path: root/lib/stdlib/doc/src/notes.xml

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<chapter>
  <header>
    <copyright>
      <year>2004</year><year>2010</year>
      <holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
    </copyright>
    <legalnotice>
      The contents of this file are subject to the Erlang Public License,
      Version 1.1, (the "License"); you may not use this file except in
      compliance with the License. You should have received a copy of the
      Erlang Public License along with this software. If not, it can be
      retrieved online at http://www.erlang.org/.

      Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS"
      basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See
      the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations
      under the License.

    </legalnotice>

    <title>STDLIB Release Notes</title>
    <prepared></prepared>
    <docno></docno>
    <date></date>
    <rev></rev>
    <file>notes.xml</file>
  </header>
  <p>This document describes the changes made to the STDLIB application.</p>

<section><title>STDLIB 1.17.2.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Several type specifications for standard libraries were
	    wrong in the R14B01 release. This is now corrected. The
	    corrections concern types in re,io,filename and the
	    module erlang itself.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9008</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>STDLIB 1.17.2</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p> When several clients accessed a Dets table
	    simultaneously, one of them calling
	    <c>dets:insert_new/2</c>, the Dets server could crash.
	    Alternatively, under the same conditions, <c>ok</c> was
	    sometimes returned instead of <c>true</c>. (Thanks to
	    John Hughes.) </p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8856</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p> When several clients accessed a Dets table
	    simultaneously, inserted or updated objects were
	    sometimes lost due to the Dets file being truncated.
	    (Thanks to John Hughes.) </p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8898</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p> When several clients accessed a Dets table
	    simultaneously, modifications of the Dets server's
	    internal state were sometimes thrown away. The symptoms
	    are diverse: error with reason <c>bad_object</c>;
	    inserted objects not returned by <c>lookup()</c>; et
	    cetera. (Thanks to John Hughes.) </p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8899</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p> If a Dets table was closed after calling
	    <c>bchunk/2</c>, <c>match/1,3</c>,
	    <c>match_object/1,3</c>, or <c>select/1,3</c> and then
	    opened again, a subsequent call using the returned
	    continuation would normally return a reply. This bug has
	    fixed; now the call fails with reason <c>badarg</c>. </p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8903</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p> Cover did not collect coverage data for files such as
	    Yecc parses containing include directives. The bug has
	    been fixed by modifying <c>epp</c>, the Erlang Code
	    Preprocessor. </p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8911</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p> If a Dets table with fewer slots than keys was opened
	    and then closed after just a lookup, the contents were no
	    longer well-formed. This bug has been fixed. (Thanks to
	    Matthew Evans.) </p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8923</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    In a supervisor, when it terminates a child, if that
	    child happens to have exited fractionally early, with
	    normal, the supervisor reports this as an error. This
	    should not be reported as an error.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8938 Aux Id: seq11615 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The documentation filelib:wildcard/1,2 now describes the
	    character set syntax for wildcards.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8879 Aux Id: seq11683 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Buffer overflows have been prevented in <c>erlc</c>,
	    <c>dialyzer</c>, <c>typer</c>, <c>run_test</c>,
	    <c>heart</c>, <c>escript</c>, and <c>erlexec</c>.</p>
	    (Thanks to Michael Santos.)
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8892</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Using a float for the number of copies for
	    <c>string:copies/2</c> resulted in an infinite loop. Now
	    it will fail with an exception instead. (Thanks to
	    Michael Santos.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8915</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    New ETS option <c>compressed</c>, to enable a more
	    compact storage format at the expence of heavier table
	    operations. For test and evaluation, <c>erl +ec</c> can
	    be used to force compression on all ETS tables.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8922 Aux Id: seq11658 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p> The default maximum number of slots of a Dets table
	    has been changed as to be equal to the maximum number of
	    slots. (Thanks to Richard Carlsson.) </p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8959</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>STDLIB 1.17.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>reference() has been substituted for ref() in the
	    documentation.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8733</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The ms_transform now warns if the fun head shadows
	    surrounding variables (just like the warnings you would
	    get for an ordinary fun in the same context).</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6759</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    ets:select_reverse/{1,2,3} are now documented.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7863</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Large parts of the <c>ethread</c> library have been
	    rewritten. The <c>ethread</c> library is an Erlang
	    runtime system internal, portable thread library used by
	    the runtime system itself.</p>
          <p>
	    Most notable improvement is a reader optimized rwlock
	    implementation which dramatically improve the performance
	    of read-lock/read-unlock operations on multi processor
	    systems by avoiding ping-ponging of the rwlock cache
	    lines. The reader optimized rwlock implementation is used
	    by miscellaneous rwlocks in the runtime system that are
	    known to be read-locked frequently, and can be enabled on
	    ETS tables by passing the <seealso
	    marker="stdlib:ets#new_2_read_concurrency">{read_concurrency,
	    true}</seealso> option upon table creation. See the
	    documentation of <seealso
	    marker="stdlib:ets#new/2">ets:new/2</seealso> for more
	    information. The reader optimized rwlock implementation
	    can be fine tuned when starting the runtime system. For
	    more information, see the documentation of the <seealso
	    marker="erts:erl#+rg">+rg</seealso> command line argument
	    of <c>erl</c>.</p>
          <p>
	    There is also a new implementation of rwlocks that is not
	    optimized for readers. Both implementations interleaves
	    readers and writers during contention as opposed to,
	    e.g., the NPTL (Linux) pthread rwlock implementation
	    which use either a reader or writer preferred strategy.
	    The reader/writer preferred strategy is problematic since
	    it starves threads doing the non-preferred operation.</p>
          <p>
	    The new rwlock implementations in general performs better
	    in ERTS than common pthread implementations. However, in
	    some extremely heavily contended cases this is not the
	    case. Such heavy contention can more or less only appear
	    on ETS tables. This when multiple processes do very large
	    amounts of write locked operations simultaneously on the
	    same table. Such use of ETS is bad regardless of rwlock
	    implementation, will never scale, and is something we
	    strongly advise against.</p>
          <p>
	    The new rwlock implementations depend on atomic
	    operations. If no native atomic implementation is found,
	    a fallback solution will be used. Using the fallback
	    implies a performance degradation. That is, it is more
	    important now than before to build OTP with a native
	    atomic implementation.</p>
          <p>
	    The <c>ethread</c> library contains native atomic
	    implementations for, x86 (32 and 64 bit), powerpc (32
	    bit), sparc V9 (32 and 64 bit), and tilera (32 bit). On
	    other hardware gcc's builtin support for atomic memory
	    access will be used if such exists. If no such support is
	    found, <c>configure</c> will warn about no atomic
	    implementation available.</p>
          <p>
	    The <c>ethread</c> library can now also use the
	    <c>libatomic_ops</c> library for atomic memory accesses.
	    This makes it possible for the Erlang runtime system to
	    utilize optimized native atomic operations on more
	    platforms than before. If <c>configure</c> warns about no
	    atomic implementation available, try using the
	    <c>libatomic_ops</c> library. Use the <seealso
	    marker="doc/installation_guide:INSTALL#How-to-Build-and-Install-ErlangOTP_A-Closer-Look-at-the-individual-Steps_Configuring">--with-libatomic_ops=PATH</seealso>
	    <c>configure</c> command line argument when specifying
	    where the <c>libatomic_ops</c> installation is located.
	    The <c>libatomic_ops</c> library can be downloaded from:
	    <url
	    href="http://www.hpl.hp.com/research/linux/atomic_ops/">http://www.hpl.hp.com/research/linux/atomic_ops/</url></p>
          <p>
	    The changed API of the <c>ethread</c> library has also
	    caused modifications in the Erlang runtime system.
	    Preparations for the to come "delayed deallocation"
	    feature has also been done since it depends on the
	    <c>ethread</c> library.</p>
          <p>
	    <em>Note</em>: When building for x86, the <c>ethread</c>
	    library will now use instructions that first appeared on
	    the pentium 4 processor. If you want the runtime system
	    to be compatible with older processors (back to 486) you
	    need to pass the <seealso
	    marker="doc/installation_guide:INSTALL#How-to-Build-and-Install-ErlangOTP_A-Closer-Look-at-the-individual-Steps_Configuring">--enable-ethread-pre-pentium4-compatibility</seealso>
	    <c>configure</c> command line argument when configuring
	    the system.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8544</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Some Built In Functions (BIFs) from the module erlang was
	    never made autoimported for backward compatibility
	    reasons. As local functions now override autoimports, new
	    autoimports is no longer a problem, why the following
	    BIFs are finally made autoimported: monitor/2, monitor/3,
	    demonitor/2, demonitor/3, error/1, error/2,
	    integer_to_list/2, list_to_integer/2.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8763</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>STDLIB 1.17</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>The Erlang code preprocessor (<c>epp</c>) sent extra
	    messages on the form <c>{eof,Location}</c> to the client
	    when parsing the <c>file</c> attribute. This bug,
	    introduced in R11B, has been fixed.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8470</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The abstract type 'fun' could not be printed by the
	    Erlang pretty printer (<c>erl_pp</c>). This bug has been
	    fixed.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8473</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The function <c>erl_scan:reserved_word/1</c> no longer
	    returns <c>true</c> when given the word <c>spec</c>. This
	    bug was introduced in STDLIB-1.15.3 (R12B-3).</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8567</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The documentation of <c>lists:keysort/2</c> states
	    that the sort is stable.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8628 Aux Id: seq11576 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The shell's line editing has been improved to more
	    resemble the behaviour of readline and other shells.
	    (Thanks to Dave Peticolas)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8635</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The Erlang code preprocessor (<c>epp</c>) did not
	    correctly handle premature end-of-input when defining
	    macros. This bug, introduced in STDLIB 1.16, has been
	    fixed.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8665 Aux Id: OTP-7810 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The module binary from EEP31 (and EEP9) is implemented.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8217</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The erlang pretty printer (<c>erl_pp</c>) no longer
	    quotes atoms in types.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8501</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The Erlang code preprocessor (<c>epp</c>) now
	    considers records with no fields as typed.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8503</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Added function <c>zip:foldl/3</c> to iterate over zip
	    archives.</p>
          <p>
	    Added functions to create and extract escripts. See
	    <c>escript:create/2</c> and <c>escript:extract/2</c>.</p>
          <p>
	    The undocumented function <c>escript:foldl/3</c> has been
	    removed. The same functionality can be achieved with the
	    more flexible functions <c>escript:extract/2</c> and
	    <c>zip:foldl/3</c>.</p>
          <p>
	    Record fields has been annotated with type info. Source
	    files as been adapted to fit within 80 chars and trailing
	    whitespace has been removed.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8521</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The Erlang parser no longer duplicates the singleton
	    type <c>undefined</c> in the type of record fields
	    without initial value.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8522</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>A regular expression with many levels of parenthesis
	    could cause a buffer overflow. That has been corrected.
