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+<pre>
+Summary of important user-visible changes for version 3.8:
+---------------------------------------------------------
+
+  ** One of the biggest new features for Octave 3.8 is a graphical user
+     interface.  It is the one thing that users have requested most
+     often over the last few years and now it is almost ready.  But
+     because it is not quite as polished as we would like, we have
+     decided to wait until the 4.0.x release series before making the
+     GUI the default interface (until then, you can use the --force-gui
+     option to start the GUI).
+
+     Given the length of time and the number of bug fixes and
+     improvements since the last major release Octave, we also decided
+     against delaying the release of all these new improvements any
+     longer just to perfect the GUI.  So please enjoy the 3.8 release of
+     Octave and the preview of the new GUI.  We believe it is working
+     reasonably well, but we also know that there are some obvious rough
+     spots and many things that could be improved.
+
+     WE NEED YOUR HELP.  There are many ways that you can help us fix
+     the remaining problems, complete the GUI, and improve the overall
+     user experience for both novices and experts alike:
+
+       * If you are a skilled software developer, you can help by
+         contributing your time to help with Octave's development.  See
+         http://octave.org/get-involved.html for more information.
+
+       * If Octave does not work properly, you are encouraged
+         report the problems you find.  See http://octave.org/bugs.html
+         for more information about how to report problems.
+
+       * Whether you are a user or developer, you can help to fund the
+         project.  Octave development takes a lot of time and expertise.
+         Your contributions help to ensure that Octave will continue to
+         improve.  See http://octave.org/donate.html for more details.
+
+    We hope you find Octave to be useful.  Please help us make it even
+    better for the future!
+
+ ** Octave now uses OpenGL graphics by default with FLTK widgets.  If
+    OpenGL libraries or FLTK widgets are not available when Octave is
+    built, gnuplot is used.  You may also choose to use gnuplot for
+    graphics by executing the command
+
+      graphics_toolkit ("gnuplot")
+
+    Adding this command to your ~/.octaverc file will set the default
+    for each session.
+
+ ** Printing or saving figures with OpenGL graphics requires the
+    gl2ps library which is no longer distributed with Octave.  The
+    software is widely available in most package managers.  If a
+    pre-compiled package does not exist for your system, you can find
+    the current sources at http://www.geuz.org/gl2ps/.
+
+ ** Octave now supports nested functions with scoping rules that are
+    compatible with Matlab.  A nested function is one declared and defined
+    within the body of another function.  The nested function is only
+    accessible from within the enclosing function which makes it one
+    method for making private functions whose names do not conflict with those
+    in the global namespace (See also subfunctions and private functions).
+    In addition, variables in the enclosing function are visible within the
+    nested function.  This makes it possible to have a pseudo-global variable
+    which can be seen by a group of functions, but which is not visible in
+    the global namespace.
+    
+    Example:
+    function outerfunc (...)
+      ...
+      function nested1 (...)
+        ...
+        function nested2 (...)
+           ...
+        endfunction
+      endfunction
+
+      function nested3 (...)
+        ...
+      endfunction
+    endfunction
+
+ ** Line continuations inside character strings have changed.
+
+    The sequence '...' is no longer recognized as a line continuation
+    inside a character string.  A backslash '\' followed by a newline
+    character is no longer recognized as a line continuation inside
+    single-quoted character strings.  Inside double-quoted character
+    strings, a backslash followed by a newline character is still
+    recognized as a line continuation, but the backslash character must
+    be followed *immediately* by the newline character.  No whitespace or
+    end-of-line comment may appear between them.
+
+ ** Backslash as a continuation marker outside of double-quoted strings
+    is now deprecated.
+
+    Using '\' as a continuation marker outside of double quoted strings
+    is now deprecated and will be removed from a future version of
+    Octave.  When that is done, the behavior of
+
+      (a \
+       b)
+
+    will be consistent with other binary operators.
+
+ ** Redundant terminal comma accepted by parser
+
+    A redundant terminal comma is now accepted in matrix
+    definitions which allows writing code such as 
+
+    [a,...
+     b,...
+     c,...
+    ] = deal (1,2,3)
+
+ ** Octave now has limited support for named exceptions
+
+    The following syntax is now accepted:
+
+      try
+        statements
+      catch exception-id
+        statements
+      end
+
+    The exception-id is a structure with the fields "message" and
+    "identifier".  For example
+
+      try
+        error ("Octave:error-id", "error message");
+      catch myerr
+        printf ("identifier: %s\n", myerr.identifier);
+        printf ("message:    %s\n", myerr.message);
+      end_try_catch
+
+    When classdef-style classes are added to Octave, the exception-id
+    will become an MException object.
+
+ ** Warning states may now be set temporarily, until the end of the
+    current function, using the syntax
+
+      warning STATE ID "local"
+
+    in which STATE may be "on", "off", or "error".  Changes to warning
+    states that are set locally affect the current function and all
+    functions called from the current scope.  The previous warning state
+    is restored on return from the current function.  The "local"
+    option is ignored if used in the top-level workspace.
