[ANNOUNCE] WML 1.99.0

[Denis Barbier <nospam@thanx>]

Hi folks,

i just released WML-1.99.0. My intention is to provide quick releases
until WML 2.0 ; this 1.99.x branch is between stable and unstable.

A feature freeze is planned in a couple of weeks, some points are still
under discussion, so proposals are welcome.

  Major changes between 1.7 and 1.99:

      - Several improvements in wml_p1_ipp:
          The -S and -I flags are now processed in right-to-left order
          so that these flags in .wmlrc files have precedence over
          .wmlrc files above.

          Variable substitutions can now be nested and new constructs
          have been added. The only restriction is that parenthesis
          inside strings must be balanced.

          New automatic variables are provided to ease generation of
          diaporamas (automatic references to previous and next files).

          Block comments are no more supported by wml_p1_ipp.

      - Meta-HTML is replaced by Mp4h for Pass 2: the new parser has a
        syntax very similar to the one of Meta-HTML, and tags have been
        defined to ensure maximum compatibility.  Please read
        README.mp4h and the wml_p2_mp4h documentation for details on how
        to migrate from Meta-HTML to mp4h.

      - Promote alternate syntax in wml_p5_divert: until wml-1.7.0,
        pass 5 used expressions containing angle characters.  In many
        situations this could confuse pass 2, and so an alternate form
        without angle characters is preferred.  Old syntax is still
        valid but should be avoided.

      - Allow nesting of wml_p3_eperl commands: this is one of the
        biggest challenge of WML 2.0 whereas it is entirely transparent
        for end users.  Read the wml_macros(7) manpage for details on
        how to write nestable macros.

      - New include files:
          wml::std::label implements labels and references
          wml::mod::version ensures that a recent enough WML is run
          wml::mod::MakeMaker is to help writing portable WML modules

      - Wwwtable is replaced by freetable, a GPL replacement.  Syntax
        is very similar and input files should work without changes.

      - Support for both GIF and PNG formats.
        Logos are shipped in both formats, and generated images may be
        written in GIF (without the patented LZW algorithm) or PNG (if
        PNG library and headers are found) formats.
        Modified versions of libgd and GD are used to support both
        formats.

      - A global base name may be used for generated images: instead of
        defining IMGB_BASE, IMGDOT_BASE,... it is now possible to define
        IMAGE_BASE and all generated images will refer to this variable.

      - Better processing on files in other directories: the main goal
        is to allow use of the VPATH feature of GNU make to build
        webpages into a test area before compiling webpages.  This
        does only apply to the wml binary, since there is no reason
        to mix WMk and Makefiles.



  Brief summary of changes between 1.7.4 and 1.99.0:
    See http://www.engelschall.com/sw/wml/distrib/wml-SNAP/ChangeLog
    for details
    *) Improved WMk (12-Mar-2000)
    *) Changed processing of -S and -I flags of wml_p1_ipp (12-Mar-2000)
    *) Processing of input files residing in other directories (12-Mar-2000)
    *) Fix invocation of tidy as an epilogue program (12-Mar-2000)
    *) Added recent W3C Recommandations (12-Mar-2000)
    *) Added syntax highlighting configuration file for Vim (12-Mar-2000)
    *) Removed Text::BlockParser and Text::DelimMatch (12-Mar-2000)
    *) Fixed protection (11-Mar-2000)
    *) Improved wml_p1_ipp (10-Mar-2000)
    *) Updated most include files to work with mp4h (13-Feb-2000)
    *) Replaced Meta-HTML by Mp4h for pass 2 (13-Feb-2000)
    *) Added wml::std::label (13-Feb-2000)
    *) Changed names of bootstrap files (13-Feb-2000)
    *) Fixed <protect> problem with pass 9 (12-Feb-2000)
    *) Fixed wml::des::preload (10-Feb-2000)
    *) Fixed rc file search path within WMk (04-Feb-2000)
    *) Syntax change in wml_p5_divert (21-Jan-2000)
    *) Replace wwwtable by freetable (11-Jan-2000)
    *) Upgrade of File::PathConvert (08-Jan-2000)
    *) Upgrade of Bit::Vector (08-Jan-2000)
    *) Upgrade of Getopt::Long (08-Jan-2000)
    *) Improve wml::des::rollover (08-Jan-2000)
    *) Improve wml::des::imgbg (06-Jan-2000)
    *) Change some name of generated images (06-Jan-2000)
    *) Define a global base name for generated images (06-Jan-2000)
    *) Improve support of PNG format (06-Jan-2000)
    *) Replace GD Perl library to allow PNG and GIF images (06-Jan-2000)
    *) Added logos (04-Jan-2000)
    *) Upgrade of tidy (03-Jan-2000)
    *) Fix wml::std::href to allow @ sign within URLs (03-Jan-2000)
    *) Many changes for compatibility with mhc and mp4h (29-Nov-1999)
    *) Allow @ operator in slice specifications  (22-Nov-1999)
    *) Fix missing wml_p3_eperl documentation (13-Nov-1999)
    *) Wmk did not recognize the -M option (08-Nov-1999)
    *) Add a notag attribute to <logo> (29-Oct-1999)
    *) Allow nesting of wml_p3_eperl commands (29-Oct-1999)
    *) Added PNG versions of logos (25-Oct-1999)
    *) Fix configure bugs with some Perl versions (24-Oct-1999)
    *) Fixed the <verbatim> tag (24-Oct-1999)
    *) Fixed wml_aux_wwwtable and wml::fmt::xtable (23-Oct-1999)
    *) Change how color of links are used in wml::des::navbar (18-Oct-1999)
    *) Improve documentation (18-Oct-1999)
    *) Added new variables for GMT timezones (18-Oct-1999)
    *) Fixed WMu (18-Oct-1999)
    *) Fix infinite loops when parsing options (11-Oct-1999)
    *) Fixed weblint (07-Oct-1999)
    *) Fixed documentation of include files (06-Oct-1999)

-- 
Denis Barbier
WML Maintainer
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