	    (Thanks to Michael Santos.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8539</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>When defining macros the closing right parenthesis
	    before the dot is now mandatory.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8562</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Some properties of a compiled re pattern are defined to
	    allow for guard tests.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8577</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Local and imported functions now override the
	    auto-imported BIFs when the names clash. The pre R14
	    behaviour was that auto-imported BIFs would override
	    local functions. To avoid that old programs change
	    behaviour, the following will generate an error:</p>
	    <list><item><p>Doing a call without explicit module name
	    to a local function having a name clashing with the name
	    of an auto-imported BIF that was present (and
	    auto-imported) before OTP R14A</p></item>
	    <item><p>Explicitly importing a function having a name
	    clashing with the name of an autoimported BIF that was
	    present (and autoimported) before OTP R14A</p></item>
	    <item><p>Using any form of the old compiler directive
	    <c>nowarn_bif_clash</c></p></item> </list> <p>If the BIF
	    was added or auto-imported in OTP R14A or later,
	    overriding it with an import or a local function will
	    only result in a warning,</p> <p>To resolve clashes, you
	    can either use the explicit module name <c>erlang</c> to
	    call the BIF, or you can remove the auto-import of that
	    specific BIF by using the new compiler directive
	    <c>-compile({no_auto_import,[F/A]}).</c>, which makes all
	    calls to the local or imported function without explicit
	    module name pass without warnings or errors.</p> <p>The
	    change makes it possible to add auto-imported BIFs
	    without breaking or silently changing old code in the
	    future. However some current code ingeniously utilizing
	    the old behaviour or the <c>nowarn_bif_clash</c> compiler
	    directive, might need changing to be accepted by the
	    compiler.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8579</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The undocumented, unsupport, and deprecated function
	    <c>lists:flat_length/1</c> has been removed.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8584</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    A bug in re that could cause certain regular expression
	    matches never to terminate is corrected. (Thanks to
	    Michael Santos and Gordon Guthrie.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8589</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Nested records can now be accessed without
	    parenthesis. See the Reference Manual for examples.
	    (Thanks to YAMASHINA Hio and Tuncer Ayaz.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8597</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p><c>receive</c> statements that can only read out a
	    newly created reference are now specially optimized so
	    that it will execute in constant time regardless of the
	    number of messages in the receive queue for the process.
	    That optimization will benefit calls to
	    <c>gen_server:call()</c>. (See <c>gen:do_call/4</c> for
	    an example of a receive statement that will be
	    optimized.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8623</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The beam_lib:cmp/2 function now compares BEAM files in
	    stricter way. The BEAM files will be considered different
	    if there are any changes except in the compilation
	    information ("CInf") chunk. beam_lib:cmp/2 used to ignore
	    differences in the debug information (significant for
	    Dialyzer) and other chunks that did not directly change
	    the run-time behavior.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8625</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    When a gen_server, gen_fsm process, or gen_event
	    terminates abnormally, sometimes the text representation
	    of the process state can occupy many lines of the error
	    log, depending on the definition of the state term. A
	    mechanism to trim out parts of the state from the log has
	    been added (using a format_status/2 callback). See the
	    documentation.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8630</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Calling <c>sys:get_status()</c> for processes that have
	    globally registered names that were not atoms would cause
	    a crash. Corrected. (Thanks to Steve Vinoski.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8656</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The Erlang scanner has been augmented with two new
	    tokens: <c>..</c> and <c>...</c>.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8657</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Expressions evaluating to integers can now be used in
	    types and function specifications where hitherto only
	    integers were allowed ("Erlang_Integer").</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8664</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The compiler optimizes record operations better.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8668</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The recently added BIFs erlang:min/2, erlang:max/2 and
	    erlang:port_command/3 are now auto-imported (as they were
	    originally intended to be). Due to the recent compiler
	    change (OTP-8579), the only impact on old code defining
	    it's own min/2, max/2 or port_command/3 functions will be
	    a warning, the local functions will still be used. The
	    warning can be removed by using
	    -compile({no_auto_import,[min/2,max/2,port_command/3]}).
	    in the source file.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8669 Aux Id: OTP-8579 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Now, binary_to_term/2 is auto-imported. This will cause a
	    compile warning if and only if a module has got a local
	    function with that name.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8671</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The predefined builtin type tid() has been removed.
	    Instead, ets:tid() should be used.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8687</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>STDLIB 1.16.5</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Because of a race condition, using filelib:ensure_dir/1
	    from multiple processes to create the same path or parts
	    of the same directory structure, filelib:ensure_dir/1
	    could return a meaningless {error,eexist}. That race
	    condition has been eliminated, and {error,eexist} will
	    now be returned only if there exists a regular file,
	    device file, or some other non-directory file with the
	    same name. (Thanks to Tuncer Ayaz.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8389</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>A number of bugs concerning re and unicode are
	    corrected:</p>
	    <p>re:compile no longer loses unicode option, which also
	    fixes bug in re:split.</p>
	    <p>re:replace now handles unicode charlist replacement
	    argument</p>
	    <p>re:replace now handles unicode RE charlist argument
	    correctly</p>
	    <p>re:replace now handles binary unicode output correctly
	    when nothing is replaced.</p>
	    <p>Most code, testcases and error isolation done by Rory
	    Byrne.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8394</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The loading of native code was not properly atomic in the
	    SMP emulator, which could cause crashes. Also a per-MFA
	    information table for the native code has now been
	    protected with a lock since it turns that it could be
	    accessed concurrently in the SMP emulator. (Thanks to
	    Mikael Pettersson.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8397</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    user.erl (used in oldshell) is updated to handle unicode
	    in prompt strings (io:get_line/{1,2}). io_lib is also
	    updated to format prompts with the 't' modifier (i.e. ~ts
	    instead of ~s).</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8418 Aux Id: OTP-8393 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The re module: A regular expression with an option change
	    at the start of a pattern that had top-level alternatives
	    could cause overwriting and/or a crash. (Thanks to
	    Michael Santos.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8438</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The ability for the gen_server and gen_fsm callback
	    modules to format their own state for display under the
	    sys:get_status/1,2 calls has been restored and
	    documented. (Thanks to Steve Vinoski.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8324</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    c:nc/{1,2} used to assume that the beam file was created
	    in the same directory as the source code and failed to
	    load the code if it was not. Corrected to look for the
	    beam file in the current directory or in the directory
	    specified by the <c>{outdir,Dir}</c> option. (Thanks to
	    Alex Suraci.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8337</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The documentation is now possible to build in an open
	    source environment after a number of bugs are fixed and
	    some features are added in the documentation build
	    process. </p>
	    <p>- The arity calculation is updated.</p>
	    <p>- The module prefix used in the function names for
	    bif's are removed in the generated links so the links
	    will look like
	    "http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/erlang.html#append_element-2"
	    instead of
	    "http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/erlang.html#erlang:append_element-2".</p>
	    <p>- Enhanced the menu positioning in the html
	    documentation when a new page is loaded.</p>
	    <p>- A number of corrections in the generation of man
	    pages (thanks to Sergei Golovan)</p>
	    <p>- The legal notice is taken from the xml book file so
	    OTP's build process can be used for non OTP
	    applications.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8343</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Shell tab completion now works for quoted module and
	    function names. (Thanks to Ulf Wiger.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8383</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Explicit top directories in archive files are now
	    optional.</p>
          <p>
	    For example, if an archive (app-vsn.ez) just contains an
	    app-vsn/ebin/mod.beam file, the file info for the app-vsn
	    and app-vsn/ebin directories are faked using the file
	    info from the archive file as origin. The virtual
	    direcories can also be listed. For short, the top
	    directories are virtual if they does not exist.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8387</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Macros overloading has been implemented. (Thanks to
	    Christopher Faulet.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8388</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The new function <c>shell:prompt_func/1</c> and the
	    new application configuration parameter
	    <c>shell_prompt_func</c> can be used for customizing the
	    Erlang shell prompt.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8393</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Improved handling of typed records in escripts</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8434</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Added supervisor:count_children/1 to count the number of
	    children being managed without the memory impact of
	    which_children/1. (Thanks to Jay Nelson.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8436</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>STDLIB 1.16.4</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The documentation is now built with open source tools
	    (xsltproc and fop) that exists on most platforms. One
	    visible change is that the frames are removed.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8201</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    [escript] The restriction that the first line in escripts
	    must begin with <c>#!</c> has been removed.</p>
          <p>
	    [escript] Some command line options to the escript
	    executable has now been documented. For example you can
	    run an escript in the debugger by just adding a command
	    line option.</p>
          <p>
	    [escript] The documentation of the escript header syntax
	    has been clarified. For example the header is optional.
	    This means that it is possible to directly "execute"
	    <c>.erl</c>, <c>.beam</c> and<c>.zip</c> files.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8215</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Optimized array:from_orddict/1, it is now faster and
	    uses less memory if the orddict was sparse.</p>
	    <p>Changed array:reset/2, it will now never expand the
	    array which it could before for non fixed arrays. See the
	    documentation.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8216</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The Erlang Pretty Printer (<c>erl_pp</c>) now puts the
	    leading <c>[</c> of list comprehensions as well as the
	    leading <c>&lt;&lt;</c> of bit string comprehensions on a
	    separate line in order to expose the Cover counter of the
	    template.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8227</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The extension ".xrl" used for Leex input files is now
	    recognized by the compiler.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8232</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Some clarifications have been made in the documentation
	    regarding <c>gen_server</c>, <c>gen_fsm</c>, and
	    <c>gen_event</c> behavior when handling <c>'EXIT'</c>
	    messages from the parent process. For more information
	    see the <seealso
	    marker="gen_server">gen_server(3)</seealso>, <seealso
	    marker="gen_fsm">gen_fsm(3)</seealso>, and <seealso
	    marker="gen_event">gen_event(3)</seealso> documentation.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8255 Aux Id: seq11419 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The -on_load() directive can be used to run a function
	    when a module is loaded. It is documented in the section
	    about code loading in the Reference Manual.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8295</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>STDLIB 1.16.3.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
            An erroneous type spec for <c>gen:start/6</c> caused
            dialyzer to erroneously issue warnings when
            <c>{spawn_opt, SpawnOptionList}</c> was passed in the
            option list to the <c>gen_server</c> and <c>gen_fsm</c>
            start functions.</p>
          <p>
            Own Id: OTP-8068 Aux Id: seq11323, seq11314 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>STDLIB 1.16.3</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>The linter used to crash on invalid <c>-opaque</c>
	    declarations.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8051</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Bugs in <c>digraph:add_edge/5</c> and
	    <c>digraph:del_path/3</c> have been fixed. (Thanks to
	    Crystal Din.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8066</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>When trying to insert objects with
	    <c>dets:insert_new()</c> into a Dets table of type
	    <c>duplicate_bag</c>, already existing objects would
	    sometimes be duplicated. This bug has been fixed. (Thanks
	    to Crystal Din.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8070</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Running erlc in a very deep directory (with a path length
	    of more 256 or more characters) would cause the emulator
	    to crash in a call to <c>list_to_atom/1</c>. (Thanks to
	    Chris Newcombe.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8124</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>A few minor bugs have been fixed in the Erlang Code
	    Preprocessor (<c>epp</c>).</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8130</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>A bug in The Erlang Meta Interpreter (<c>erl_eval</c>)
	    has been fixed: exceptions generated in the template of
	    bit string comprehensions were not handled properly.
