2008-10-13 Russ Nelson <nelson@crynwr.com>

Sixth alpha release of Gnash (0.8.4).
Improvements since 0.8.3 release are:

More visible to users:

    * The -d switch won't behave the same as in 0.8.3. This is a
      temporary thing, we'll likely bring it back to its original
      behaviour for next releases. If you're curious, -d will now
      change heart beating rate.
    * Support for MIT SHM X extention is disabled by default `cause
      it broke (*grin*). We'll get it back on next release. Let us
      know if you really notice a performance degradation on the
      rendering side please <gnash-dev@gnu.org>. 
    * Keep Adobe happy with our users and our users happy with us by
      changing "Flash player" into "SWF player" everywhere.  Adobe
      claims "Flash" as a trademark and had asked a Linux distributor
      to fix it.
    * The popular SWF Twitter badge now renders correctly.
    * Fix parsing of urls containing multiple question marks 
    * Fix support for movies embedding multiple sound streams 
    * Support for loading PNG and GIF images added.
    * Improved rendering of SWF movies because of the less visible
      changes listed below.
    * Support for writing RGB/RGBA PNG images and JPEG images.
    * Works with Potlatch OpenStreetMap editor
    * New 'flvdumper' utility for analyzing FLV video files.
    * XPI packaging support for Mozilla & Firefox. 

Less visible to users:

    * Improved SWF version 8 support:
      o flash.geom.Point, flash.geom.Rect, flash.geom.Matrix classes
        implemented.
      o flash.geom.ColorTransform almost fully implemented.
      o flash.display.BitmapData partially implemented.
      o flash.geom.Transform.matrix and flash.geom.Transform.ColorTransform
        implemented.
      o MovieClip.transform implemented, with ability to find and apply
        MovieClip transformations.
      o Playback of VP6F video (SWF version 8 FLV) with Ffmpeg. 
    * Fixes and implementation of ActionScript 2 classes:
      o NetConnection.call() implemented: initial support for flash Remoting
      o toString() method of objects called correctly, String.split
        implementation fixed.
      o XMLSocket onData method implemented properly, other methods fixed.
      o Error class implemented.
      o XML and LoadVars sendAndLoad() now derive from a common base object
        (loadable AS object); fixes the popular SWF Twitter badge.
      o addRequestHeaders and contentType implemented for LoadVars and XML. 
    * VM bugfixes and improvements:
      o Heart beating model, allowing for fine-grained interval timers and
        threading reduction.
      o Frame label fix (case sensitivity).
      o Fixes and improvements to Color and cxform.
      o SWF matrix made faster and more compatible (golf.swf works now!)
      o try/catch/finally ActionScript expression handled more correctly.
      o Parse and partially use ScriptLimits tag. Handle stack limit more
        correctly.
      o Fixed scoping issues for SWF <= 5
      o Bitmap characters now support alpha.
    * Media handling improvements:
      o Pluggable architecture for MediaHandlers (ffmpeg/gst available)
      o Media-handler agnostic Sound and NetStream classes
      o Numerous bug fixes in ffmpeg and gstreamer media handling
    * SWF version 2-specific fixes:
      o PlaceObject tag display fixed (also applies to SWFs generated with
        some free tools)
      o DefineButtonCxform tag implemented). 
    * Codebase improvements:
      o Renamed the 'server' directory to be a more accurate 'libcore'.
        Merge 'libgeometry' into 'libbase'
      o Keep Adobe happy with our users and our users happy with us by
        changing "Flash player" into "SWF player" everywhere (a Linux
        distributor received a demand letter).
      o Numerous cleanups and changes to improve portability. 

--

2008-05-10 Russ Nelson <nelson@crynwr.com>

Sixth alpha release of Gnash (0.8.3).
Improvements since 0.8.2 release are:

More visible to users:
    * Native fullscreen support (from AS) implemented.
    * Long command-line options properly supported.
    * View detailed movie information from GTK gui.
    * Added an option in Preferences to initially display a movie
      as a blank ("Click here to start") screen.
    * Added "dump" GUI to dump a movie to disk.
    * Improved Cairo rendering performance.
    * Fix support for OpenOffice Impress SWF exporter (malformed..)

Less visible to users:
    * Garbage Collector usage reduced where appropriate.
    * Mouse.hide and Mouse.show implemented in GTK.
    * ActionScript inheritance fixes:
        o super implemented correctly (still not 100% compatible for SWF7)
        o implements / instanceof works correctly now 
    * FsCommands quit, fullscreen and showMenu implemented.
    * FsCommand-to-javascript implemented (plugin).
    * Minor ActionScript compatibility fixes: String, XML, toLocaleString,
      int, parseInt. fromCharCode, toString (SWF4) etc.
    * Fixes to arguments class (tests: Function.as, line404~456).
    * Stage.scaleMode implemented (fixes resizing of various movies).
    * Stage.align implemented.
    * Fixes to Date class (platform consistent).
    * Logging uses boost::format.
    * Improved Win32 support: builds using MinGW/MSYS (cross-compile
      not tested yet), and initial implementation of npgnash.dll exists.
    * Sprite handling improved, fixing FlowPlayer and other video SWFs.
    * TextField handling:
          o Fix in device font handling (DefineFontInfo tag)
          o Fix support for DefineFont2 tag (sizes)
          o Improve TextField support for TextFormat use. 
    * Fix parsing of malformed XML files
    * Fix loading of text / XML with Byte Order Marks.
    * Minor fix to _x and _y translation.
    * More functions correctly registered as ASnative.
    * System.capabilities information expanded.
    * Jemalloc memory allocator from Mozilla added as an option.
    * Redesigned and implemented AMF0 support, with the beginning of
      AMF3 support.
    * SWF8 line styles support (both from tag and drawing api) 


