WHATSNEW For 'tconfpy' 2.112    (Thu Jan 20 04:37:42 CST 2005)
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BUG FIXES

- References to variables that included an explicit namespace
  string were not being properly processed if a template
  existed for that variable. Fixed.

CHANGES


- More and better validation is done of parameters passed to
  the parsing API:

    In addition to the initial symbol table, the passed template table
    is also checked.

    The initial value for each passed symbol is checked for valid type
    in both the symbol table and the template table passed to the API.

    Template names are checked to make sure they do not contain
    namespace separators.  Templates must be named canonically.  This
    was always a requirement, but it was never checked or documented.

- Explicit checks are now made to ensure that the configuration does
  not do circular or recursive .includes. Any attempt to do so will
  produce an error and the offending line will be ignored, but the
  program will attempt to continue processing the rest of the
  configuration.

- The program changes described below have made the 'ParseConfig'
  API incompatible with previous versions of 'tconfpy'.  The version
  number has been branched to 2.x to reflect this fact.  Existing
  programs that use 'tconfpy' will have to be modified to use
  this new release.  

- Symbol Tables and Templates are now first-class objects in their own
  right (classes 'SymbolTable' and 'Template' respectively).  This
  means API will not be compatible with programs built using previous
  versions of 'tconfpy'.  You must now pass/receive objects of the
  appropriate type rather than just dictionaries as was previously the
  case.

- The 'RetObj' object has been removed.  Objects of type 'SymbolTable'
  are now returned.

- There is significant internal code restructuring to encasulate
  parse-related data structures into the 'SymbolTable' object.  This
  eliminated most of the global variables.

- The program now returns both the number of total lines processed,
  (SymbolTable.TotalLines) and a list of all the configuration files
  processed (SymbolTable.Visited).


NEW FEATURES

- Added the 'CallingProgram' API keyword parameter.  This allows the
  calling program to change the program name embedded in every message
  produced during the parse.

- It is now possible to parse a configuration that is stored in-memory
  as a list of text lines.  The 'ParseConfig' API "autodetects" whether
  it is parsing a file or an in-memory list by  examining the type of
  the first (mandatory) parameter passed to it.  If it is a string,
  the program assumes it to be a file name.  If it is a list, the
  program assumes the list contains configuration statements.  If it
  is of any other type, the program declares an error.

  The program also validates each element of an in-memory list and
  ignores anything that is not a string.  An error is produced in this
  case.

- Added the ability to test the *state* of boolean variables in the
  existential conditionials (.ifall/any/none).  Previous versions of
  'tconfpy' could only do this with an explict test like:

   .if BooleanVar == True

  It is now additionally possible to do logical testing like this:

   .ifall [BooleanVar1] [BooleanVar2] ...

  Previously, this would have amounted to '.ifall True False ...'
  which likely would fail since the variables 'True' and 'False'
  would not be defined.

  As of this release, the semantics in the specific instance of
  boolean dereferences during (any of) the existential conditional
  tests have changed.  In this case the logical *state* of the
  variables being tested is returned.  This is believed to be clearer
  than doing explicit equality tests on booleans (though that ability
  is still supported).

  Note that the following construct continues to work as before:

    .ifall BooleanVar1 BooleanVar2 ...

  This tests to see if the variables actually *exist*.


WHATSNEW For 'tconfpy' 1.185    (Sun May  2 03:07:05 CDT 2004)
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BUG FIXES

- The content of literal blocks found within False conditional
  blocks was being reported as a syntax error.  This was 
  benign, but annoying.  Now all text within literal blocks is
  not syntax checked, whether or not the enclosing block is True.


WHATSNEW For 'tconfpy' 1.184    (Tue Apr 27 18:54:11 CDT 2004)
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Added support for Variable Templates.
Added the 'ReturnPredefs' API option.


WHATSNEW For 'tconfpy' 1.181    (Sat Apr 24 15:49:13 CDT 2004)
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First public release of the program.