4.1.1 feature list

[Peter Stephenson <pws@xxxxxxx>]

Here's a highly provisional and randomly ordered list of additional
features in 4.1.1 compared with 4.0.x, derived from one brief trawl
through the ChangeList.  Please suggest more.


autoconf use upgraded to support post-2.50.

New zsh/net/tcp module (ztcp builtin) to provide low-level interface to
TCP.  Function suite to provide better interactive use and pattern-matching
on input.

Continued enhancement to completion function system: new and improved
command and context support, improved low-level functions, improved display
code.  Much better configurability of parameter values and redirections.
Support for using bash completion functions (though zsh native functions
are typically better when available).  New completions include: valgrind,
tidy, texinfo, infocmp, Java classes, larch, limit, locale parameters,
netcat, mysqldiff, mt, lsof, elinks, ant, debchange (dch), email addresses,
file system types, Perforce, xsltproc.

Continued enhancement to the line editor.  Recursive editing and selection
of editing area allow widgets such as replace-string (supplied) with much
more intuitive feel than before; enhanced insert-last-word and related
widgets (e.g. copy-earlier-word); better handling of keymaps in zle and zle
widgets; better support for output from user-defined widgets while zle is
active; tetris game written using zle.

printf builtin.

+= syntax for both scalars and arrays:  scalar+=addtext, array+=(addelt)

Automatically restart jobs that are disowned.

Various improvements to command line history.

Enhanced `for' syntax:  for key value in key1 value1 key2 values ...

Calculator shell function (zcalc) with line editing support.

Builtin interface to pcre library.

Neaten display of line numbers in error messages and PS4 output to make
more consistent.

Removed long-standing oddity that `=prog' expanded aliases so now it always
expands paths.

zselect module provides builtin interface to select system call; read
builtin has timeouts (which may be floating point).

Better support for jobs in prompt and running `jobs' command in subshell of
shell with job control.

Improved randomness in math function library via rand48() interface to 
system math library.

Existing $SECONDS parameter can now be floating point (typeset -F SECONDS)
for extra accuracy.

Many bugfixes.

-- 
Peter Stephenson <pws@xxxxxxx>                  Software Engineer
CSR Ltd., Science Park, Milton Road,
Cambridge, CB4 0WH, UK                          Tel: +44 (0)1223 692070


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