	    (Thanks to Ulf Wiger.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8133</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Option <c>{capture,none}</c> was missing in documentation
	    for <c>re:run/3</c>.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8113</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>When <c>erl_scan:tokens()</c> returns an error tuple
	    <c>{error, ErrorInfo, EndLocation</c>}, the list
	    <c>LeftOverChars</c> is the remaining characters of the
	    input data, starting from <c>EndLocation</c>. It used to
	    be the empty list.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8129</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The Erlang Meta Interpreter (<c>erl_eval</c>) has been
	    somewhat optimized when it comes to interpreting
	    <c>receive</c>-expressions. (Thanks to Richard
	    Carlsson.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8139</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The Erlang Pretty Printer (<c>erl_pp</c>) has been
	    modified as to handle types.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8150</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>STDLIB 1.16.2</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>The text of tokens returned by the Erlang scanner
	    (<c>erl_scan</c>) was sometimes empty when the
	    <c>text</c> option was given and <c>StartLocation</c> was
	    a line. This bug has been fixed.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7965</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The documentation for <c>base64:decode/1</c> has been
	    updated to point out that it strips whitespace.</p>
	    <p><c>base64:decode/1</c> and <c>base64:mime_decode/1</c>
	    would sometimes fail instead of stripping away non-base64
	    characters.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7984</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Two types in the <c>gen</c> module were corrected.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8029 Aux Id: seq11296 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    <c>array:from_orddict([])</c> and
	    <c>array:from_list([])</c> would construct fixed arrays
	    instead of extendible arrays.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8033</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Interpreted escripts are now tail recursive.</p>
          <p>
	    The function erl_eval:expr/5 has been introduced.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7933</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    <c>gen_server:call/2,3</c> will be somewhat faster if the
	    calling process has a many messages in its message queue.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7979</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Random now supports seed with arity one,
	    <c>random:seed/1</c>, which takes a three-tuple.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8019</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The <c>regexp</c> module now recognizes the escape
	    sequences <c>\xXY</c> and <c>\x{X...}</c>.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8024</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>STDLIB 1.16.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>The documentation of <c>dets:open_file/1</c> now
	    states that the file is repaired if it has not been
	    properly closed. (Thanks to Ulf Wiger.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7895</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>The Erlang scanner no longer returns the text of
	    tokens when the start location is a pair of a line and
	    column unless the new option <c>text</c> is supplied
	    (incompatibility with R13A).</p> <p>There are new
	    functions to access the attributes of tokens:
	    <c>attributes_info/1,2</c> and
	    <c>set_attribute/3</c>.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7892 Aux Id: OTP-7810 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Several glitches and performance issues in the Unicode
	    and I/O-system implementation of R13A have been
	    corrected.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7896 Aux Id: OTP-7648 OTP-7887 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The type spec of filelib:wildcard/2 has been corrected.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7915</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>New functions: <c>gb_sets:is_disjoint/2</c>,
	    <c>ordsets:is_disjoint/2</c>, and
	    <c>gb_sets:is_disjoint/2</c>.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7947</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The function <c>gb_trees:map/2</c> which was added in
	    R13A is now documented.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7948</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>STDLIB 1.16</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>Fixed a minor race conditions in
	    <c>gen_server:start*</c>: if one of these functions
	    returned <c>{error,Reason}</c> or <c>ignore</c>, the name
	    could still be registered (either locally or in
	    <c>global</c>).</p>
	    <p>A process started by <c>proc_lib</c> in some cases
	    depended on its process dictionary not to be erased, and
	    would crash when terminating abnormally and not generate
	    a proper crash report. This has been corrected (but the
	    initial call will not be shown in the error report if the
	    process dictionary has been erased). NOTE: There is no
	    longer any need to erase the process dictionary for
	    memory conservation reasons, since the actual call
	    arguments are no longer saved in the process
	    dictionary.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7669</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The Erlang preprocessor used wrong line number when
	    stringifying macro arguments. (Thanks to John
	    Hughes.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7702</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>A bug in the <c>qlc</c> module has been fixed: merge
	    join sometimes failed to return all answers. (Thanks to
	    Bernard Duggan.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7714</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>A new option, <c>key_equality</c>, has been added to
	    <c>qlc:table/2</c>. This option makes it possible for
	    <c>qlc</c> to better handle tables that use <c>==/2</c>
	    when comparing keys for equality (examples of such tables
	    are ordered ETS tables and gb_table in qlc(3)).</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6674</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The functions <c>lists:seq/1,2</c> return the empty
	    list in a few cases when they used to generate an
	    exception, for example <c>lists:seq(1, 0)</c>. See
	    lists(3) for details. (Thanks to Richard O'Keefe.)</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7230</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The order of objects visited in select for ordered_set is
	    now documented.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7339</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    It is now possible to debug code in escripts and
	    archives.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7626</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Support for Unicode is implemented as described in
	    EEP10. Formatting and reading of unicode data both from
	    terminals and files is supported by the io and io_lib
	    modules. Files can be opened in modes with automatic
	    translation to and from different unicode formats. The
	    module 'unicode' contains functions for conversion
	    between external and internal unicode formats and the re
	    module has support for unicode data. There is also
	    language syntax for specifying string and character data
	    beyond the ISO-latin-1 range.</p>
	    <p>The interactive shell will support input and output of
	    unicode characters when the terminal and operating system
	    supports it.</p>
	    <p>Please see the EEP and the io/io_lib manual pages as
	    well as the stdlib users guide for details.</p>
	    <p><em>I/O-protocol incompatibilities:</em></p>
	    <p>The io_protocol between io_Server and client is
	    updated to handle protocol data in unicode formats. The
	    updated protocol is now documented. The specification
	    resides in the stdlib <em>users manual</em>, which is a
	    new part of the manual.</p>
	    <p><em>io module incompatibilities:</em></p>
	    <p>The io:put_chars, io:get_chars and io:get_line all
	    handle and return unicode data. In the case where
	    binaries can be provided (as to io:put_chars), they shall
	    be encoded in UTF-8. When binaries are returned (as by
	    io:get_line/get_chars when the io_server is set in
	    <em>binary mode</em>) the returned data is also
	    <em>always</em> encoded as UTF-8. The file module however
	    still returns byte-oriented data, why file:read can be
	    used instead of io:get_chars to read binary data in
	    ISO-latin-1.</p>
	    <p><em>io_lib module incompatibilities:</em></p>
	    <p>io_lib:format can, given new format directives (i.e
	    "~ts" and "~tc"), return lists containing integers larger
	    than 255. </p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7648 Aux Id: OTP-7580 OTP-7514 OTP-7494
	    OTP-7443 OTP-7181 EEP10 EEP11 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The function <c>pool:attach/1</c> now returns
	    <c>already_attached</c> if the node is already attached,
	    rather than <c>allready_attached</c> (sic!). (Thanks to
	    Edwin Fine.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7653 Aux Id: OTP-7603 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Preprocessor directives are now allowed in escripts. This
	    means that for example macros may be used in escripts.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7662</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>When a process started with <c>proc_lib</c>,
	    <c>gen_server</c>, or <c>gen_fsm</c> exits with reason
	    <c>{shutdown,Term}</c>, a crash report will no longer be
	    generated (to allow a clean shutdown, but still provide
	    additional information to process that are linked to the
	    terminating process).</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7740 Aux Id: seq10847 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    A new BIF, <c>lists:keyfind/3</c>, has been added. It
	    works like <c>lists:keysearch/3</c> except that it does
	    not wrap the returned tuple in a <c>value</c> tuple in
	    case of success. (Thanks to James Hague for suggesting
	    this function.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7752</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p><c>lists:suffix(Suffix, List)</c> used to have a a
	    complexity of <c>length(Suffix)*length(List)</c> (which
	    could become quite slow for some inputs). It has now been
	    re-implemented so that its complexity is
	    <c>length(Suffix)+length(List)</c>. (Thanks to Richard
	    O'Keefe for the new implementation.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7797</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The Erlang scanner has been augmented as to return
	    white spaces, comments, and exact location of tokens. The
	    functions <c>string/3</c>, <c>tokens/4</c>, and
	    <c>token_info/1,2</c> are new. See erl_scan(3) for
	    details.</p>
	    <p><c>tokens/3,4</c> have been modified as to return a
	    list of tokens instead of an error when <c>eof</c> is
	    encountered before the dot.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7810</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    <c>filelib:fold_files/5</c> now uses the <c>re</c> module
	    instead of the <c>regexp</c> module for regular
	    expression matching. In practice, this change will not be
	    a problem for most regular expressions used for
	    <c>filelib:fold_files/5</c>. (The major difference in
	    regular expression is that parenthesis and curly brackets
	    is treated as literal characters by <c>regexp</c> but as
	    special characters by <c>re</c>; fortunately, those
	    characters are rarely used in filenames.)</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7819</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    <c>digraph:new(Type)</c> will now cause a <c>badarg</c>
	    exception if <c>Type</c> is not a valid type. Similarly,
	    <c>digraph_utils:subgraph/2,3</c> will now cause a
	    <c>badarg</c> if the arguments are invalid. (Those
	    functions used to return error tuples if something was
	    wrong.)</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7824</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The argument passed to <c>random:uniform/1</c> must
	    now be an integer (as stated in the documentation). In
	    previous releases, a floating point number was also
	    allowed.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7827</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The copyright notices have been updated.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7851</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>A few missing match spec functions was added to
	    dbg:fun2ms; exception_trace/0 and trace/2,3.</p>
	    <p>There is a new function queue:member/2.</p>
	    <p>A bug in io_lib:fread that made it accidentally
	    concatenate fields separated by newline has been
	    corrected. Reported and analyzed by Matthew Palmer to
	    erlang-patches.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7865</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>


<section><title>STDLIB 1.15.5</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>A bug in the <c>qlc</c> module has been fixed: when
	    merge joining two query handles the temporary file used
	    for equivalence classes was not truncated properly which
	    could result in poor performance.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7552</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The characters 16#C0 and 16#E0 ("A" and "a" with grave
	    accent), were not properly converted by the
	    <c>string:to_lower/1</c> and <c>string:to_upper/1</c>
	    functions. (Thanks to Richard O'Keefe.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7589</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The function <c>pool:attach/1</c> now returns
	    <c>already_attached</c> if the node is already attached,
	    rather than <c>allready_attached</c> (sic!). (Thanks to
	    Edwin Fine.)</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7603</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The documentation for <c>io:get_line/1,2</c> now
	    mentions that the return value can also be
	    <c>{error,Reason}</c>.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7604 Aux Id: seq11063 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The split function is now added to the re library.
