From help-octave-request  Mon Mar  8 22:06:04 1993
Subject: Version 0.70 available
From: John Eaton <jwe>
To: help-octave
Date: Mon, 08 Mar 93 22:06:00 CST

Octave version 0.70 is available from ftp.che.utexas.edu in the
directory /pub/octave.  I've made a lot of changes in the way various
files are organized, so there aren't any diffs from the previous
version.  A summary of recent changes follows.

jwe

Summary of changes for version 0.70:
-----------------------------------

  * Better parse error diagnostics.  For interactive input, you get
    messages like

      octave:1> a = 3 + * 4;

      parse error:

	  a = 3 + * 4;
		  ^

    and for script files, the message includes the file name and input
    line number:

      octave:1> foo

      parse error near line 4 of file foo.m:

	  a = 3 + * 4;
		  ^

  * New builtin variable PS2 which is used as the secondary prompt.
    The default value is '> '.

  * New file, octave-mode.el, for editing Octave code with GNU Emacs.
    This is a modified version of Matthew R. Wette's matlab-mode.el.

  * Better support for missing math functions.

  * User preferences are now cached in a global struct so we don't
    have to do a symbol table lookup each time we need to know what
    they are.  This should mean slightly improved performance for
    evaluating expressions.

Summary of changes for version 0.69:
-----------------------------------

  * Multiple assignments are now possible, so statements like

      a = b = c = 3;
      a = b = c = [1,2;3,4];

    or

      c = (a = (b = 2) * 3 + 4) * 5

    are legal, as are things that have even more bizarre effects, like

      a(4:6,4:6) = b(2:3,2:3) = [1,2;3,4];

    (try it).

  * Improved parsing of strings (but they still don't work as matrix
    elements).

  * An M-file may now either define a function or be a list of
    commands to execute.

  * Better detection and conditional compilation of IEEE functions
    isinf, finite, and isnan.

  * Replacements for acosh, asinh, atanh, and gamma from the BSD math
    library for those systems that don't have them.

Summary of changes for version 0.68:
-----------------------------------

  * New functions:

      eval  -- evaluate a string as a sequence of Octave commands. 
      input -- print a prompt and get user input.