# $ApsCVS: src/apsfilter/ANNOUNCE,v 1.73.2.6 2001/04/01 12:06:11 andreas Exp $

Contents of this ANNOUNCE file for every major and minor release:

	1. SUPPORT
	2. DESIGN CHANGES
	3. NEW FEATURES
	4. SECURITY
	5. DOCUMENTATION
	6. CONTRIBUTIONS
	7. BUG FIXES
	8. CODE IMPROVEMENTS
	9. INTERNET RESOURCES
	10. UPGRADE SUGGESTIONS
	11. DONATIONS / SPONSORS

New in Apsfilter 6.1.1
======================

1. SUPPORT
2. DESIGN CHANGES
3. NEW FEATURES
4. SECURITY
5. DOCUMENTATION
6. CONTRIBUTIONS

7. BUG FIXES

	- duplex printing password bug

	- duplex printing fix for FreeBSD and possibly *BSD
	  (use of hexdump(1) instead of od(1))

	- cosmetic: version strings

8. CODE IMPROVEMENTS
9. INTERNET RESOURCES
10. UPGRADE SUGGESTIONS
11. DONATIONS / SPONSORS

New in Apsfilter 6.1.0
======================


1. SUPPORT

	- Please note, that mails concerning apsfilter that are directly
	  addressed to any of Andreas Klemm's personal account will simply
	  be ignored in the future. This has only organizational reasons:
	  a) He doesn't have the time anymore to answer everything himself
	  b) The mailinlists are there for being used !
	  Code/Patch submissions should go to apsfilter-hackers, see
	  "mailing-lists" below.

	- In short: apsfilter support is only available by using the
	  proper mailing-list. Advantage: everybody learns and can re-read
	  the threads in the search- and browseable mailing-list archive.

2. DESIGN CHANGES

	- SETUP: apsfilter configuration directory is now free of choice,
	  was hardwired to "/etc/apsfilter".

	- readability improvements of apsfilter functions, take their
	  input again from stdin

	- a2ps, now heavy markup is the default (via A2PS_BASIC)

3. NEW FEATURES

	- "fast copies". apsfilter can print multiple copies of the
	  same document, independent of the spooler it only has to
	  pre-process the input once (including gs rendering),
	  then sends the raw data multiple times.
	  Even workd correctly in "fake" duplex mode
	  [use "lpr -C copies=42 file.txt" for 42 copies --
          the default maximum copy count is 10, however]

	- apsfilter copy machine is actually implemented

	- IBM OMNI update, 30 additional Canon printer models.

	- printer-omni: added Epson Stylus Photo 1270

	- PSgs_* devices use "pswrite" and "psgray" drivers

	- pcl3 fully integrated (compatibility to hpdj assumed)

	- new filters: ilbmtoppm, jpegtopnm, mgrtopbm, rletopnm

	- new filters: g32pbm, tiff2ps

	- printer-stp update

4. SECURITY

	- additionally enhance security for tmp files (umask 077).
	  tmp directory itself was secure already.

	- true random duplex passwords

5. DOCUMENTATION

	- apsfilter handbook for -current and -stable available.

	- miscellaneous updates

	- PRINT_DVI was documented as DVI->PS, but is actually
	  DVI->PrinterLanguage

6. CONTRIBUTIONS

	- Michael Graywane <graywane@home.com>
	- Lars Köller <Lars.Koeller@uni-bielefeld.de>
	- Ian Heggie <ianh@microskil.com.au>

7. BUG FIXES

	- SAMBA passsword variable "PASSWD" (as of samba 2.0.7)

	- LPRng: uses "(STDIN)" as job title.

	- a2ps, needed some help with file types

	- "pswrite" vs. "psgray" usage was reversed

	- convert had some problems with file magic (most notably Targa)

	- PC bitmap files were not recognized correctly

	- match patterns for compressed file types were too greedy

	- handbook.html fixes and updates

	- correct bj200 driver name in printer-5.50 file

	- html2ps fixes (ghostscript needed for DSC output)
	  honor LANDSCAPE and PAPERSIZE settings

	- TEXINPUTS was exported in the wrong context

	- some "eval vs. whitespace" fixes

	- convert had some problems with reading from pipes
	  (at least with bmp and sgi files)

8. CODE IMPROVEMENTS

	- Fix for OpenBSD: use signal "numbers" instead of "names".
	  OpenBSD uses different names for signals.