	    Exceptions and errors from both run, replace and split
	    are made more consistent.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7514 Aux Id: OTP-7494 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Processes spawned using <c>proc_lib</c> (including
	    <c>gen_server</c> and other library modules that use
	    <c>proc_lib</c>) no longer keep the entire argument list
	    for the initial call, but only the arity.</p>
	    <p>Also, if <c>proc_lib:spawn/1</c> is used to spawn a
	    fun, the actual fun is not kept, but only module,
	    function name, and arity of the function that implements
	    the fun.</p>
	    <p>The reason for the change is that keeping the initial
	    fun (or a fun in an argument list), would prevent
	    upgrading the code for the module. A secondary reason is
	    that keeping the fun and function arguments could waste a
	    significant amount of memory.</p>
	    <p>The drawback with the change is that the crash reports
	    will provide less precise information about the initial
	    call (only <c>Module:Function/Arity</c> instead of
	    <c>Module:Function(Arguments)</c>). The function
	    <c>proc_lib:initial_call/1</c> still returns a list, but
	    each argument has been replaced with a dummy atom.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7531 Aux Id: seq11036 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    There is now experimental support for loading of code
	    from archive files. See the documentation of <c>code</c>,
	    <c>init</c>, <c>erl_prim_loader </c> and <c>escript</c>
	    for more info.</p>
          <p>
	    The error handling of <c>escripts</c> has been improved.</p>
          <p>
	    An <c>escript</c> may now set explicit arguments to the
	    emulator, such as <c>-smp enabled</c>.</p>
          <p>
	    An <c>escript</c> may now contain a precompiled beam
	    file.</p>
          <p>
	    An <c>escript</c> may now contain an archive file
	    containing one or more applications (experimental).</p>
          <p>
	    The internal module <c>code_aux</c> has been removed.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7548 Aux Id: otp-6622 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Enabled explicit control of which types of files that
	    should be compressed in a ZIP archive.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7549 Aux Id: otp-6622 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    In the job control mode, the "s" and "r" commands now
	    take an optional argument to specify which shell to
	    start. (Thanks to Robert Virding.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7617</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>STDLIB 1.15.4</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    A bug in the calendar module could cause
	    calendar:local_time_to_universal_time_dst/1 to return
	    duplicate identical values for local times in timezones
	    without DST. Multiple values should only be returned when
	    a local time is within the hour occurring twice due to
	    shift from DST to non-DST, and certainly only in
	    timezones with DST. The correct behaviour is now
	    implemented.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7344 Aux Id: seq10960 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The documentation of <c>(d)ets:init_table()</c> has
	    been corrected. (Thanks to Paul Mineiro.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7413</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The soft upper limit of 60 on the number of non-white
	    characters on a line, which was introduced in R12B-0 for
	    the control sequences <c>p</c> and <c>P</c> of the
	    functions <c>io:fwrite/2,3</c> and
	    <c>io_lib:fwrite/2</c>, has been removed. This means that
	    terms whose printed representation fits on a line will
	    have no NEWLINEs. The Erlang shell still uses the 60
	    character limit, though.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7421 Aux Id: OTP-6708 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Some debug code has been removed from Dets.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7424</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The documentation of <c>dets:match_delete/2</c> has
	    been corrected. (Thanks to Paul Mineiro.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7445</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Corrections of digraph(3). (Thanks to Vlad
	    Dumitrescu.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7492</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    For the process that an escript runs in, the
	    <c>trap_exit</c> process flag is now <c>false</c> instead
	    of <c>true</c> (as in previous releases). Scripts that
	    depend on the previous (counter-intuitive) behaviour
	    might not work. (Thanks to Bengt Kleberg.)</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7517</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>The documentation of <c>lists:(u)sort/2</c> now states
	    what is expected of an ordering function.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7489</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The re module is extended with repetitive matches (global
	    option) and replacement function.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7494 Aux Id: OTP-7181 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The Erlang shell now displays a nicer error message
	    when evaluating an undefined command. (Thanks to Richard
	    Carlsson.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7495</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>


<section><title>STDLIB 1.15.3</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    zip:unzip to/from binary with empty directories did not
	    work. (Thanks to Martin Dvorak.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7248</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The documentation of the control sequence <c>w</c> of
	    the <c>io_lib</c> module now states that floating point
	    numbers are printed accurately.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7324 Aux Id: OTP-7084 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    zip:unzip was not supporting a flavour of the zip format
	    found in jar-files.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7382 Aux Id: seq10970 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    An experimental module "re" is added to the emulator
	    which interfaces a publicly available regular expression
	    library for Perl-like regular expressions (PCRE). The
	    interface is purely experimental and *will* be subject to
	    change.</p>
          <p>
	    The implementation is for reference and testing in
	    connection to the relevant EEP.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7181</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>STDLIB 1.15.2</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p> When inserting many small objects, Dets sometimes
	    crashed when reaching the maximum number of slots.
	    (Thanks to Daniel Goertzen.) </p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7146</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Processes linked to the Erlang shell did not get an
	    exit signal when the evaluator process was killed. This
	    bug, introduced in R12B-0, has been fixed.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7184 Aux Id: OTP-6554 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Invalid arguments to <c>ets:update_counter/3</c> were not
	    handled correctly. A tuple position (<c>Pos</c>) less
	    than 1 caused the element directly following the key to
	    be updated (as if no position at all had been specified).
	    All invalid values for <c>Pos</c> will now fail with
	    <c>badarg</c>.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7226</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    For certain terminals, io:columns/0 could return 0
	    instead of enotsup. That is now corrected.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7229 Aux Id: seq10886 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p><c>qlc:info()</c> can now handle port identifiers,
	    pids, references, and funs. (Thanks to Wojciech Kaczmare
	    for reporting this bug.)</p> <p>When evaluating the
	    <c>parent_fun</c> messages sent to the process calling
	    <c>qlc:cursor()</c> were sometimes erroneously consumed.
	    This bug has been fixed.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7232</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p><c>erl_parse:abstract()</c> can now handle bit
	    strings.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7234</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>The <c>queue</c> module has been rewritten to make it
	    easier to use. Suggestions and discussion from and with
	    among others Lev Walkin, Anders Ramsell and Rober Virding
	    in december 2007 on [email protected]. It was
	    also discussed to change the internal representation to
	    contain length information which would speed up
	    <c>len/1</c> but that change has been postponed. Anyone
	    interested may write an EEP and try to reach an
	    acceptable compromise for queue overhead and thereby the
	    speed of all other operations than <c>len/1</c>. The
	    <c>queue</c> module is now optimized for fast and minimal
	    garbage <c>in/2</c> and <c>out/1</c> and such. See the
	    documentation.</p>
	    <p>New functions: <c>is_queue/1</c>, <c>get/1</c>,
	    <c>get_r/1</c>, <c>peek/1</c>, <c>peek_r/1</c>,
	    <c>drop/1</c>, <c>drop_r/1</c> and <c>liat/1</c>.
	    <c>is_queue/1</c> is a new predicate, <c>liat/1</c> is a
	    correction of an old misspelling, and the others
	    (<c>get</c>*, <c>peek</c>* and <c>drop</c>*) are new
	    interface functions.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7064</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The functions <c>io_lib:write/1,2</c> and
	    <c>io_lib:print/1,4</c> have been changed when it comes
	    to writing floating point numbers. This change affects
	    the control sequences <c>p</c>, <c>P</c>, <c>w</c>, and
	    <c>W</c> of the <c>io_lib</c> module. (Thanks to Bob
	    Ippolito for code contribution.) </p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7084</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Updated the documentation for
	    <c>erlang:function_exported/3</c> and <c>io:format/2</c>
	    functions to no longer state that those functions are
	    kept mainly for backwards compatibility.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7186</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    A new BIF ets:update_element/3. To update individual
	    elements within an ets-tuple, without having to read,
	    update and write back the entire tuple.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7200</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p><c>string:join/2</c> now accepts an empty list as
	    first argument.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7231 Aux Id: OTP-6671 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p><c>qlc:info/1,2</c> accepts a new option,
	    <c>depth</c>. The type <c>SelectedObjects</c> used in the
	    description of <c>qlc:table/2</c> has been augmented.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7238</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p><c>tuple_size/1</c> and <c>byte_size/1</c> have been
	    substituted for <c>size/1</c> in the documentation.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7244</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>STDLIB 1.15.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Ets:select/3 in combination with
	    ets:repair_continuation/2 and ordered_set data tables
	    could result in function_clause although used as
	    intended. This is now corrected. Thanks to Paul Mineiro
	    for finding and isolating the bug!</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7025</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The compiler warning for the deprecated function
	    <c>ftp:close/1</c> now mentions the correct replacement
	    function.</p>
	    <p>The warning for the removed functions in the
	    <c>httpd_util</c> module have been changed to say they
	    have been removed, not merely deprecated. (Thanks to
	    Fredrik Thulin.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7034 Aux Id: seq10825 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>In <c>(Expr)#r{}</c> (no fields are updated),
	    <c>Expr</c> is no longer evaluated more than once. There
	    is also a test that <c>Expr</c> is of the correct record
	    type. (Thanks to Dominic Williams.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7078 Aux Id: OTP-4962 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Documentation bugfixes and clarifications.</p> (Thanks
	    to Joern ([email protected]), Matthias Lang, and Richard
	    Carlsson.)