--

2008-02-21  Sandro Santilli <strk@keybit.net>

Fifth alpha release of Gnash (0.8.2).
Improvements since 0.8.1 release are:

    * Improved timeline redesign.
    * Action execution order fixes.
    * Keyboard handling improved [1].
    * New classes implemented: System.capabilities (partial),
      SharedObject, LocalConnection.
    * New opcodes implemented: ActionImplements, Try/Throw.
    * Movieclip.beginGradientFill completes drawing API support.
    * MovieClip._lockroot support added.
    * Implement GET/POST for MovieClip.loadVariables and
      MovieClip.loadMovie
    * Textfield support improved.
    * Security: configurable sandbox restricts filesystem access by movies.
    * Better support for SWF8.
    * Streaming OGG-contained multimedia (e.g. vorbis/theora or vorbis/dirac),
      and other free formats.
    * OGL and Cairo renderers much improved.
    * Improvements of the Framebuffer GUI (hide text messages, support Linux
      events system, built-in touchscreen calibration, simple keyboard support,
      better architecture support).
    * SOLdumper utility for reading SOL files ('flash cookies').
    * DumpShm utility finds and dumps Local Connection memory segments.
    * Fullscreen display possible.
    * Extensions for LIRC and DBus.
    * High quality, cross-platform psuedo-randomness using boost random.
    * NPAPI (Mozilla) plugin: keyboard events work, navigation and javascript
      from within movies.
    * Set and save preferences from the GUI (GTK).
    * Improved stability and robustness with malformed SWFs.
    * Many other bugfixes. 

--

2007-08-29  Sandro Santilli <strk@keybit.net>

Fourth alpha release of Gnash (0.8.1).
Improvements since 0.8.0 release are:

    * Garbage Collector
    * Support for device fonts
    * Support for dynamic text fields
    * Better key handling
    * Support for FFMPEG SVN
    * Support for on-demand install of needed Gstreamer codec plugins.
    * Debugger off by default (improves performance and memory use)
    * AGG renderer by default 
    * Support for KDE/AGG combination
    * Layout change : we'll now build <gui>-gnash and 'gnash' is a shell
      script with gui selection capabilities (-G)
    * More robust parser 
    * Better support for flash player detection
    * Fix for 'debugLog' directive in gnashrc

--

2007-06-01  Rob Savoye  <rob@welcomehome.org>

The third alpha release of Gnash. Improvements since the 0.7.2 release
are: 

    * Streaming video works with YouTube and Lulu.tv! This has been the
      focus for the majority of the time since the last release.
    * Many core improvments in the VM as our understanding of Flash
      improves. These all improve both the correctness of a movie that is
      being played, but enables more movies to play that used to not work.
    * New FLTK2 gui.
    * Simple Flash debugger added.
    * Improved Darwin support that can use the system OpenGL.
    * Flash extensions, direct support for file handling, MySQL access,
      etc.. through plugins to the Gnash VM. Wrappers for any C/C++ API
      libraries can be exported into ActionScript, and used as native
      commands in a Flash movie.
    * Updated manuals.
    * Many new testcases! Support for testing with ming, swfmill, amd
      mtasc compilers.
    * New drawing API for MovieClips..
    
--

2006-09-10  Rob Savoye  <rob@welcomehome.org>

The second alpha release of Gnash is coming soon. Improvements since
the 0.7.1 alpha release are:

    * Polling main loop replaced with event driven framework.
    * New GUI abstraction layer supporting GTK2, KDE, SDL, and just a
      framebuffer. 
    * Movies are parsed by a background thread, so they start playing
      while still loading.
    * Plugin supports web navigation and starts playing while the stream
      is loading.
    * New AntiGrain (AGG) 2D backend added for framebuffer devices.
    * Sound now works.
    * Supports cross configuration and cross compiling for embedded targets.
    * A whole slew of minor bugs that kept various movies from playing.

--

2006-04-20  Rob Savoye  <rob@welcomehome.org>

    * The first alpha release of Gnash! Version 0.7.1 is released with a
      working browser plugin.

--

2005-12-10  Rob Savoye  <rob@bertha.welcomehome.org>

    * GameSWF has been turned into Gnash! Gnash's goals are to turn this
      into a free flash movie player plugin for Firefox.
