New release (0.8.10rc5)

["Andrew D. Hwang" <ahwang@mathcs.holycross.edu>]

This the "official announcement" of 0.8.10rc5.

There are extensive changes in this release candidate; please see the
CHANGELOG for details. The Line() functions have been restored, and as
mentioned a few days ago they now "clip" to a 3-D box. The default
behavior for 2-D figures should be identical to the old behavior, though
there seems to be a bug when a line just barely passes through the
clip_box. (The algorithm is somehow not elegant. Will nail this down in
the near future.)

Aside from changes mentioned earlier, there's a polygon function that
takes a variable number of arguments. The syntax is

  polygon(int n, triple p1, ..., triple pn)

The compiler generates a warning (about passing a triple through "...")
at "make" time, but the function works.

The contrib package compiles, but I haven't tested it thoroughly. It is
now in its own namespace, ePiX_contrib.

The make test target works, but the revised sample files have not been
incorporated into sample.tex. The documentation has not been touched,
either. Both of these will be updated in the next week or two, and some
samples will be added to illustrate new capabilities. Jacques' loxodrome
file (with a couple of small modifications necessitated by the change in
the way viewpoint() works) is samples/sphere.xp.

<stupid_pet_trick>
I think all the sample files can be drawn in perspective by adding a
viewpoint() line after the begin() line. That's one way to experiment with
the camera... :)
</stupid_pet_trick>

--Andy

Andrew D. Hwang			ahwang at mathcs dot holycross dot edu
Department of Math and CS	http://mathcs.holycross.edu/~ahwang
College of the Holy Cross	(508) 793-2458 (Office: 320 Swords)
Worcester, MA, 01610-2395	(508) 793-3530 (fax)