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7079</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Duplicated objects were sometimes not deleted from the
	    list of answers when a QLC table was traversed using a
	    match specification. (Thanks to Dmitri Girenko.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7114</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>The documentation has been updated so as to reflect
	    the last updates of the Erlang shell as well as the minor
	    modifications of the control sequence <c>p</c> of the
	    <c>io_lib</c> module.</p> <p>Superfluous empty lines have
	    been removed from code examples and from Erlang shell
	    examples.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6944 Aux Id: OTP-6554, OTP-6911 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p><c>tuple_size/1</c> and <c>byte_size/1</c> have been
	    substituted for <c>size/1</c>.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7009</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    It is now possible to hibernate a
	    gen_server/gen_event/gen_fsm. In gen_server and gen_fsm,
	    hibernation is triggered by returning the atom
	    'hibernate'�instead of a timeout value. In the gen_event
	    case hibernation is triggered by a event handler
	    returning a tuple with an extra element containing the
	    atom 'hibernate'.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7026 Aux Id: seq10817 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Some undocumented debug functionality has been added
	    to Dets.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7066</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The functions <c>digraph_utils:is_tree/1</c>,
	    <c>digraph_utils:is_arborescence/1</c>, and
	    <c>digraph_utils:arborescence_root/1</c> are new.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7081</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The compiler could generate suboptimal code for record
	    updates if the record update code consisted of multiple
	    source code lines.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7101</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>STDLIB 1.15</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>Bugs have been fixed in <c>qlc</c>:</p> <list
	    type="bulleted"> <item>Setting the <c>lookup_fun</c>
	    option of <c>qlc:table/2</c> to <c>undefined</c> could
	    cause a crash.</item> <item>If a QLC restricted some
	    column of a table in such a way that a traversal using a
	    match specification was possible and the QLC also
	    compared the key column or some indexed column of the the
	    table with a column of some other table, <c>qlc</c>
	    always chose to traverse the table first, never
	    considering lookup join. This has been changed so that
	    lookup join is always preferred; if an initial traversal
	    using the match specification is desired, the query needs
	    to be rewritten introducing an extra QLC with the
	    filter(s) restricting the column.</item> <item>When
	    trying to find candidates for match specifications and
	    lookup, filters using variables from one generator only
	    are ignored unless they are placed immediately after the
	    generator and possibly other filters using variables from
	    the same generator. In particular, filters joining two
	    tables should not be placed between the generator and the
	    filters using the generator only.</item> <item>The
	    call-back function <c>TraverseFun</c> used for
	    implementing QLC tables is allowed to return a term other
	    than a list since STDLIB 1.14 (OTP-5195). However, when
	    the returned term was a fun <c>qlc</c> often tried to
	    call the fun instead of returning it.</item> </list> <p>A
	    few minor optimizations have been implemented as
	    well.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6673</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>A bug concerning the use of parameterized modules from
	    the shell has been fixed.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6785</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>A bug regarding the size expression of the bit syntax
	    has been fixed in the <c>erl_eval</c> module.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6787</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The log_mf_h event handler didn't close the index file
	    when it was done reading it causing a file descriptor
	    leak.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6800</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Definitions for the <c>filename()</c> and
	    <c>dirname()</c> types have been added to the
	    documentation for the <c>filelib</c> module.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6870</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>file:write_file/3, file:write/2 and file:read/2 could
	    crash (contrary to documentation) for odd enough file
	    system problems, e.g write to full file system. This bug
	    has now been corrected.</p> <p>In this process the file
	    module has been rewritten to produce better error codes.
	    Posix error codes now originate from the OS file system
	    calls or are generated only for very similar causes (for
	    example 'enomem' is generated if a memory allocation
	    fails, and 'einval' is generated if the file handle in
	    Erlang is a file handle but currently invalid).</p>
	    <p>More Erlang-ish error codes are now generated. For
	    example <c>{error,badarg}</c> is now returned from
	    <c>file:close/1</c> if the argument is not of a file
	    handle type. See file(3).</p> <p>The possibility to write
	    a single byte using <c>file:write/2</c> instead of a list
	    or binary of one byte, contradictory to the
	    documentation, has been removed.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6967 Aux Id: OTP-6597 OTP-6291 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>A bug concerning the evaluation of the <c>++/2</c>
	    operator has been fixed in <c>erl_eval</c>. (Thanks to
	    Matthew Dempsky.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6977</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>The behaviour of the internal functions gen:call/3,4
	    has been changed slightly in the rare case that when the
	    caller was linked to the called server, and the server
	    crashed during the call; its exit signal was consumed by
	    the gen:call/3,4 code and converted to an exit exception.
	    This exit signal is no longer consumed.</p>
	    <p>To even notice this change, 1) the calling process has
	    to be linked to the called server.</p>
          <p>
	    2) the call must not be remote by name that is it must be
	    local or remote by pid, local by name or global by name.</p>
          <p>
	    3) the calling process has to have set
	    <c>process_flag(trap_exit, true)</c>.</p>
          <p>
	    4) the server has to crash during the call.</p>
          <p>
	    5) the calling process has to be sensitive to getting
	    previously consumed <c>{'EXIT',Pid,Reason}</c> messages
	    in its message queue.</p>
	    <p>The old behaviour was once the only way for a client
	    to notice if the server died, but has since
	    <c>erlang:monitor(process, {Name,Node})</c> was
	    introduced and used in gen:call been regarded as an
	    undesired behaviour if not a bug.</p>
	    <p>The affected user APIs are:
	    <c>gen_server:call/2,3</c>,
	    <c>gen_fsm:sync_send_event/2,3</c>,
	    <c>gen_fsm:sync_send_all_state_event/2,3</c>,
	    <c>gen_event:_</c>, <c>sys:_</c> and maybe a few others
	    that hardly will be noticed.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-3954 Aux Id: Seq 4538 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>When an exception occurs the Erlang shell now displays
	    the class, the reason, and the stacktrace in a clearer
	    way (rather than dumping the raw EXIT tuples as before).
	    <c>proc_lib:format/1</c> displays the exception of crash
	    reports in the same clearer way.</p> <p>The new shell
	    command <c>catch_exception</c> and the new application
	    configuration parameter <c>shell_catch_exception</c> can
	    be used for catching exceptions that would normally exit
	    the Erlang shell.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6554 Aux Id: OTP-6289 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The function <c>string:join/2</c> joins strings in a
	    list with a separator. Example: '<c>string:join(["a",
	    "b", "c"], ", ") gives "a, b, c"</c>'</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6671</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The control sequence <c>P</c> of the <c>Format</c>
	    argument of the functions <c>io:fwrite/2,3</c> and
	    <c>io_lib:fwrite/2</c> now inserts fewer line breaks when
	    printing tuples and lists. A soft upper limit of 60 on
	    the number of non-white characters on a line has been
	    introduced.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6708</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The new module <c>array</c> provides a fast functional
	    array implementation.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6733</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Functions that have long been deprecated have now been
	    removed from the following modules: <c>dict</c>,
	    <c>erl_eval</c>, <c>erl_pp</c>, <c>io</c>, <c>io_lib</c>,
	    <c>lists</c>, <c>orddict</c>, <c>ordsets</c>,
	    <c>sets</c>, and <c>string</c>.</p>
	    <p>The undocumented function <c>lists:zf/3</c> has also
	    been removed (use a list comprehension or
	    <c>lists:zf/2</c> instead).</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6845</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Minor documentation corrections for file:pread/2 and
	    file:pread/3.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6853</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Contract directives for modules in Kernel and STDLIB.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6895</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The <c>ets:fixtable/2</c> function, which has been
	    deprecated for several releases, has been removed.</p>
	    <p>The <c>ets:info/1</c> function has been reimplemented
	    as a BIF, which guarantees that information returned is
	    consistent.</p>
	    <p>The <c>ets:info/2</c> function now fails with reason
	    <c>badarg</c> if the second argument is invalid.
	    (Dialyzer can be used to find buggy code where the second
	    argument is misspelled.)</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6906</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The Erlang pretty printer <c>erl_pp</c> now inserts
	    more newlines in order to facilitate line coverage
	    analysis by <c>Cover</c>. (Thanks to Thomas Arts.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6911</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The documentation for ets:safe_fixtable/2, ets:foldl/3,
	    and ets:foldr/3 is now clearer about what will happen if
	    objects are inserted during table traversals.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6928 Aux Id: seq10779 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    It is now possible to extract files in tar files directly
	    into binaries. It is also possible to add files to tar
	    files directly from binaries.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6943</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The functions <c>keystore/4</c> and <c>keytake/3</c>
	    are new in the <c>lists</c> module.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6953</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The new <c>qlc</c> option <c>tmpdir_usage</c> can be
	    used for outputting messages onto the error logger when a
	    temporary file is about to be created, or to prohibit the
	    usage of temporary files altogether.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6964</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>STDLIB 1.14.5.3</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The allowed syntax for -type() and -spec() was updated.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6861 Aux Id: OTP-6834 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>STDLIB 1.14.5.2</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
            The compiler will for forward compatibility ignore the
            -type() and -spec() attributes that will be introduced in
            the R12B release.</p>
          <p>
            Own Id: OTP-6834</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>
<section><title>STDLIB 1.14.5.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The log_mf_h event handler didn't close the index file
	    when it was done reading it causing a file descriptor
	    leak.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6800</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The dict:size/1 and orddict:size/1 functions have been
	    documented.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6818</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

  <section>
    <title>STDLIB 1.14.5</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Bugs have been fixed in Dets concerning comparison
            (==) and matching (=:=).</p>
          <p>The STDLIB manual pages
            have been updated as to more carefully state when terms
            are matched and when they are compared.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-4738 Aux Id: OTP-4685 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The shell has been updated to fix the following flaws:
            Shell process exit left you with an unresponsive initial
            shell if not using oldshell. Starting a restricted shell
            with a nonexisting callback module resulted in a shell
            where no commands could be used, not even init:stop/0.
