Summary of important user-visible changes for version 7 (yyyy-mm-dd):
----------------------------------------------------------------------

### General improvements

- Many functions in Octave can be called in a command form---no
parentheses for invocation and no return argument assignment---or in a
functional form---parentheses and '=' for assignment of return values.

    Command Form Example

    `mkdir new_directory`

    Function Form Example

    `status = mkdir ("new_directory")`

    Octave now handles errors that occur in a consistent manner.  If
    called in command form and there is a failure, an error is thrown
    and a message printed.  If called in functional form, no error or
    message is printed and the failure is communicated to the programmer
    via the output status variable.

    The following list of functions have been modified.

    * `copyfile`
    * `fcntl`
    * `fileattrib`
    * `kill`
    * `link`
    * `mkfifo`
    * `movefile`
    * `rename`
    * `rmdir`
    * `symlink`
    * `unlink`

### Graphics backend

- Support for Qt4 for graphics and the GUI has been removed.

### Matlab compatibility

- The function `griddata` now accepts 3-D inputs by passing data
directly to `griddata3`.

### Alphabetical list of new functions added in Octave 7

* `rng`

### Deprecated functions and properties

The following functions and properties have been deprecated in Octave 7
and will be removed from Octave 9 (or whatever version is the second
major release after 7):

- Functions

  Function               | Replacement
  -----------------------|------------------
                         |

- Properties

  Object           | Property      | Value
  -----------------|---------------|------------
                   |               |

### Removed functions and properties

The following functions and properties were deprecated in Octave 5
and have been removed from Octave 7.

- Functions

  Function                 | Replacement
  -------------------------|------------------
  `output_max_field_width` | `output_precision`
  `is_keyword`             | `iskeyword`

- Properties

  Object           | Property      | Value
  -----------------|---------------|------------
  `text`           | `fontangle`   | `"oblique"`
  `uibuttongroup`  | `fontangle`   | `"oblique"`
  `uicontrol`      | `fontangle`   | `"oblique"`
  `uipanel`        | `fontangle`   | `"oblique"`
  `uitable`        | `fontangle`   | `"oblique"`

### Old release news

- [Octave 6.x](etc/NEWS.6)
- [Octave 5.x](etc/NEWS.5)
- [Octave 4.x](etc/NEWS.4)
- [Octave 3.x](etc/NEWS.3)
- [Octave 2.x](etc/NEWS.2)
- [Octave 1.x](etc/NEWS.1)