--- /dev/null
+Summary of important user-visible changes for releases of the io package
+
+===============================================================================
+io-1.0.19 Release Date: 2012-06-08 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis
+===============================================================================
+
+** Bug fixes:
+--- getusedrange subfunc getusedrange_jod: str2num applied to indices rather
+ than the substring. Must have been there for > 2 years, only surfaced
+ with jopendocument v 1.3b1
+--- oct2xls, oct2ods: cast all numeric types in input array to double as
+ spreadsheets have only double, boolean or character string type. This bug
+ has been there from the very beginning of the spreadsheet functions >8-O
+
+--- Support for reading back formulas from .xls spreadsheets using ActiveX/COM
+
+** Compatible with jOpenDocument version 1.3b1
+ getUsedRange() method added (MUCH faster than the old hack)
+
+** Compatible with odfdom-java-0.8.8-incubator.jar (ODF Toolkit 0.5-incubating)
+
+** Compatible with Apache POI 3.8 final
+
+===============================================================================
+io-1.0.18 Release Date: 2012-03-22 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis
+===============================================================================
+
+** The following functions have been imported from the miscellaneous package:
+ cell2csv csvconcat xmlread
+ csv2cell csvexplode xmlwrite
+ Their error messages and help messages have been cleaned up a bit.
+
+** Bug fixes:
+--- odsfinfo: fixed "wrong type argument `cell'" bug when run interactively.
+--- xlsopen, odsopen: fixed messed up screen output due to UNO usage warning.
+--- csv2cell: checks if file is empty and if so, return an empty cell.
+--- xlsopen: better Java detection logic, more informative error messages
+
+** Adapted to internal LibreOffice-3.5-final changes.
+ Some bugs (flashing LO screens) still have to be fixed upstream - see here:
+ https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=42470
+
+** Tried OpenXLS-6.0.7.jar. Reads OK, still unusable for writing .xls files.
+
+===============================================================================
+io-1.0.17 Release Date: 2012-02-27 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis
+===============================================================================
+
+** Bug fixes:
+--- oct2ods, oct2xls, odswrite default range input arg. These functions may not
+ have worked properly for two years (!)
+
+** Fixed support for odfdom v.0.8.7 (ODS). Note: the OTK interface only works
+ well with xercesImpl.jar 2.9.1 (Sep 14, 2009)
+
+** Many small bug fixes & documentation updated to actual functionality.
+
+** Fixed "seealso" texinfo header string in almost all functions.
+
+** Added formal test scripts to "internal functions" section.
+
+===============================================================================
+io-1.0.16 Release Date: 2012-01-19 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis
+===============================================================================
+
+** Bug fixing release
+
+** PKG_ADD now expects Java spreadsheet class libs (.jars) in /lib/java
+ (for MinGW)
+
+===============================================================================
+io-1.0.15 Release Date: 2011-10-02 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis
+===============================================================================
+
+io-1.0.15 is primarily a bug fix release and a snapshot / wrap-up of current
+ development status (some still a bit experimental). It mainly comprises:
+
+** A number of bug fixes (incl. some serious ones, notably with .ods/OOo Calc);
+
+** Some mainly cosmetic improvements to existing code; less verbosity;
+
+** pch2mat (reading & transforming Nastran PCH files, contributed by
+ B. Oytun Peksel);
+
+** object2json.m (creating a json description string of objects, contributed
+ by Daniel Torre). This was already silently introduced in io-1.0.14;
+
+** A scripted troubleshooting / classpath setup tool for spreadsheet I/O
+ support (chk_spreadsheet_support.m);
+
+** Experimental OXS support (OpenXLS) for reading Excel xls (BIFF8).
+ OpenXLS is -let's say- a little bit lacking: For reading it is faster than
+ JXL. However, while OXS write support has been coded (and works) I had to
+ disable it as the OXS Java classes won't release the file handle so Octave
+ will hang upon closing :-( I'm stuck with this so I just release it as-is;
+
+** Experimental UNO support, i.e. invoking OpenOffice.org (or clones like
+ LibreOffice) behind the scenes to read spreadsheet files, much like
+ ActiveX/COM for MS-Excel. This is also based on Java. The first time you
+ use UNO, OOo has to be loaded and you'll have to be patient, but once loaded
+ (and in the OS cache) you'll see the pros:
+ --* Very fast;
+ --* Much lower Java memory usage as OOo loads the spreadsheet in its own
+ memory chunk (not Octave's) => much bigger spreadsheet capacity;
+ --* You can read *all* formats supported by OOo: .ods, .xls, .csv, .xlsx,
+ .sxc, .dbf, Lotus wk1, Quattro Pro, ......; and it doesn't really matter
+ whether xlsopen of odsopen is used.
+ Of course all this wonderful stuff comes at a prize:
+ --* After closing the spreadsheet file (odsclose, xlsclose) ALL OOo
+ invocations will be closed, also those started outside Octave. This is
+ due to "the way OpenOffice works" (quoted from OOo dev forum), especially
+ through Java. There are other ways to close OOo but they'll hang Octave;
+ --* The Java UNO classes supplied with e.g. LibreOffice aren't kept quite
+ up-to-date with the main program. As a consequence, with e.g.,
+ LibreOffice 3.4 the main LO window will pop up (it can't be hidden). I
+ filed a bug report for this
+ (https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=40991) but I haven't seen
+ it being picked up yet. Another example: while LO 3.3.1's row capacity
+ was already > 10^6, it took until LO 3.4 before this capacity was
+ implemented in the Java UNO classes.
+ Like with OXS, I'm a bit stuck here - all this has to be fixed upstream.
+
+Hint:
+for older Octave versions (< 3.4.0) you can install io-1.0.15 using the -nodeps
+ flag. You'll then loose the old and buggy textread and csv/dlm-read/write
+ functions but I'd consider that as no big loss.
+
+ <please scroll up/back to see rest of io NEWS>
git://git.creatis.insa-lyon.fr / CreaPhase.git / blobdiff