            Fun's could not be used as parameters to local shell
            functions (in shell_default or user_default) when
            restricted_shell was active.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6537</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>A bug in QLC's parse transform has been fixed.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6590</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>A bug concerning <c>lists:sort/1</c> and
            <c>lists:keysort/2</c> and a mix of floating point
            numbers and integers has been fixed.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6606</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>When calling <c>erlang:garbage_collect/0</c> in the
            Erlang shell not only the evaluator process (the one
            returned by calling <c>self()</c> in the Erlang shell) is
            garbage collected, but also the process holding the
            history list.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6659</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>Functions of the <c>beam_lib</c> module that used to
            catch exceptions and return a tuple
            <c>{'EXIT',Reason}</c> now exit with the reason
            <c>Reason</c>.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6711</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The <c>erl_eval</c> module now calls the non-local
            function handler whenever an operator is evaluated
            (exceptions are <c>andalso</c>, <c>orelse</c>, and
            <c>catch</c>). The non-local function handler is now also
            called when the function or operator occurs in a guard
            test (such calls used to be ignored).</p>
          <p>These changes affect the Erlang shell when running in
            restricted mode: the callback function
            <c>non_local_allowed/3</c> is now called for operators
            such as <c>'!'/2</c>. This means that
            <c>non_local_allowed/3</c> may need to be changed as to
            let operators through. Note that <c>erlang:'!'/2</c> as
            well as <c>erlang:send/2,3</c> have to be restricted in
            order to stop message passing in the shell.</p>
          <p>*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6714 Aux Id: seq10374 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>The new compiler option <c>warn_obsolete_guard</c> can
            be used for turning on warnings for calls to old type
            testing BIFs.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6585</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>For scripts written using <c>escript</c>, there is a new
            function <c>escript:script_name/0</c>, which can be used
            to retrieve the pathame of the script. The documentation
            has been clarified regarding pre-defined macros such as
            ?MODULE and the module name.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6593</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>Minor Makefile changes.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6689 Aux Id: OTP-6742 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>STDLIB 1.14.4</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>The MD5 calculation of a BEAM file done by
            <c>code:module_md5/1</c>, <c>beam_lib:md5/1</c>, and by
            the compiler for the default value of the <c>vsn</c>
            attribute have all been changed so that its result will
            be the same on all platforms; modules containing funs
            could get different MD5s on different platforms.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6459</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>When sorting terms using the <c>file_sorter</c> module
            (the option <c>Format</c> set to <c>term</c>), file
            errors were not always properly handled. This bug has
            been fixed.</p>
          <p>The directory supplied with the
            <c>tmpdir</c> option is no longer checked unless it is
            actually used. The error reason <c>not_a_directory</c>
            can no longer be returned; instead a <c>file_error</c>
            tuple is returned</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6526</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>Bugs regarding <c>try</c>/<c>catch</c> have been fixed
            in the <c>erl_eval</c> module.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6539</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>When sorting the operands of a join operation, QLC
            called <c>file:open/3</c> with bad arguments. This bug
            has been fixed.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6562 Aux Id: seq10606 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>The functions <c>beam_lib:cmp/1</c> and
            <c>beam_lib:strip/1</c> (and similar functions) have been
            updated to handle optional chunks (such as "FunT") in
            more general way in order to be future compatible.</p>
          <p>The function <c>beam_lib:chunks/3</c> has been
            added.</p>
          <p>The function <c>beam_lib:md5/1</c> has been added.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6443</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>Added base64 as a module to stdlib, encoding and decoding</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6470</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>Added the functions to_upper/1 and to_lower/1 to the
            string module. These provide case conversion for ISO/IEC
            8859-1 characters (Latin1) and strings.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6472</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The callback function <c>non_local_allowed/3</c> used
            by the restricted shell can now return the value
            <c>{{restricted,NewFuncSpec,NewArgList},NewState}</c>
            which can be used for letting the shell call some other
            function than the one specified.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6497 Aux Id: seq10555 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>There is a new <c>escript</c> program that can be used
            for writing scripts in Erlang. Erlang scripts don't need
            to be compiled and any arguments can be passed to them
            without risk that they are interpreted by the Erlang
            system.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6505</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The <c>Format</c> argument of the functions
            <c>io:fwrite/2,3</c> and <c>io_lib:fwrite/2</c> is now
            allowed to be a binary.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6517</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>STDLIB 1.14.3.1</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>The control sequences <c>p</c> and <c>P</c> of the
            <c>Format</c> argument of the functions
            <c>io:fwrite/2,3</c> and <c>io_lib:fwrite/2</c> could
            cause a <c>badarg</c> failure when applied to binaries.
            This bug was introduced in STDLIB 1.14.3. (Thanks to
            Denis Bilenko.)</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6495</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Added the option {cwd, Dir} to make zip-archives with
            relative pathnames without having to do (a global)
            file:set_cwd.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6491 Aux Id: seq10551 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>STDLIB 1.14.3</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>The <c>spawn_opt/2,3,4,5</c> option <c>monitor</c> --
            introduced in Kernel 2.11.2 -- is currently not possible
            to use when starting a process using <c>proc_lib</c>,
            that is, also when starting a gen_server, gen_fsm etc. </p>
          <p>This limitation has now been properly documented and the
            behavior of the <c>gen_fsm</c>, <c>gen_server</c>, and
            <c>proc_lib</c><c>start</c> and <c>start_link</c>
            functions when providing this option has been changed
            from hanging indefinitely to failing with reason
            <c>badarg</c>.</p>
          <p>(Thanks to Fredrik Linder)</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6345</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>The control sequence <c>P</c> of the <c>Format</c>
            argument of the functions <c>io:fwrite/2,3</c> and
            <c>io_lib:fwrite/2</c> now replaces the tail of binary
            strings with <c>...</c> when the maximum depth has been
            reached. For instance, <c><![CDATA[io:fwrite("~P", [<<"a binary string">>, 3]).]]></c> prints <c><![CDATA[<<"a binary"...>>]]></c>.</p>
          <p>The indentation takes more care not to exceed the
            right margin, if possible.</p>
          <p>If the maximum depth is
            reached while printing a tuple, <c>,...</c> is printed
            instead of <c>|...</c> (this change applies to the
            control sequence <c>W</c> as well).</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6354</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The Erlang shell command <c>h/0</c> that prints the
            history list now avoids printing (huge) terms referred to
            by <c>v/1</c> but instead just prints the call to
            <c>v/1</c>.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6390</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>STDLIB 1.14.2.2</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>The functions <c>dets:select/1,3</c>,
            <c>dets:match/1,3</c>, and <c>dets:match_object/1,3</c>
            have been changed as to never return
            <c>{[],Continuation}</c>. This change affects the
            corresponding functions in Mnesia.</p>
          <p>Bugs have been
            fixed in QLC: <c>qlc:info()</c> could crash if the
            <c>tmpdir</c> option did not designate a valid directory;
            the results of looking up keys are kept in RAM, which
            should improve performance.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6359</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>STDLIB 1.14.2.1</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>A bug in <c>erl_pp:exprs()</c> has been fixed.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6321 Aux Id: seq10497 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>STDLIB 1.14.2</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>The control sequences <c>p</c> and <c>P</c> of the
            <c>Format</c> argument of the functions
            <c>io:format/2,3</c> and <c>io_lib:format/2</c> did not
            handle binaries very well. This bug, introduced in
            stdlib-1.14, has been fixed.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6230</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p><c>filelib:wildcard(Wc, PathWithRedundantSlashes)</c>,
            where <c>PathWithRedundantSlashes</c> is a directory path
            containing redundant slashes, such as <c>/tmp/</c> or
            <c>//tmp</c>, could return incorrect results. (Thanks to
            Martin Bjorklund.)</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6271</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The Erlang code preprocessor crashed if the predefined
            macros ?MODULE or ?MODULE_STRING were used before the
            module declaration. This bug has been fixed.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6277</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Support for faster join of two tables has been added
            to the <c>qlc</c> module. There are two kinds of fast
            joins: lookup join that uses existing indices, and merge
            join that takes two sorted inputs. There is a new
            <c>join</c> option that can be used to force QLC to use a
            particular kind of join in some QLC expression.</p>
          <p>Several other changes have also been included:</p>
          <p></p>
          <list type="bulleted">
            <item>
              <p>The new <c>tmpdir</c> option of <c>cursor/2</c>,
                <c>eval/2</c>, <c>fold/4</c>, and <c>info/2</c> can be
                used to set the directory that join uses for temporary
                files. The option also overrides the <c>tmpdir</c> option
                of <c>keysort/3</c> and <c>sort/2</c>.</p>
            </item>
            <item>
              <p>The new <c>lookup</c> option can be used to
                assert that constants are looked up when evaluating some
                QLC expression.</p>
            </item>
            <item>
              <p>The <c>cache</c> and <c>cache_all</c> options
                accept new tags: <c>ets</c>, <c>list</c>, and <c>no</c>.
                The tag <c>list</c> caches answers in a list using a
                temporary file if the answers cannot be held in RAM.
                Combining <c>{cache,list}</c> and <c>{unique, true}</c>
                is equivalent to calling <c>sort/2</c> with the option
                <c>unique</c> set to <c>true</c>. The old tags
                <c>true</c> (equivalent to <c>ets</c>) and <c>false</c>
                (equivalent to <c>no</c>) are recognized for backward
                compatibility.</p>
            </item>
            <item>
              <p>The new option <c>max_list_size</c> can be used
                to set the limit where merge join starts to use temporary
                files for large equivalence classes and when answers
                cached in lists are put on temporary files.</p>
            </item>
            <item>
              <p>There is a new callback <c>is_sorted_key</c> to
                be supplied as an option to <c>table/2</c>.</p>
            </item>
            <item>
              <p>QLC analyzes each and every QLC expression when
                trying to find constants for the lookup function.