+
+ ** Warning IDs renamed:
+
+    Octave:array-as-scalar => Octave:array-to-scalar
+    Octave:array-as-vector => Octave:array-to-vector
+
+ ** 'emptymatch', 'noemptymatch' options added to regular expressions.
+
+    With this addition Octave now accepts the entire set of Matlab options
+    for regular expressions.  'noemptymatch' is the default, but 'emptymatch'
+    has certain uses where you need to match an assertion rather than actual
+    characters.  For example, 
+
+    regexprep ('World', '^', 'Hello ', 'emptymatch')
+      => Hello World
+
+    where the pattern is actually the assertion '^' or start-of-line.
+
+ ** For compatibility with Matlab, the regexp, regexpi, and regexprep
+    functions now process backslash escape sequences in single-quoted pattern
+    strings.  In addition, the regexprep function now processes backslash
+    escapes in single-quoted replacement strings.  For example,
+    
+    regexprep (str, '\t', '\n')
+
+    would search the variable str for a TAB character (escape sequence \t)
+    and replace it with a NEWLINE (escape sequence \n).  Previously the
+    expression would have searched for a literal '\' followed by 't' and
+    replaced the two characters with the sequence '\', 'n'.
+
+ ** A TeX parser has been implemented for the FLTK toolkit and is the default
+    for any text object including titles and axis labels.  The TeX parser is
+    supported only for display on a monitor, not for printing.
+
+    A quick summary of features:
+
+    Code         Feature     Example             Comment
+    -----------------------------------------------------------------
+    _            subscript   H_2O                formula for water
+    ^            exponent    y=x^2               formula for parabola
+    \char        symbol      \beta               Greek symbol beta
+    \fontname    font        \fontname{Arial}    set Arial font
+    \fontsize    fontsize    \fontsize{16}       set fontsize 16
+    \color[rgb]  fontcolor   \color[rgb]{1 0 1}  set magenta color 
+    \bf          bold        \bfBold Text        bold font
+    \it          italic      \itItalic Text      italic font
+    \sl          slanted     \slOblique Text     slanted font
+    \rm          normal      \bfBold\rmNormal    normal font
+    {}           group       {\bf Bold}Normal    group objects
+                             e^{i*\pi} = -1      group objects
+
+ ** The m-files in the plot directory have been overhauled.
+
+    The plot functions now produce output that is nearly visually compatible
+    with Matlab.  Plot performance has also increased, dramatically for some
+    functions such as comet and waitbar.  Finally, the documentation for most
+    functions has been updated so it should be clearer both how to use a
+    function and when a function is appropriate.
+
+ ** The m-files in the image directory have been overhauled.
+
+    The principal benefit is that Octave will now no longer automatically
+    convert images stored with integers to doubles.  Storing images as uint8
+    or uint16 requires only 1/8 or 1/4 the memory of an image stored using
+    doubles.  For certain operations, such as fft2, the image must still be
+    converted to double in order to work.
+
+    Other changes include fixes to the way indexed images are read from a
+    colormap depending on the image class (integer images have a -1 offset to
+    the colormap row number).
+
+ ** The imread and imwrite functions have been completely rewritten.
+
+    The main changes relate to the alpha channel, support for reading and
+    writing of floating point images, implemented writing of indexed images,
+    and appending images to multipage image files.
+
+    The issues that may arise due to backwards incompatibility are:
+
+      * imwrite no longer interprets a length of 2 or 4 in the third dimension
+        as grayscale or RGB with alpha channel (a length of 4 will be saved
+        as a CMYK image).  Alpha channel must be passed as separate argument.
+
+      * imread will always return the colormap indexes when reading an indexed
+        image, even if the colormap is not requested as output.
+
+      * transparency values are now inverted from previous Octave versions
+        (0 is for completely transparent instead of completely opaque).
+
+    In addition, the function imformats has been implemented to expand
+    reading and writing of images of different formats through imread
+    and imwrite.
+
+ ** The colormap function now provides new options--"list", "register",
+    and "unregister"--to list all available colormap functions, and to
+    add or remove a function name from the list of known colormap
+    functions.  Packages that implement extra colormaps should use these
+    commands with PKG_ADD and PKG_DEL statements.
+
+ ** strsplit has been modified to be compatible with Matlab.  There
+    are two instances where backward compatibility is broken.
+
+    (1) Delimiters are now string vectors, not scalars.
+
+    Octave's legacy behavior
+
+      strsplit ("1 2, 3", ", ")
+      ans = 
+      {
+       [1,1] = 1
+       [1,2] = 2
+       [1,3] = 
+       [1,4] = 3
+      }
+
+    Matlab compatible behavior
+
+      strsplit ("1 2, 3", ", ")
+      ans = 
+      {
+       [1,1] = 1 2
+       [1,2] = 3
+      }
+
+    (2) By default, Matlab treats consecutive delimiters as a single
+    delimiter.  By default, Octave's legacy behavior was to return an
+    empty string for the part between the delmiters.
