--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/main/io/NEWS	Sun Mar 11 20:34:47 2012 +0000
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+Summary of important user-visible changes for releases of the io package
+
+===============================================================================
+io-1.0.18   Release Date: TBA   Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis
+===============================================================================
+
+** Bug fixes:
+--- odsfinfo: fixed "wrong type argument `cell'" bug when run interactively.
+--- xlsopen, odsopen: fixed messed up screen output due to UNO usage warning.
+
+** Adapted to internal LibreOffice-3.5-final changes.
+
+** Tried OpenXLS-6.0.7.jar. Reads OK, still unusable for writing .xls files.
+
+===============================================================================
+io-1.0.17   Release Date: 2012-02-27   Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis
+===============================================================================
+
+** Bug fixes:
+--- oct2ods, oct2xls, odswrite default range input arg. These functions may not
+    have worked properly for two years (!)
+
+** Fixed support for odfdom v.0.8.7 (ODS). Note: the OTK interface only works
+  well with xercesImpl.jar 2.9.1 (Sep 14, 2009)
+
+** Many small bug fixes & documentation updated to actual functionality.
+
+** Fixed "seealso" texinfo header string in almost all functions.
+
+** Added formal test scripts to "internal functions" section.
+
+===============================================================================
+io-1.0.16   Release Date: 2012-01-19   Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis
+===============================================================================
+
+** Bug fixing release
+
+** PKG_ADD now expects Java spreadsheet class libs (.jars) in /lib/java
+  (for MinGW)
+
+===============================================================================
+io-1.0.15   Release Date: 2011-10-02   Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis
+===============================================================================
+
+io-1.0.15 is primarily a bug fix release and a snapshot / wrap-up of current 
+  development status (some still a bit experimental). It mainly comprises:
+
+** A number of bug fixes (incl. some serious ones, notably with .ods/OOo Calc);
+
+** Some mainly cosmetic improvements to existing code; less verbosity;
+
+** pch2mat (reading & transforming Nastran PCH files, contributed by 
+  B. Oytun Peksel);
+
+** object2json.m (creating a json description string of objects, contributed
+  by Daniel Torre). This was already silently introduced in io-1.0.14;
+
+** A scripted troubleshooting / classpath setup tool for spreadsheet I/O
+  support (chk_spreadsheet_support.m);
+
+** Experimental OXS support (OpenXLS) for reading Excel xls (BIFF8).
+  OpenXLS is -let's say- a little bit lacking: For reading it is faster than
+  JXL. However, while OXS write support has been coded (and works) I had to
+  disable it as the OXS Java classes won't release the file handle so Octave
+  will hang upon closing :-(  I'm stuck with this so I just release it as-is;
+
+** Experimental UNO support, i.e. invoking OpenOffice.org (or clones like 
+  LibreOffice) behind the scenes to read spreadsheet files, much like 
+  ActiveX/COM for MS-Excel. This is also based on Java. The first time you
+  use UNO, OOo has to be loaded and you'll have to be patient, but once loaded
+  (and in the OS cache) you'll see the pros:
+  --* Very fast;
+  --* Much lower Java memory usage as OOo loads the spreadsheet in its own 
+      memory chunk (not Octave's) => much bigger spreadsheet capacity;
+  --* You can read *all* formats supported by OOo: .ods, .xls, .csv, .xlsx,
+      .sxc, .dbf, Lotus wk1, Quattro Pro, ......; and it doesn't really matter
+      whether xlsopen of odsopen is used.
+  Of course all this wonderful stuff comes at a prize:
+  --* After closing the spreadsheet file (odsclose, xlsclose) ALL OOo
+      invocations will be closed, also those started outside Octave. This is 
+      due to "the way OpenOffice works" (quoted from OOo dev forum), especially
+      through Java. There are other ways to close OOo but they'll hang Octave;
+  --* The Java UNO classes supplied with e.g. LibreOffice aren't kept quite
+      up-to-date with the main program. As a consequence, with e.g.,
+      LibreOffice 3.4 the main LO window will pop up (it can't be hidden). I 
+      filed a bug report for this 
+      (https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=40991) but I haven't seen
+      it being picked up yet. Another example: while LO 3.3.1's row capacity
+      was already > 106, it took until LO 3.4 before this capacity was
+      implemented in the Java UNO classes.
+  Like with OXS, I'm a bit stuck here - all this has to be fixed upstream.
+
+Hint:
+for older Octave versions (< 3.4.0) you can install io-1.0.15 using the -nodeps
+  flag. You'll then loose the old and buggy textread and csv/dlm-read/write
+  functions but I'd consider that as no big loss.