                Hitherto only QLC expressions with exactly one generator
                were analyzed.</p>
              <p>Note that only filters with guard
                syntax placed immediately after the generator are
                analyzed. The restriction to guard filters is an
                incompatible change. See <c>qlc(3)</c> for further
                details.</p>
            </item>
            <item>
              <p>In a similar way several match specifications
                for traversal of QLC tables can be utilized for different
                generators of one single QLC expression.</p>
            </item>
            <item>
              <p>A bug has been fixed: when caching answers to a
                sufficiently complex query it could happen that some
                answers were not returned.</p>
            </item>
          </list>
          <p>*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6038</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The Erlang pretty printer (<c>erl_pp</c>) is now much
            faster when the code is deeply nested. A few minor bugs
            have been fixed as well.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6227 Aux Id: OTP-5924 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The Erlang shell now tries to garbage collect large
            binaries. Under certain circumstances such binaries could
            otherwise linger on for an indefinite amount of time.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6239</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>To help Dialyzer find more bugs, many functions in the
            Kernel and STDLIB applications now only accept arguments
            of the type that is documented.</p>
          <p>For instance, the functions <c>lists:prefix/2</c> and
            <c>lists:suffix/2</c> are documented to only accept lists
            as their arguments, but they actually accepted anything
            and returned <c>false</c>. That has been changed so that
            the functions cause an exception if one or both arguments
            are not lists.</p>
          <p>Also, the <c>string:strip/3</c> function is documented
            to take a character argument that is a character to strip
            from one or both ends of the string. Given a list instead
            of a character, it used to do nothing, but will now cause
            an exception.</p>
          <p>Dialyzer will find most cases where those functions
            are passed arguments of the wrong type.</p>
          <p>*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6295</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>STDLIB 1.14.1</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>The functions <c>c:y/1,2</c> which call
            <c>yecc:file/1,2</c> are now listed by
            <c>c:help/0</c>.</p>
          <p>Documentation of <c>c:y/1,2</c> has been added to
            <c>c(3)</c>.</p>
          <p>The fact that the control sequence character <c>s</c>
            recognizes binaries and deep character lists has been
            documented in <c>io(3)</c>. This feature was added in
            R11B-0 (OTP-5403).</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6140</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The shell command rr() sometimes failed to read record
            definitions from file(s). This problem has been fixed.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6166 Aux Id: OTP-5878 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The nonlocal function handler in <c>erl_eval</c>, which
            is used for implementing the restricted mode of the
            Erlang shell, did not handle calls to
            <c>erlang:apply/3</c> correctly. This bug has been fixed.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6169 Aux Id: seq10374 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>ets:rename/1 could deadlock, or crash the SMP emulator
            when the table wasn't a named table.</p>
          <p>ets:next/2, and ets:prev/2 could return erroneous results
            on the SMP emulator.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6198 Aux Id: seq10392, seq10415 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>When closing a Dets table the space management data was
            sometimes saved in such a way that opening the table
            could not be done without repairing the file. This bug
            has been fixed.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6206</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>STDLIB 1.14</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>A bugfix in QLC: two of the call-back functions used
            for implementing QLC tables, <c>TraverseFun</c> and
            <c>LookupFun</c>, are now allowed to return a term other
            than a list. Such a term is immediately returned as the
            results of the current query, and is useful mostly for
            returning error tuples.</p>
          <p>Several other minor bugs have been also been fixed.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5195</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The STDLIB modules <c>error_logger_file_h</c> and
            <c>error_logger_tty_h</c> now read the environment
            variable <c>utc_log</c> from the SASL application.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5535</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p><c>ets:info/1</c> has been corrected to behave according
            to the documentation and return a list of tuples, not a
            tuple with tuples.</p>
          <p>*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5639</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>Referencing a so far undeclared record from the default
            value of some record declaration is from now on considered
            an error by the linter. It is also an error if the default
            value of a record declaration uses or binds a variable.</p>
          <p>*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5878</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>When a file <c>.hrl</c> file is included using
            <c>-include_lib</c>, the include path is temporarily
            updated to include the directory the <c>.hrl</c> file was
            found in, which will allow that <c>.hrl</c> file to itself
            include files from the same directory as itself using
            <c>-include</c>. (Thanks to Richard Carlsson.)</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5944</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>Corrected <c>filelib:ensure_dir/1</c> which sometimes
            returned <c>true</c> and sometimes <c>ok</c> to always
            return <c>ok</c> when successful. This goes against the
            documentation which said <c>true</c>, but <c>ok</c> was
            judged to be a more logical return value.</p>
          <p>*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5960 Aux Id: seq10240 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The shell now handles records better when used in calls
            on the form <c>{Module, Function}(ArgList)</c>.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5990 Aux Id: OTP-5876 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The functions <c>lists:ukeysort/2</c> and
            <c>lists:ukeymerge/3</c> have been changed in such a way
            that two tuples are considered equal if their keys
            match.</p>
          <p>For the sake of consistency, <c>lists:usort/2</c> and
            <c>lists:umerge/3</c> have been modified too: two elements
            are considered equal if they compare equal.</p>
          <p>The <c>file_sorter</c> module has been modified in a
            similar way: the <c>unique</c> option now applies to the
            key (<c>keysort()</c> and <c>keymerge()</c>) and the
            ordering function (the option <c>{order, Order} </c>).</p>
          <p>*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6019</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>Correction in documentation for
            <c>ets:update_counter/3</c>; failure with <c>badarg</c>
            also if the counter to be updated is the key.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6072</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>When sorting terms using the <c>file_sorter</c> module
            and an ordering fun, the sort was not always stable. This
            bug has been fixed.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6088</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Improvements of the linter:</p>
          <list type="bulleted">
            <item>
              <p>The <c>compile</c> attribute is recognized after
                function definitions.</p>
            </item>
            <item>
              <p>The new compiler option
                <c>nowarn_deprecated_function</c> can be used for
                turning off warnings for calls to deprecated functions.</p>
            </item>
            <item>
              <p>The new compiler option
                <c>{nowarn_unused_function,[{Name,Arity}]}</c> turns off
                warnings for unused local functions for the mentioned
                functions. The new options
                <c>{nowarn_deprecated_function,[{Module,Name,Arity}]}</c>
                and <c>{nowarn_bif_clash,[{Name,Arity}]}</c> work
                similarly.</p>
            </item>
          </list>
          <p>The Erlang code preprocessor <c>epp</c> now recognizes
            the <c>file</c> attribute. This attribute is meant to be
            used by tools such as Yecc that generate source code
            files.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5362</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The formatting option <c>~s</c> of <c>io:fwrite</c> and
            <c>io_lib:fwrite</c> has been extended to handle arguments
            that are binaries or I/O lists.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5403</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The control sequences <c>p</c> and <c>P</c> of the
            <c>Format</c> argument of the functions
            <c>io:format/2,3</c> and <c>io_lib:format/2</c> have been
            changed as to display the contents of binaries containing
            printable characters as strings.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5485</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The linter emits warnings for functions exported more
            than once in <c>export</c> attributes.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5494</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>A manual for STDLIB has been added, <c>stdlib(6)</c>. It
            mentions the configuration parameters for the Erlang
            shell.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5530</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>Added the <c>zip</c> module with functions for reading
            and creating zip archives. See <c>zip(3)</c>.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5786</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>Simple-one-for-one supervisors now store the pids of
            child processes using <c>dict</c> instead of a list. This
            significantly improves performance when there are many
            dynamic supervised child processes. (Thanks to Micka&euml;l
            R&eacute;mond et al.)</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5898</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>When given the new option '<c>strict_record_tests</c>',
            the compiler will generate code that verifies the record
            type for '<c>R#record.field</c>' operations in guards. Code
            that verifies record types in bodies has already been
            generated since R10B, but in this release there will be a
            '<c>{badrecord,RecordTag}</c>' instead of a
            '<c>badmatch</c>' if the record verification test fails.
            See the documentation for the <c>compile</c> module for
            more information.</p>
          <p>The Erlang shell always applies strict record tests.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5915 Aux Id: OTP-5714 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The Erlang pretty printer (<c>erl_pp</c>) now tries to
            insert line breaks at appropriate places.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5924</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The <c>public</c> option has been removed from
            <c>digraph:new/1</c>. The reason is that several
            functions in the <c>digraph</c> module are implemented
            using multiple ETS accesses, which is not thread safe.
            (Thanks to Ulf Wiger.)</p>
          <p>*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5985</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The function <c>lists:keyreplace/4</c> checks that the
            fourth argument (<c>NewTuple</c>) is a tuple.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6023</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>Added an example of how to reconstruct source code from
            debug info (abstract code) to <c>beam_lib(3)</c>. (Thanks
            to Mats Cronqvist who wrote the example.)</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6073</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The new compiler option <c>warn_unused_record</c> is used
            for finding unused locally defined record types.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6105</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>STDLIB 1.13.12</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p><c>shell_default:xm/1</c> has been added. It calls
            <c>xref:m/1</c>.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5405 Aux Id: OTP-4101 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>Warnings are output whenever so far undeclared records are
            referenced from some default value of a record
            declaration. In STDLIB 1.14 (R11B) such forward references
            will cause a compilation error.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5878</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The linter's check of the <c>deprecated</c> attribute did
            not take the compile option <c>export_all</c> into
            account. This bug has been fixed.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5917</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The Erlang pretty printer did not handle <c>try/catch</c>
            correctly. This bug has been fixed.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5926</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>Corrected documentation for <c>lists:nthtail/3</c>.</p>
          <p>Added documentation for <c>lists:keymap/3</c>.</p>
          <p>Tried to clarify some other type declarations and
            function descriptions in <c>lists(3)</c>.</p>
          <p>Corrected documentation for <c>timer:now_diff/2</c>.</p>
          <p>Fixed broken links in <c>gen_fsm(3)</c>,
            <c>gen_server(3)</c>, <c>io_lib(3)</c> and <c>lib(3)</c>.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5931</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>Type checks have been added to functions in
            <c>lists.erl</c>.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5939</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>The new STDLIB module <c>erl_expand_records</c> expands
            records in abstract code. It is used by the Erlang shell,
            which means that Compiler is no longer used by the shell.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5876 Aux Id: OTP-5435 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The compiler will now warn that the
            <c>megaco:format_versions/1</c> function is deprecated.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5976</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>STDLIB 1.13.11</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>When calling <c>gen_server:enter_loop</c> with a
            registered server name, it was only checked that the
            registered name existed, not that it actually was the
            name of the calling process.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5854</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>More detail on <c>beam_lib:version/1</c> in
            documentation.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5789</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The new function <c>io:read/3</c> works like
            <c>io:read/1,2</c> but takes a third argument,
            <c>StartLine</c>.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5813</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The new function <c>gen_fsm:enter_loop/4,5,6</c>, similar
            to <c>gen_server:enter_loop/3,4,5</c>, has been added.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5846 Aux Id: seq10163 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The function <c>c:i/1</c> is now exported.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5848 Aux Id: seq10164 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>STDLIB 1.13.10</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>A couple of type errors have been fixed in <c>sofs</c>.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5739</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The pre-processor used to complain that the macro
            definition '<c>-define(S(S), ??S).</c>' was circular,
            which it isn't. (Thanks to Richard Carlsson.)</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5777</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>STDLIB 1.13.9</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>The linter, QLC and the module <c>erl_pp</c> did not
            handle the new '<c>fun M:F/A</c>' construct in all
            situations. This problem has been fixed.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5644</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>The manual pages for most of the Kernel and some of
            the STDLIB modules have been updated, in particular
            regarding type definitions.</p>
          <p>The documentation of the return value for
            <c>erts:info/1</c> has been corrected.</p>
          <p>The documentation for <c>erlang:statistics/1</c> now
            lists all possible arguments.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5360</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>Replaced some tuple funs with the new <c>fun M:F/A</c>
            construct.</p>
          <p>The high-order functions in the lists module no longer
            accept bad funs under any circumstances.