	- recode: always uses "-q"

	- unneeded options to djpeg and ras2ps have been removed

	- gs >= 6.60 use 6.50 as the feature base

	- SETUP pretty-prints gs devices

	- Linux USB device paths shown during SETUP

	- setup/printer-addon has been split into several files, one for each
	  driver type. Now we have: "cdj, hpdj, omni, pcl3, ppa, ps, stp"

	- the driver type next to the printer model is useless now

	- listing of ghostscript devices also shows version number

	- color depth menu was a bit large for 25 line screens

	- slight changes to the papersize menu

	- RAS2PS_OPTS removed

	- duplex notification uses USER@HOST

	- cleanup of TEMP and TMPDIR usage

	- Omni drivers use PRINT_MODE_1_ANY for b/w

	- replaced "psset" from the a2ps package with an inline
	  function 'ps_set_tumble()'

	- apsfilterrc file: add another sample A2PS_BASIC entry
	  #A2PS_BASIC='-Eplain' prevents a2ps for example to 
	  preformat troff documents

	- Add -size ${PAPERSIZE} to acroread options for better
	  A4 printing (and probably printing of other formats)

	- workaround for FreeBSD (and possibly other BSDs)
	  tmpdir didn't get set properly because we need :=
	  not :- in variable. 

	- more papersize hints for various filters: pnmtops, tiff2ps,
	  pdftops, pdf2ps

	- nconvert can't read fits images from a pipe (for whatever reason),
	  so we need a temp file (-> fitstopnm is preferred now)

	- spool dir owner/group is correctly recognized in most cases,
	  so use "yes" as a default answer

	- omni update: -sproperties='...' used for parameters

	- PRINT_DVI gets its input from a seekable file

	- add warning if duplex fifo couldn't be created

9. INTERNET RESOURCES

	- newer, cleaner, better, upper-to-dater and totally baby-blue
	  homepage:
			http://www.apsfilter.org/

	- mailing lists:

		* apsfilter-announce	release announcements
		* apsfilter-chat	general topics
		* apsfilter-current	bug reports for _development_ releases
		* apsfilter-cvs		commit messages for cvs repository
		* apsfilter-devel	development discussion (closed list)
		* apsfilter-doc		documentation stuff
		* apsfilter-hackers	technical discussion, code submissions
		* apsfilter-help	general help; no bug reports!
		* apsfilter-printing	printing problems (and solutions)
		* apsfilter-stable	bug reports for _stable_ releases

		Information:
			To: majordomo@apsfilter.org
			Subject: help
		Subscription:
			To: majordomo@apsfilter.org
			Body: subscribe apsfilter-xxx
		Mailings:
			To: apsfilter-xxx@apsfilter.org

	  See also:	http://www.apsfilter.org/support.html

	- Mailing list archive, browseable and searchable:

		http://www.apsfilter.org/Lists-Archives/

	- User Forum "Printing under Unix Environment" (mailinglist):

		apsfilter-printing@apsfilter.org

	- Portal to other sources of information concerning printing
	  (Linux HOWTOs, gs homepage, LPRng homepage, ...)

		http://www.apsfilter.org/links.html

	- Anonymous CVS Server
	  So you can checkout the newest bits and bytes yourself
	  and easily make contributions to -current or -stable source.

	  	http://www.apsfilter.org/support.html

	- CVS repository browser, to keep track of changes:

		http://www.apsfilter.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi

10. UPGRADE SUGGESTIONS

	This release is _not_ compatible with previous versions of apsfilter!

	You have to backup your current apsfilter installation directory
	(recommended) and rebuild your /etc/printcap file with SETUP.

	If you have problems with apsfilter and "traditional Berkeley
	line printer scheduler" (lpd) you should give LPRng a try.
	LPRng is compatible to BSD-style printer spoolers and offers
	more functionality as well as security features.

11. DONATIONS / SPONSORS

	- Apsfilter requires funds to operate due to hardware upgrade
	  issues everyone experiences and other issues that might come up.

	  Other projects sell CDROMs, but this isn't an option for apsfilter,
	  since nobody would buy a CDROM with less then 1 MB software on it. 

	  So if you like to make hardware or money donations, feel free to
	  send me a cheque or hardware.

	  Please contact me via e-mail to get conto or postal address. 

	  I return I will put you onto our official list of Apsfilter Sponsors. 

	  The following URL also lists needed things:

		http://www.apsfilter.org/donation.html

	- A list of Apsfilter Sponsors:

		http://www.apsfilter.org/sponsors.html
