and the |
|---|
| 80 | notation 0rRADIX:DIGITS for numbers in any radix from 1 to 36. |
|---|
| 81 | |
|---|
| 82 | Version 1.0.3 - December 1992, by Franc,ois Pinard |
|---|
| 83 | |
|---|
| 84 | Changes for the user: |
|---|
| 85 | |
|---|
| 86 | * `dnl' outputs a diagnostic if immediately followed by `('. Usually, |
|---|
| 87 | `dnl' is followed by newline or whitespace. |
|---|
| 88 | |
|---|
| 89 | * `ifelse' accepts without complaining the common idiom of having only |
|---|
| 90 | one argument. This is useful for introducing long comments. |
|---|
| 91 | |
|---|
| 92 | * `eval' always expresses values as signed, whatever the radix. |
|---|
| 93 | |
|---|
| 94 | * M4OPTS environment variable is no longer obeyed. |
|---|
| 95 | |
|---|
| 96 | * `--no-warnings' option is renamed `--silent'. |
|---|
| 97 | |
|---|
| 98 | * Debug lines use a new format more compatible with GNU standards. |
|---|
| 99 | |
|---|
| 100 | * Various bugs have been corrected. See the ChangeLog for details. |
|---|
| 101 | |
|---|
| 102 | Changes for the installer: |
|---|
| 103 | |
|---|
| 104 | * GNU m4 now uses an Autoconf-generated configure script, and should be |
|---|
| 105 | more easily portable in many ways. (Cray is not supported yet). |
|---|
| 106 | |
|---|
| 107 | * `make check' has been made more portable, expect no errors. |
|---|
| 108 | |
|---|
| 109 | Changes for the programmer: |
|---|
| 110 | |
|---|
| 111 | * Sources have been fully reindented to comply with GNU standards, and |
|---|
| 112 | cleaned up in many ways. |
|---|
| 113 | |
|---|
| 114 | * Sources have been protoized. Non-ANSI compilers are automatically |
|---|
| 115 | detected, then sources are unprotoized on the fly before compilation. |
|---|
| 116 | |
|---|
| 117 | * GNU m4 uses newer versions of obstack, regex, getopt, etc. |
|---|
| 118 | |
|---|
| 119 | Version 1.0 - October 1991, by Rene' Seindal |
|---|
| 120 | |
|---|
| 121 | * Uses GNU configure, taken from the gdb distribution. |
|---|
| 122 | |
|---|
| 123 | * Uses GNU getopt(), with long option names. |
|---|
| 124 | |
|---|
| 125 | * The -Q/+quiet option is added, which suppresses warnings about missing |
|---|
| 126 | or superflous arguments to built-in macros. |
|---|
| 127 | |
|---|
| 128 | * Added default options via the M4OPTS environment variable. |
|---|
| 129 | |
|---|
| 130 | * Several minor bugs have been fixed. |
|---|
| 131 | |
|---|
| 132 | Version 0.99 - July 1991, by Rene' Seindal |
|---|
| 133 | |
|---|
| 134 | * The builtins `incr' and `decr' are now implemented without use of |
|---|
| 135 | `eval'. |
|---|
| 136 | |
|---|
| 137 | * The builtin `indir' is added, to allow for indirect macro calls |
|---|
| 138 | (allows use of "illegal" macro names). |
|---|
| 139 | |
|---|
| 140 | * The debugging and tracing facilities has been enhanced considerably. |
|---|
| 141 | See the manual for details. |
|---|
| 142 | |
|---|
| 143 | * The -tMACRO option is added, marks MACRO for tracing as soon as it |
|---|
| 144 | is defined. |
|---|
| 145 | |
|---|
| 146 | * Builtins are traced after renaming iff they were before. |
|---|
| 147 | |
|---|
| 148 | * Named files can now be undiverted. |
|---|
| 149 | |
|---|
| 150 | * The -Nnum option can be used to increase the number of divertions |
|---|
| 151 | available. |
|---|
| 152 | |
|---|
| 153 | * Calling changecom without arguments now disables all comment handling. |
|---|
| 154 | |
|---|
| 155 | * A bug in `dnl' is fixed. |
|---|
| 156 | |
|---|
| 157 | * A bug in the multi-character quoting code is fixed. |
|---|
| 158 | |
|---|
| 159 | * Several typos in the manual has been corrected. More probably persist. |
|---|
| 160 | |
|---|
| 161 | Version 0.75 - November 1990, by Rene' Seindal |
|---|
| 162 | |
|---|
| 163 | * Implemented search path for include files (-I option and M4PATH |
|---|
| 164 | environment variable). |
|---|
| 165 | |
|---|
| 166 | * Implemented builtin `format' for printf-like formatting. |
|---|
| 167 | |
|---|
| 168 | * Implemented builtin `regexp' for searching for regular expressions. |
|---|
| 169 | |
|---|
| 170 | * Implemented builtin `patsubst' for substitution with regular |
|---|
| 171 | expressions. |
|---|
| 172 | |
|---|
| 173 | * Implemented builtin `esyscmd', which expands to a shell commands output. |
|---|
| 174 | |
|---|
| 175 | * Implemented `__file__' and `__line__' for use in error messages. |
|---|
| 176 | |
|---|
| 177 | * Implemented character ranges in `translit'. |
|---|
| 178 | |
|---|
| 179 | * Implemented control over debugging output. |
|---|
| 180 | |
|---|
| 181 | * Implemented multi-character quotes. |
|---|
| 182 | |
|---|
| 183 | * Implemented multi-character comment delimiters. |
|---|
| 184 | |
|---|
| 185 | * Changed predefined macro `gnu' to `__gnu__'. |
|---|
| 186 | |
|---|
| 187 | * Changed predefined macro `unix' to `__unix__', when the -G option is |
|---|
| 188 | not used. With -G, `unix' is still defined. |
|---|
| 189 | |
|---|
| 190 | * Added program name to error messages. |
|---|
| 191 | |
|---|
| 192 | * Fixed two missing null bytes bugs. |
|---|
| 193 | |
|---|
| 194 | Version 0.50 - January 1990, by Rene' Seindal |
|---|
| 195 | |
|---|
| 196 | * Initial beta release. |
|---|
| 197 | |
|---|
| 198 | Local Variables: |
|---|
| 199 | fill-column: 75 |
|---|
| 200 | End: |
|---|
