--- a/NEWS	Thu Nov 22 13:02:34 2018 -0800
+++ b/NEWS	Thu Nov 22 13:11:40 2018 -0800
@@ -25,6 +25,16 @@
       Octave 5.0 : strncmp ("abc", "abc", 100) => true
       Previously : strncmp ("abc", "abc", 100) => false
 
+ ** The intmax, intmin, and flintmax functions now accept a variable
+    as input.  This supports a common programming usage which is to
+    query the range of an existing variable.  Existing code can be
+    simplified by removing the call to "class" that was previously
+    required.  Example:
+
+                   x = int8 (3);
+      Octave 5.0 : range = [ intmin(x), intmax(x) ]
+      Previously : range = [ intmin(class(x)), intmax(class(x)) ]
+
  ** The ranks function has been recoded for performance and is now 25X
     faster.  In addition, it now supports a third argument that
     specifies how to resolve the ranking of tie values.