                         Regina 0.08f
                        30 October 1998


Changes in this release (from 0.08e)
------------------------------------

o Changed the extension of Rexx external function libraries under
  AIX from .a to .so.
o Removed the messy shared library naming conventions under Un*x
  platforms.  Now, there are no symbolic links created.
o Fixed GPF bug in TIME and DATE BIFs when no third parameter was
  passed, but a second parameter was passed.
o Ignore EOF character; (^Z) in source file.
o Included changes for Amiga port using SAS compiler. Thanks to
  Stefan Haubenthal <wwwsth@sx1.hrz.uni-dortmund.de> for the port.
o Fixed a bug in PARSE command introduced in 0.08e. The last argument
  in a PARSE statement, when parsing a string into words would have
  incorrect leading space.
o Added more sub-error messages to BIFs.
o Added the ANSI standard QUALIFY BIF.
o The STREAM command QUERY POSITION had syntax errors. These have now
  been fixed.
o While the Y2K support was fixed for date conversions in 0.08e, the
  current date as returned by DATE('N') was incorrect for dates >
  31 Dec 1999.
o The value returned by CHARS BIF was incorrect especially after a
  LINEIN call.  The result was some programs would never end.
o On some platforms, if operating system command redirection was
  done using >FIFO, and the current directory was not writeable by
  the user, the command would fail. The cause is that the tmpnam()
  C library function is broken on several compilers.
  Added workaround to use environment variables, TMP, TEMP or TMPDIR.
o On platforms that did not have a C library function, alloca()
  Regina would leak memory.  This has now been fixed by inclusion
  of our own alloca() function if one doesn't exist.
o A bug in the Win95/98 command processor results in any call to
  an operating system command ALWAYS return 0, even though the
  command fails.
  This change attempts to circumvent this bug, but it can't in all
  circumstances.  If the operating system command called is an
  executable file, and there is no output/input redirection, then
  the return code from the executable program will be returned. Any
  internal COMMAND.COM command, such as COPY, will ALWAYS return 0;
  there is no way around this until M$ fix there COMMAND.COM.
  If you use JP Software's 4DOS for NT, then you will have no problems
  as it correctly returns the error from the internal command.
  Reported and fixed by Michael Sundermann
o Changed some internal #defines in rexxsaa.h. These changes will
  require a rebuild of any applications that are linked with Regina.
  This change was made to make Regina more binary-compatible with
  other Win32 Rexx interpreters.
o All references to program names within the interpreter should now
  be fully qualified. ie in errors reported and in PARSE SOURCE.
o Fixed a problem with external function packages implemented as
  shared libraries on HP-UX.  If the external function package was not
  in the current directory, Regina could not find it.  The dynamic
  loader in HP-UX does not behave the same way as on other platforms;
  ie. it doesn't look for a shared library using an environment variable.
  Regina now searches for the shared library in the directories specified
  by SHLIB_PATH.
o Fixed bug with dropping compound variables.
o Fixed bug with output of operating system command under Win32 losing
  data:
  eg: rc = 'dir'('*.txt')'
o Regina's "default" filenames; "<stdout>", "<stdin>" and "<stderr>"
  can also be specified without the angle brackets. ie "stdout",
  "stdin" and "stderr".
o Fixed bug with updating variables exposed in a PROCEDURE.
o Fixed bug with internal variable SIGL being updated prematurely.
o (0 = 0.000) is now true.
o This version now works (mostly) on OpenVMS; VAX and AXP platforms.
  Thanks to Steve Harris for most of this porting effort.
o NUMERIC FORM VALUE now works.
o Changes to trip/builtin.rexx to reflect the ANSI standard.  Changes
  made to Regina to comply with these tests.
o Bug fixed in DATE BIF conversion. Dates specified in "Normal' format
  with months of 'Dec' would not be recognised.
o Under DOS, OS/2 and W32 ports, stdout and stderr are now set to
  binary mode.  This stops the operating system from translating
  '0d'x characters (LF) into CR/LF pairs.
o Fixed bug in DATE('C'); returned with a number 1 more than it should
  have.
o Fixed bug with \<< and \>> operators.
o Increased the limit on the length of a clause to 1024 characters
  (from 512).
o Better reliability when calling nested Rexx programs.

Please report any bugs with this release of Regina to me.

===========================================================================
Many of the bug fixes in this release were done by Florian Grosse-Coosmann.
I would like to thank him for his efforts in helping to make Regina a better
interpreter.
===========================================================================

Cheers, Mark.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Mark Hessling                       Email:       M.Hessling@qut.edu.au
 PO Box 203                          http://www.lightlink.com/hessling/
 Bellara                                AUTHOR of  |  MAINTAINER of
 QLD 4507                                 THE      |    PDCurses
 Australia                              Rexx/SQL   |     Regina
                Member of RexxLA: http://www.rexxla.org/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