            '<c>lists:map(bad_fun, [])</c>' used to return
            '<c>[]</c>' but now causes an exception.</p>
          <p>Unused, broken compatibility code in the <c>ets</c>
            module was removed. (Thanks to Dialyzer.)</p>
          <p>Eliminated 5 discrepancies found by Dialyzer in the
            Appmon application.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5633</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The <c>c:i/0</c> function will now run in a paged mode if
            there are more than 100 processes in the system. (Thanks
            to Ulf Wiger.)</p>
          <p><c>erlang:system_info(process_count)</c> has been
            optimized and does now return exactly the same value as
            <c>length(processes())</c>. Previously
            <c>erlang:system_info(process_count)</c> did not include
            exiting processes which are included in
            <c>length(processes())</c>.</p>
          <p>The <c>+P</c> flag for <c>erl</c>, which sets the maximum
            number of processes allowed to exist at the same, no longer
            accepts values higher than 134217727. (You will still
            probably run out of memory before you'll be able to reach
            that limit.)</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5645 Aux Id: seq9984 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>STDLIB 1.13.8</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Very minor corrections in <c>beam_lib</c> and its
            documentation.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5589</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>The <c>erlang:port_info/1</c> BIF is now documented.
            Minor corrections of the documentation for
            <c>erlang:port_info/2</c>.</p>
          <p>Added a note to the documentation of the <c>math</c>
            module that all functions are not available on all
            platforms.</p>
          <p>Added more information about the '<c>+c</c>' option in
            the <c>erl</c> man page in the ERTS documentation.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5555</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The new <c>fun M:F/A</c> construct creates a fun that
            refers to the latest version of <c>M:F/A</c>. This syntax is
            meant to replace tuple funs <c>{M,F}</c> which have many
            problems.</p>
          <p>The new type test <c>is_function(Fun,A)</c> (which may be
            used in guards) test whether <c>Fun</c> is a fun that can be
            applied with <c>A</c> arguments. (Currently, <c>Fun</c> can
            also be a tuple fun.)</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5584</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>STDLIB 1.13.7</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p><c>filelib:wildcard/2</c> was broken (it ignored its
            second argument).</p>
          <p>Also, <c>filelib:wildcard("Filename")</c> (where the
            argument does not contain any meta-characters) would
            always return <c>["Filename"]</c>. Corrected so that an
            empty list will be returned if <c>"Filename"</c> does not
            actually exist. (Same correction in
            <c>filelib:wildcard/2</c>.) (This change is a slight
            incompatibility.)</p>
          <p><c>filelib:wildcard/1,2</c> will generate a different
            exception when given bad patterns such as <c>"{a,"</c>. The
            exception used to be caused by
            '<c>exit(missing_delimiter)</c>' but is now
            '<c>erlang:error({badpattern,missing_delimiter})</c>'.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5523 Aux Id: seq9824 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Further improvements of encrypted debug info: New option
            <c>encrypt_debug_info</c> for compiler.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5541 Aux Id: seq9837 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>STDLIB 1.13.6</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>When opening a Dets table read only an attempt was
            sometimes made to re-hash the table resulting in an error
            message. This problem has been fixed.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5487 Aux Id: OTP-4989 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>It is now possible to encrypt the debug information in
            Beam files, to help keep the source code secret. See the
            documentation for <c>compile</c> on how to provide the key
            for encrypting, and the documentation for <c>beam_lib</c>
            on how to provide the key for decryption so that tools such
            as the Debugger, <c>xref</c>, or <c>cover</c> can be used.</p>
          <p>The <c>beam_lib:chunks/2</c> functions now accepts an
            additional chunk type <c>compile_info</c> to retrieve
            the compilation information directly as a term. (Thanks
            to Tobias Lindahl.)</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5460 Aux Id: seq9787 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>STDLIB 1.13.5</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Closing a Dets table kept in RAM would cause a crash if
            the file could not be written. This problem has been
            fixed by returning an error tuple.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5402</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p><c>erl_pp</c> now correctly pretty-prints <c>fun F/A</c>.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5412</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The Erlang shell failed if the compiler was not in the
            code path. This problem has been fixed, but in order to
            evaluate records the compiler is still needed.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5435</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>Corrected the example in the documentation for
            <c>ets:match/2</c>. Also clarified that
            <c>ets:update_counter/3</c> updates the counter atomically.
            (Thanks to Anders Svensson.)</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5452 Aux Id: seq9770, seq9789 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>The possibility to start the Erlang shell in parallel
            with the rest of the system was reintroduced for
            backwards compatibility in STDLIB 1.13.1. The flag to be
            used for this is now called <c>async_shell_start</c> and has
            been documented. New shells started from the JCL menu are
            not synchronized with <c>init</c> anymore. This makes it
            possible to start a new shell (e.g. for debugging purposes)
            even if the initial shell has not come up.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5406 Aux Id: OTP-5218 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The compiler will now produce warnings when using the
            deprecated functions in the <c>snmp</c> module.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5425</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The function <c>c:zi/0</c> has been removed. Use
            <c>c:i/0</c> instead.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5432</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>Corrected two minor bugs found by the Dialyzer:
            Calling a parameterized module from a restricted shell
            (i.e. if <c>shell:start_restricted/1</c> has been used)
            would crash the shell evaluator. A debug printout in
            <c>gen_fsm</c> had a clause that would never match; causing
            less information to be printed.</p>
          <p>And a somewhat more serious one also found by
            Dialyzer: <c>rpc:yield/1</c> would crash unless the call
            started by <c>rpc:async_call/4</c> had already finished;
            <c>rpc:nb_yield(Key,infinity)</c> would also crash.</p>
          <p>Cleaned up and removed redundant code found by
            Dialyzer in <c>erlang:dmonitor_p/2</c>.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5462</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>STDLIB 1.13.4</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Bugs in the Erlang shell have been fixed.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5327</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>Some dead code reported by Dialyzer was eliminated.</p>
          <p>A bug in <c>dbg</c> when tracing to wrap trace files has
            been corrected. It failed to delete any already existing
            wrap trace files with the same names when starting a new
            wrap trace.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5329</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The linter could output invalid warnings about bit
            patterns in record initializations. This problem has been
            fixed.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5338</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p><c>ordsets:is_set(NoList)</c>, where <c>NoList</c> is any
            term except a list, would crash. For consistency with
            <c>sets:is_set/1</c> and <c>gb_sets:is_set/1</c>, it now
            returns <c>false</c>.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5341</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>A BIF <c>erlang:raise/3</c> has been added. See the manual
            for details. It is intended for internal system programming
            only, advanced error handling.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5376 Aux Id: OTP-5257 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>The <c>deprecated</c> attribute is now checked by the
            linter. See <c>xref(3)</c> for a description of the
            <c>deprecated</c> attribute.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5276</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The restricted shell will now indicate if the return
            value from a user predicate is on an incorrect form.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5335</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>STDLIB 1.13.3</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Bugs concerning unused and shadowed variables have been
            fixed in the linter.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5091</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>A bug in the evaluator that caused the shell to choke on
            bit syntax expressions has been fixed.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5237</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p><c>io:format/2</c> et.al no longer crashes for some
            combinations of precision and value for format character
            "g". Previously it crashed if the precision P was 4 or lower
            and the absolute value of the float to print was lower
            than 10^4 but 10^(P-1) or higher. Now it will not crash
            depending on the value of the float.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5263</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>Bugs in the handling of the bit syntax have been fixed in
            the Erlang shell.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5269</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p><c>gb_sets:del_element/2</c> was changed to do the
            same as <c>gb_sets:delete_any/2</c> which was the
            original intention, not as <c>gb_sets:delete/2</c>. Code
            that relies on <c>gb_sets:del_element/2</c> causing an
            error if the element does not exist must be changed to
            call <c>gb_sets:delete/2</c> instead.</p>
          <p>The documentation was also updated to explicitly
            document functions that were only referred to as
            'aliases' of a documented function. Also, a list of all
            functions common to the <c>gb_sets</c>, <c>sets</c>, and
            <c>ordsets</c> was added.</p>
          <p>*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5277</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>Debug messages have been removed from the QLC module.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5283</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>The size of continuations returned from
            <c>dets:match/1,3</c>, <c>dets:match_object/1,3</c>, and
            <c>dets:select/1,3</c> has been reduced. This affects the
            amount of data Mnesia sends between nodes while
            evaluating QLC queries.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5232</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>STDLIB 1.13.2</title>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>The <c>-rsh</c> switch for starting a remote shell
            (introduced with OTP-5210) clashed with an already existing
            switch used by <c>slave</c>. Therefore the switch for
            the remote shell is now instead named <c>-remsh</c>.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5248 Aux Id: OTP-5210 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>STDLIB 1.13.1</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>The Pman 'trace shell' functionality was broken as has
            now been fixed. Furthermore, Pman could not correctly
            find the pid of the active shell if more than one shell
            process was running on the node. This has also been
            corrected.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5191</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>When the undocumented feature "parameterized modules" was
            used, the ?MODULE macro did not work correctly.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5224</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>You can now start Erlang with the <c>-rsh</c> flag which
            gives you a remote initial shell instead of a local one.
            Example:</p>
          <pre>
            erl -sname this_node -rsh other_node@other_host
          </pre>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5210</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The man page for the <c>lists</c> module has been updated
            with description of the new <c>zip</c>, <c>unzip</c>,
            and <c>partition/2</c> functions.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5213</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The top level group leader used to be listed as job #1 in
            the job list in JCL mode. Since there is no shell
            associated with this process that can be connected to, it
            will no longer be listed.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5214</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The possibility to start the Erlang shell in parallel
            with the rest of the system has been reintroduced for
            backwards compatibility. Note that this old behaviour is
            error prone and should not be used unless for some reason
            necessary.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5218 Aux Id: seq9534 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>The <c>shell</c> commands <c>rr/1,2,3</c> now accepts
            wildcards when reading record definitions from BEAM
            files.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5226</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>
</chapter>