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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