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| What's new in OmniMark 4.0 | |||||
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OmniMark 4.0 includes numerous new features and changes that have been implemented to extend functionality and increase program flexibility.
OmniMark 4.0 supports XML parsing, a variant of SGML parsing that supports the key features of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) specification (as defined in WD-xml-970807). The addition of this feature allows OmniMark to successfully parse a valid XML document. With the addition of this feature, some changes and additions were made to the OmniMark language. Most significantly, a set of generic "markup" keywords was introduced to generalize, as much as possible, OmniMark functionality that was previously specific to the SGML parser. With this generalization, programmers can interact with a parser without having to specify which one, SGML or XML.
Opaque types types have been added, allowing programmers to define their own data types to be used with external functions.
The "no-default-io" declaration
This declaration has been added to simplify the process of writing and testing server programs. OmniMark programs without default input/output sources and destinations are expected to be servers with their own explicitly defined and controlled inputs and outputs. Using the no-default-io declaration allows you to run an OmniMark CI program in a simulated SI environment.
Format items and the format operator
The format operator has been added to increase the flexibility of format item usage. This feature reduces the amount of coding required in complex output formatting tasks. With the implementation of this operator, format modifiers can also be dynamically generated rather than having to be statically coded into a program.
Changes to "find" and "submit"
With this release of OmniMark, find rules and the submit action can be used almost anywhere. The most important effect of this change is that submit can now be used in the body of process rules.
An "=t" has been added to the format items that can be used with the date and compiled-date keywords. This format item produces the offset in hours and minutes from Greenwich Mean Time.
An "-x"command-line option has been added. This option allows programmers to specify the path of external function libraries from the command line rather than having to "hard code" them into an OmniMark program. This option can also be used to increase cross-platform portability of OmniMark programs that use external function libraries. The file-name extension of the external function library (which is different on most platforms) can also now be specified on the command line rather than in the OmniMark program itself.
The "-stats" command-line option has also been added. When specified, this option causes an OmniMark program to generate and output data regarding memory usage and execution times.
Two changes have been made to external functions. External functions now accept remainder and optional arguments. Additionally, external functions support generic functions that make use of various return types, argument counts, and argument types determined at run-time. The external functions API has also undergone some changes (External functions API changes).
The following have been added to the OmniMark function libraries suite. Please note that some of these libraries can be used only in OmniMark 4.0 and beyond because they utilize opaque types:
Several corrections were made for the release of OmniMark CI 4.0 and OmniMark CI 4.0.1.
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