Announcing XOTcl 1.3.8
*************************

I am pleased to annouce XOTcl 1.3.8
Major changes relative to 1.3.6 are:

     * Improved Functionality
       + new option "switch" for non positional arguments to be used
           to toggle the default value. A switch is a non positional argument
           without extra argument.
       + new option "isnextcall" for self
       + new command "::xotcl::configure filter on|off" to turn off filters.
           needed for serializing objects/classes with active filters
       + several improvements for serializer to handle e.g. application
           methods on Object/Class (needed for ad_instproc in oacs)
       + improving namespace resolving in for object/class references
       + moving all library packages into namespaces           
       + preventing "new" from overwriting objects 
       + allow xotcl to be used in slave interpreters


     * Improved code quality: 
       + fixed namespace confusion in forward to expression calling
           xotcl methods
       + fixed possible memory leak with instmixins
       + fixed possible crash in instvar when empty variable names are used
       + fixed namespace related bug in __unknown resolver hook
       + some code cleanup
       + improved documentation

    * new method "method" for defining methods (experimental):
       Instead of using e.g.
      
           Object o1
           Class C

           o proc m1 {} {....} 
           C instproc m2 {} {....} 
           C proc m3 {} {....} 

       one can use now 

           o method m1 {} {....} 
           C method m2 {} {....} 
           C method -per-object m3 {} {....} 

       in general, we can support options for method definitions, which
       can be used as well for mixins, filters or info (instead of the 
       "inst" prefix). This way the problem of finding appropriate names for 
       distinguishing between object or class matters can be solved,
       in rather rare cases (when referring the to class object) "-per-object"
       can be used. The according name changes will happen in xotcl 2.0.
       
 For more details about the changes, please consult the ChangeLog and
 documentation.

MORE INFO
  General and more detailed information about XOTcl and its components
  can be found at http://www.xotcl.org


Best regards,

Gustaf Neumann
Uwe Zdun