# Release notes

This chapter contains the release notes for the standard release. Release notes are given in descending order for a particular version. The standard notation is major.minor.patch which represents respectively, the major, minor and patch number. A major version number changes indicates a substantial change in the distribution, including new tools, application interface and license. A minor version number change indicates noticeable change, with or without new tools but without application interface change nor license change. Finally, a patch number change indicates a simple change to fix problem. There is no additional features in a patch nor an application interface change.

## Release 1.4

## Release features

The core engine has been substantially changed to support the new Unicode 5.0 standard. As of now, the engine is in place internally, but not fully activated. In particular, the string normalization is implemented but not activated. The next release should incorporate the full system with a change that should be transparent to the user. An instance inference mechanism -- which is equivalent to the concept of virtual constructor -- has been added to the core engine. Such system permits to derive top instance from a base instance construction. The `PrintTable` object has been enhanced with a `dump` method similar to the `format` method. The `Property` and the `Plist` objects have been added to the standard library. a property is name/value pair. The property list object is an iterable object that stores property objects. A new module called `afnix-xml` has been added. The module provides the foundation for a full xml 1.0/1.1 support. The module also includes a parser that permits to build xml tree. A xml tree writer is also part of the module functionality. A xml processor is not yet available and is expected in the next release. A new module called `afnix-nwg` has been added. The module provides the support for the network working group objects such like `Uri` object. The module also provides the foundation for the mime support. The `afnix-web` module has been removed and replaced by the `afnix-wam` service. The `afnix-wam` service has been added as the first service into the core distribution. A service differs from a module in the sense that it is a combination of different modules. The web application management service depends on the xml and nwg modules. The service provides all the functionality to support a http session, including xhtml page generation and cgi request reply.

## Release history

This release is a minor release that fixes the lexer for not parsing correctly some floating point numbers. The standard i/o documentation is also fixed. A print media support is now available in the documentation. This release incorporates the Unicode 5.0 standard as well as a brand new xml module. This release also introduces the concept of service module, which provides additional functionalities on top of regular modules. A new service module called web application management or wam is also introduced with this release. This service module is based on the newly created xml module and replaces the old web module which has been obsoleted immediately.

## Release 1.3

## Release features

The core engine has been modified to integrate a character transcoder that permits the support all ISO-8859 codesets which are mostly used for the encoding of european and arabic characters. Depending on the locale settings, the transcoder automatically remaps the 8 bits characters into their respective unicode character. All clients have been updated to detect their associated locale and to set automatically the appropriate transcoder. A new option `-e` has been added to force a particular encoding. A logging base class has been added. The logging facility provides the interface to store messages by time and level. This class is further extended in the modules. A heap class has been added. The heap can operate in ascending or descending mode. This class can be used to support priority queue. An option class has been added in order to ease the option capture when designing an application. The class permits to define the valid options and offer a powerful retrieval mechanism. The `Time` class has been completely changed and a new `Date` class has been added. The new mechanism provides a better separation between the time and the date, increase the date range and authorizes the support for multiple calendar. The `axs` client has been modified to support the `axs:insert-marker`, `axs:insert-header` and `insert-footer` control commands. The `Folio` and `Sheet` classes have been substantially updated to support additional information. The `Sheet` also supports the concept of markers that marks the sheet columns by literals. The concept of column tagging has been added with the associated search methods. All classes also contain an information field. The importation mechanism now supports a cons cell that defines both the cell name and the cell value. The `Table` class has been modified to support the concept of table data header. The associated methods have been added to the class and a new `HtmlTh` has been added. The concept of tag propagation has also been added. If a tag element already exists, this one is not added. This is particularly true for the `class` tag that is now part of the class constructor. The `HtmlPage` class has been put in strict conformance with xhtml 1.1 and the `XHtmlpage` class has been removed. A new module called the `afnix-pim` module has been added to the base distribution. The personal information management or pim module is designed to ease the management of personal information and agenda. A new module called the `afnix-gfx` module has been added to the base distribution. The module contains the base class that supports the graph data structure which was previously part of the standard library.

## Release 1.2

## Release features

The core engine has been substantially modified to integrate the support for Unicode characters. Depending on the system settings the reader automatically adjust itself to operate in byte mode or in UTF-8 mode. The `String` and `Character` classes are now operating with a Unicode representation. The design of an Unicode based engine also impacts several classes like the `Regex`, `Buffer` and stream classes. A new class called `Byte` is also designed to handle byte character. A new stream model with a base `Stream` class has also been added. The full support with Unicode character is not yet completed. In particular, certain codesets are not supported at all. This is particularly true with case-conversion functions. The object model now supports the creation of orphan instance which is an instance without a class attached to it. The instance can be later bound to a class and such class can even be changed during the course of the program execution. The `Address` class has been updated to reflect the access to address aliases. The `Literate` class has been updated to reflect the support of Unicode characters. The class can operate both in byte mode or in Unicode character mode.

## Release 1.1

## Release features

Support for the large file system has been added in the base distribution. All input/output operations as long as they are supported by the operating system are now done in 64 bits mode. The cryptographic library incorporates the support for the SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384 and SHA-512 hash algorithms. The cryptographic library incorporates the support for the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) as a symmetric cipher. The ODC library has been renamed to SPS which stands for spreadsheet library. This new name is considered more appropriate for the function the library achieves. The XhtmlPara class is now configured d to support XHTML 1.1 with utf-8 encoding. The documentation has been rewritten completely in XML. An DTD as well as the necessary XSLT style sheets have also been designed to produce a professional documentation which can be used for printing or for online browsing.

## Release history

This release incorporates a fix for a terminal capability error. This release incorporates fixes for several build problems with the FreeBSD platform. The 1.1 release is yet another milestone that incorporates a full redesign of the documentation tree as well as the inclusion of the cryptographic library that features some original implementations. The full documentation is now available in XML format and can be accessed online.

## Release 1.0

The 1.0 release is the initial release. This release replaces the old `ALEPH programming language` which has been discontinued.

## Release history

This release incorporates the necessary files that support `GCC 4`. It also provides some minor fixes that were preventing the compilation on some 64 bits platforms. This release incorporates a minor fix that could cause the build process to fail. This release incorporates a minor fix that could cause the build process to fail. This is the primary release 1.0.0 which originated from the `ALEPH programming language` and which has been discontinued. A complete history of the language is provided in the description page.