
		       Meta-HTML 5.02 Source Release

Version 5.02 of Universal Access Inc.'s <Meta-HTML> distribution is now
available for download from:

	http://www.metahtml.com/SoftStore

It should be available from prep.ai.mit.edu, and other GNU mirror
sites within the next two weeks.


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			     What is it?

<Meta-HTML> is a programming language specifically designed for working
within the World Wide Web environment.  Although it is a genuine
programming language, suitable for large-scale symbolic manipulation,
it provides the most commonly wanted Web functionality as built-in
primitives, so you don't have to write them.  You can find out more
about the theory of implementation in this white paper
[http://www.metahtml.com/meta-html/manifesto.html].

Web pages are authored using HTML and <Meta-HTML> statements freely
intermixed.  When a page is requested by a browser, the page is passed
through the <Meta-HTML> engine, which dynamically processes any
<Meta-HTML> statements to produce a final HTML page which is delivered
to the browser.

The source distribution provides several different interpreter options:

	* A CGI engine which can be run by any Unix Web server,
	* A FastCGI engine which can be run under FastCGI compliant servers,
	* A full-featured Web server (mhttpd) with the interpreter built in,
	* A standalone processor, much like Perl or Tcl, and
	* An interactive debugger, with a feel similar to GDB (mdb)

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	      <Meta-HTML> Changes in 5.02 from 5.01

	* FastCGI support -- tested with Apache and mod_fastcgi.c.

	* Numerous bug fixes and speed enhancements, way too many
	  to detail here.

	* Better configuration mechanism allows compilation on many
	  more machine/OS's than before.

	* Improved documentation.

	* More control over cookie manipulation, session IDs, and
	  document expiration.

	* The ability to include binary representations of Meta-HTML
	  source code directly in the compiled Engine, Server,
	  Debugger, and Standalone Processor.  See libmhtml/bootstrap.mhtml.

	* Revamped tagsets make it easier now than ever before to use
	  statefull sessions, send E-mail, and more.

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	      <Meta-HTML> Changes in 5.01 from 5.00

THE <META-HTML> REFERENCE MANUAL CAN NOW BE PRINTED OUT!
  The file `doc/manual/metahtml.ps' is a postscript version of the
  manual, and the mhc script `build-ps' can be used to generate the
  manual from the documentation files and databases.  In order to
  generate the manual, you will have to have the TeX, texindex, and
  dvips programs installed, and in your path.

  The printed manual is about 96 pages, contains a function index,
  a variable index, and a table of contents, and is heavily cross
  referenced.

CHANGES WHICH AFFECT COMPILATION AND INSTALLATION:
  <Meta-HTML> should now configure and install itself on an even wider
  variety of systems than before.  Specifically, problems reported for
  FreeBSD, NetBSD, NeXT, Solaris-2.4, and Solaris-2.5 have been
  addressed.

CHANGES WHICH AFFECT APACHE INSTALLATION:
  There is a new `mod_mhtml.c' file which can be compiled in with your
  server even if you aren't sure you will be running <Meta-HTML>.
  This allows for a much simpler configuration of the Apache server.

CHANGES WHICH AFFECT THE LANGUAGE:
  There have been several changes which affect the operation of the
  interpreter -- mostly in subtle ways.  All reported bugs have been
  fixed, and a couple of new features have been added.

    Additional macro argument expansion control, %attributes, %xbody,
    and %qbody, for getting the attribute list, the evaluated body,
    and the quoted body, respectively.

    A new tag, <VAR-EXISTS>, takes a single variable name as an
    argument and returns the string "true" if that variable has
    been defined, even if its value is the empty string ("").

    There is a new tag, <SYSTEM-ERROR-OUTPUT>, which (analogous to
    <tag DEBUGGING-OUTPUT> is replaced with the output of internal
    functions that result in error conditions.  Most notably, if
    functions such as <WITH-OPEN-DATABASE> or <WITH-OPEN-STREAM>
    encounter error conditions, that status is reported in this tag.

    The <INCLUDE> tag now uses the directory of the containing file as
    the current directory, not the directory of the requesting
    document.  Essentially, this means that it acts more like the C
    pre-processor `#include'.

    The variables MHTML::INCLUDE-PREFIX and MHTML::RELATIVE-PREFIX
    show the full path to the document being retrieved, so there
    continues to be a mechanism for conditionally including a file
    in the same directory of the current document -- it looks like:

      <include <get-var mhtml::relative-prefix>/local.mhtml alt="">

    In the INCLUDEd file, the variable %%::RELPREF reflects the
    current Web path to the document being included.  You won't
    need this for anything though.

    Both the Server and Engine have newer configuration files and
    added code, which default the following behavior:

	  Posted data is made non-executable by default.
	  Cookies are set to be "permanent" by default.
	  User directories are handled in <INCLUDE> statements,
	  and also by both the Server and Engine, if, and only if, the
	  variable MHTML::~DIRECTORY is defined and has a value.
	  A typical value for this variable might be "public_html".


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		      E-Mail Addresses and URLs

Bug reports for <Meta-HTML> should be sent to bug-metahtml@metahtml.com.
Bug reports for the documentation should be sent to bug-manual@metahtml.com.

There is a user mailing list: metahtml-users@metahtml.com.  You can
subscribe on the Web [http://www.metahtml.com/E-Mail/], or by
sending mail to metahtml-users-request@metahtml.com.

Pre-compiled distribution sets are available via the <Meta-HTML> Web
site at [http://www.metahtml.com].  We currently have versions for

	bsdi-2.0-i386, hpux-10.10-hppa, irix-5.3-mips, linux-i386,
	osf-3.0-alpha, solaris-2.5-i386, solaris-2.5-sun4m, and
	sunos-4.1.4-sun4m
 
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		       Authors and Maintenance

<Meta-HTML> was designed and implemented by Brian J. Fox (bfox@ai.mit.edu).
It is owned by Universal Access Inc., and is released under terms identical
to the GPL. The programs are maintained by Brian J. Fox, Henry Minsky,
and Jarlath O' Carroll at Universal Access Inc.

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