slang 2.2.0 programmer's library and interpreter released

Version 2.2.0 of the slang programmer's library is now available. See
<http://www.jedsoft.org/slang/download.html> for downloading options.
This version contains a number of new features, as well as bug fixes.
Version 2.2.0 is binary compatible with previous slang-2 versions.

While the library is well-known for its display management routines,
it also implements the slang language interpeter, which may be
embedded into other applications to make them extensible.
Additionally included in the distribution is slsh, the standalone
slang interpreter.

The language itself is somewhat C-like with matlab/IDL array
capabilities. For example, if X is an array of values, then
X[where(X< 0)]=0 will set those values less than 0 to 0.

More information about the library and interpreter may be found at
<http://www.jedsoft.org/slang/>.

Enjoy, --John

NEWS for version 2.2

Interpreter Enhancements
========================

1. The ternary expression was added:

expression = condition ? val1 : val2

If condition is non-zero, then expression = val1,
otherwise expression = val2

2. The break and condition statements support an optional integer
that indicates how many loop levels the statement affects, e.g.,
the break statement in

while (1)
{
loop (10)
{
break 2;
}
}

will cause both loops to be terminated.

3. Multiline strings have been added:

"This is a \
multiline \
string"

`This is
another multiline
string that
does not require
a \ for continuation`

4. List_Type objects may be indexed using an array of indices
instead of just a single scalar index.


Modules
=======

1. zlib: A module that wraps the popular z compression library.

2. fork: A module that wraps the fork, exec*, and waitpid functions.

slsh/lib/process.sl utilizes this module to allow an
application to easily create subprocesses and pipelines.

3. sysconf: Module that implements interfaces to the posix
sysconf, pathconf, etc. functions.


Intrinsic Functions
===================

The following intrinsic functions have been added for 2.2:

sumsq
equivalent to sum(x*x)

expm1
More accurate version of exp(x)-1 for x near 0.

log1p
More accurate version of log(1+x) for x near 0

list_to_array
Creates an array from a list.

string_matches
A convenient alternative to string_match and string_match_nth
functions.

_close
Close an integer descriptor
_fileno
Returns the descriptor as an integer

dup2, getsid, killpg, getpriority/setpriority:
Wraps the corresponding system functions.

ldexp, frexp:
If x == a*2^b, where 0.5<=a<1.0 then (a,b)=frexp(x),
and x=ldexp(a,b).

The following functions have been enhanced:

hypot
If given a single array argument, it returns the equivalent
of sqrt(sum(X*X)).

polynom
The calling interface to this function was changed and
support added for arrays.

Misc
====

Unicode tables updated to version 5.1.

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