+
+    Where legacy behavior is desired, the call to strsplit() may be
+    replaced by ostrsplit(), which is Octave's original implementation of
+    strsplit().
+
+ ** The datevec function has been extended for better Matlab compatibility.
+    It now accepts string inputs in the following numerical formats: 12, 21,
+    22, 26, 29, 31.  This is undocumented, but verifiable, Matlab behavior.
+    In addition, the default for formats which do not specify a date is
+    January 1st of the current year.  The previous default was the current day,
+    month, and year.  This may produce changes in existing scripts.
+
+ ** The error function and its derivatives has been extended to accept complex
+    arguments.  The following functions now accept complex inputs:
+
+    erf  erfc  erfcx   
+
+    In addition two new error functions erfi (imaginary error function) and
+    dawson (scaled imaginary error function) have been added.
+
+ ** The glpk function has been modified to reflect changes in the GLPK
+    library.  The "round" and "itcnt" options have been removed.  The
+    "relax" option has been replaced by the "rtest" option.  The numeric
+    values of error codes and of some options have also changed.
+
+ ** The kurtosis function has changed definition to be compatible with 
+    Matlab.  It now returns the base kurtosis instead of the "excess kurtosis".
+    The old behavior can be had by changing scripts to normalize with -3.
+
+               "excess kurtosis" = kurtosis (x) - 3
+
+ ** The moment function has changed definition to be compatible with 
+    Matlab.  It now returns the central moment instead of the raw moment.
+    The old behavior can be had by passing the type argument "r" for raw.
+
+ ** The default name of the Octave crash dump file is now 
+    "octave-workspace" instead of "octave-core".  The exact name can
+    always be customized with the octave_core_file_name function.
+
+ ** A citation command has been added to display information on how to
+    cite Octave and packages in publications.  The package system will
+    look for and install CITATION files from packages.
+
+ ** The java package from Octave Forge is now part of core Octave.  The
+    following new functions are available for interacting with Java
+    directly from Octave:
+
+      debug_java     java_matrix_autoconversion
+      isjava         java_unsigned_autoconversion
+      java2mat       javaaddpath
+      javaArray      javaclasspath
+      javaMethod     javamem
+      javaObject     javarmpath
+                     usejava
+
+    In addition, the following functions that use the Java interface
+    are now available (provided that Octave is compiled with support for
+    Java enabled):
+
+      helpdlg    listdlg   questdlg
+      inputdlg   msgbox    warndlg
+
+ ** Other new functions added in 3.8.0:
+
+      atan2d                     erfi             lines
+      base64_decode              expint           linsolve
+      base64_encode              findfigs         missing_component_hook
+      betaincinv                 flintmax         polyeig
+      built_in_docstrings_file   fminsearch       prefdir
+      cmpermute                  gallery          preferences
+      cmunique                   gco              readline_re_read_init_file
+      colorcube                  hdl2struct       readline_read_init_file
+      copyobj                    history_save     rgbplot
+      dawson                     imformats        save_default_options
+      dblist                     importdata       shrinkfaces
+      desktop                    isaxes           splinefit
+      doc_cache_create           iscolormap       stemleaf
+      ellipj                     isequaln         strjoin
+      ellipke                    jit_debug        struct2hdl
+      erfcinv                    jit_enable       tetramesh
+                                 jit_startcnt     waterfall
+
+ ** Deprecated functions.
+
+    The following functions were deprecated in Octave 3.4 and have been
+    removed from Octave 3.8.
+                                           
+      autocor    dispatch              is_global    setstr
+      autocov    fstat                 krylovb      strerror
+      betai      gammai                perror       values
+      cellidx    glpkmex               replot               
+      cquad      is_duplicate_entry    saveimage            
+      
+    The following functions have been deprecated in Octave 3.8 and will
+    be removed from Octave 3.12 (or whatever version is the second major
+    release after 3.8):
+
+      default_save_options    java_new            
+      gen_doc_cache           java_set                   
+      interp1q                java_unsigned_conversion
+      isequalwithequalnans    javafields                
+      java_convert_matrix     javamethods               
+      java_debug              re_read_readline_init_file
+      java_get                read_readline_init_file   
+      java_invoke             saving_history            
+
+
+    The following keywords have been deprecated in Octave 3.8 and will
+    be removed from Octave 3.12 (or whatever version is the second major
+    release after 3.8):
+
+      static
+
+    The following configuration variables have been deprecated in Octave
+    3.8 and will be removed from Octave 3.12 (or whatever version is the
+    second major release after 3.8):
+
+      CC_VERSION  (now GCC_VERSION)
+      CXX_VERSION (now GXX_VERSION)
+
+    The internal class Octave_map has been deprecated in Octave 3.8 and
+    will be removed from Octave 3.12 (or whatever version is the second
+    major release after 3.8).  Replacement classes are octave_map
+    (struct array) or octave_scalar_map for a single structure.
+</pre>