SLgtk v0.5.11 released

[Michael Noble <mnoble space mit edu>]

Announcement
============

Version 0.5.11 of SLgtk is now available at

	http://space.mit.edu/CXC/software/slang/modules/slgtk

This version is motivated primarily for compatibility with version
1.5 of the SLIRP code generator (with which SLgtk is built).  Highlights
of both releases are given below.

Description
===========

The SLgtk package binds the Gtk2 and GtkExtra widget sets to the S-Lang
scripting language (www.s-lang.org).  SLgtk wraps more than 2200 functions
from Gtk2 and its constituent libraries, includes over 4500 lines of
sample code in 40+ working guilets.  The distribution also bundles a code
generator (SLIRP) which can be useful for building additional S-Lang
modules from C, C++, or FORTRAN, as well as straight C wrappers for C++.

SLgtk also includes a visual version of the powerful S-Lang "where"
command, extensions to and performance enhancements for several GtkExtra
widgets, and a pixbuf loader for the FITS image file format widely used
within astronomy.

Regards,

-Michael S. Noble

--------------------------------------------------------------------------


Version 0.5.11 (12/19/04):

  1.  Vwhere 1.2.4 enhancements:
	. use current plot zoom/shift as defaults when creating new plots
	. minor preferences tweaks
  2.  Contributed RGB widget now zeros its pixbuf prior to drawing, which
      eliminates UMRs (reported by Kenny Glotfelty, kjg cfa harvard edu)
  3.  Bundle latest SLIRP version (1.5.0)
  4.  Migrate automated regression tests to use standalone TESS module
  5.  Initial support for S-Lang 2.
  6.  Show the S-Lang version number within the slgtk-demo main window.


		------------------------------------
		SLIRP: The S-Lang Interface Package
			   Change Log
			mnoble space mit edu
		------------------------------------

Changes in v1.5.0 (Beta releases through 12/19/04)

  1)	Support function annotations, which provide powerful and flexible
        means of customizing the generated code.  For example, a C function
	prototyped as having M inputs and N outputs may be called from
	S-Lang as though it were a function of M' inputs and N' outputs.
  2)	This is achieved by customizing the bundled slsh with the S-Lang
	preprocessor extension module (see ./preproc), and using it to add
	#argmap, #funcmap, #prototype, #retmap, #ignore, etc directives.
  3)	Add initial support for C++, which includes:
	. wrapping of overloaded functions and those with default values,
	  but not templates or operators
	.  generation of pure/standalone C wrappers from C++ code (i.e.,
	   containing no S-Lang C api calls) via new -cfront option
	Sample usage given in new ./examples/cpp directory.
  4)	Initial support for SLang 2
  5)	Macros may now be wrapped as if they were fully prototyped
	functions, via slirp_map_macro().
  6)	Moved toggle_error_hook() function to new standalone test framework
	package [ TESS, the (Te)st (S)ystem for (S)-Lang]
  7)	Added default type mapping for void* and 'unsigned long int' types.
  8)	The distinction between arguments explicitly declared as arrays
	(e.g. float f[]) and those ambiguosly declared as arrays or refs
	(e.g. float *f) has been deprecated.  Thus slirp_map_array() has
	also been deprecated.
  9)	Address bugs seen while parsing rather complex glibc headers
	(submitted by Paul Boekholt, paul boekholt com)
 10)	Perform macro substitutions upon args within function prototypes.
 11)	SLIRP now automatically maps all unknown types (be they function
	return values OR args within function parameter lists) to the
	opaquely-typed void_ptr.  The new -noautotype option turns this off.
 12)    Prevent simultaneous loading of incompatible SLIRP-based modules, by
	introducing ABI version #, which will be checked at load time.
 13)	Sharpen the saw (resulting in better performance and smaller modules)
	. emit fewer, at times many, lines of code
	. perform only a single pass over input files
	. code is now emitted to a single file
	. obviating the -d <dir> switch, which has been eliminated
	. except for module init func, all generated funcs are now static
	. remove support for deprecated -consts, -init, and -opaques switches
 	. better recognition of function pointer and enum args
 	. exhibit use of new #ignore directive (2) in OpenGL and MySQL examples
	. strip "int" return types from C wrappers for FORTRAN subroutines
	  (dburke cfa harvard edu)