4.3.4-dev-4 and 4.2.6-dev-2 available

[Peter Stephenson <pws@xxxxxxx>]

I've uploaded new development versions of 4.3.4 and 4.2.6 to
ftp://ftp.zsh.org/pub/development .  Unless something major turns up I
will release 4.3.5 and 4.2.7 some time around the weekend.

Here is what I have so far for a release note for 4.3.5.  Let me know
of anything I've missed.  (That could include major bugfixes you think
for anything that might have been particularly noticeable in 4.3.4.)


Version 4.3.5 contains both bugfixes and improvements.  Further progress
has been made in support for multibyte character set and in most cases
this is thought to be stable although a few glitches remain.

Visible changes in the shell and its modules since 4.3.4 include the
following:

A new module zsh/curses provides the builtin zcurses for access
to the curses screen manipulation package; see the entry in the zsh/modules
manual.  Configuration of terminal libraries is now easier with the
--with-term-lib option to configure.

The module system has been extended to add "features" which can
be manipulated with zmodload -F.  This allows a more convenient and
powerful way of manipulating builtins, parameters, mathematical functions
and test operators provided by modules.  For example,
  zmodload -aF zsh/datetime b:strftime p:EPOCHSECONDS
specifies that builtin strftime and parameter EPOCHSECONDS are to be
autoloaded from the module zsh/datetime, but that no other features
from zsh/datetime will be enabled without being specifically mentioned.
In addition, the zsh/stat module can now be loaded with
  zmodload -F zsh/stat b:zstat
to make the builtin available under the name "zstat".  The alternative
name "stat" is still available but commonly clashes with the name of an
external binary.  The completion system has been modified to use only
"zstat".

"zmodload -i" behaviour is now the default, so "zmodload <module>"
no longer fails if <module> is already loaded.

The globbing flag (#cN,M) is an extension of the extended globbing
# and ## pattern operators, forcing the previous expression to match
at least N and no more than M times, similar to {N,M} in regular
expressions.

In zsh native mode (NO_KSH_ARRAYS), retrieving array subscript zero returns
the empty string or attempting to set subscript zero with arrays is now an
error.  This was previously a source of difficult to find problems.
The old behaviour can be obtained with the KSH_ZERO_SUBSCRIPT option
for compatibility, however there is no reason to use this in new
shell code and KSH_ARRAYS should be preferred for compatibility with
other shells.

Previously, splitting quoted parameters using "${(s.:.)param}" removed
empty fields.  This is incompatible with the usual effect of quoting
parameters.  This behaviour has been retained for compatibility,
but using an explicit "@" flag as in "${(@s.:.)param}" forces
empty fields to be retained.

The sched module has a parameter zsh_scheduled_events that makes
querying scheduled events from a function easier.

The calendar function system can now use UIDs imported from other calendar
systems to identify entries for replacing.  Handling of recurring events
is more robust but still limited.


-- 
Peter Stephenson <pws@xxxxxxx>                  Software Engineer
CSR PLC, Churchill House, Cambridge Business Park, Cowley Road
Cambridge, CB4 0WZ, UK                          Tel: +44 (0)1223 692070