[ANNOUNCE] e4Graph 1.0a8 released

[Jacob Levy]

I am pleased to announce the 1.0a8 release of e4Graph, the seventh Alpha
release.

WHAT IS IT:

e4Graph is a C++ library that allows programs to store graph-like data
persistently and to access and manipulate that data efficiently. With
e4Graph, you can arrange your data in the most natural form that
reflects the relationships between its parts, rather than having to
force it into a table-like format. The e4Graph library also allows you
to concentrate on the relationships you want to represent, and not on
how to store them in a database. You can modify data items, and add and
remove connections and relationships between pieces of data on the fly.
e4Graph allows you to represent an unlimited number of different
connections between pieces of data, and your program can selectively
manipulate the data according to the relationships it cares about, not
having to know about other connections represented in the data set. The
e4Graph package also provides bindings in several other languages,
currently Tcl, Python and Java, and allows input/output of object graphs 
via an XML representation.

The e4Graph package is built on top of Metakit 2.4.9.2, and optionally 
uses Tcl 8.4.4, Python 2.2.3, Java 1.1 or later, and Expat 1.95.5.

WHERE TO GET:

Downloads: http://sourceforge.net/projects/e4graph/
Homepage: http://www.e4graph.com/e4graph/
Changelog: http://www.e4graph.com/e4graph/changes.txt
Installation: http://www.e4graph.com/e4graph/e4install.html

WHAT IS NEW:

Support for MacOS X 10.2 and several other platforms was added. Support 
for Python 2.2 and later releases was added. The Java binding was 
updated. The event mechanism was completely overhauled and support for 
user defined events was added. The vertex caching mechanism was moved 
from the Tcl binding to the core e4Graph library to enable other 
language bindings to benefit from the increased performance afforded by 
the cache. The interface between e4Graph and data base drivers was 
formalized in preparation for supporting new data base drivers in 
addition to Metakit. Additional work was done to support 64-bit systems 
and very large storages; more work is needed. Support for SWIG was added 
so new language bindings can be created with SWIG, in preparation for 
incorporating Perl, PHP and Ruby bindings in the next release. Many bugs 
were fixed.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:

Michael Krimerman contributed the Python binding. J.P. Fletcher helped 
me get started with SWIG support. Daniel Steffen and Nicholas Brawn were 
instrumental helping with MacOS X support. I wish to acknowledge support 
from the HP test-drive facility and from the SourceForge compile farm. 
Many people (too many to mention) contributed bug reports and bug fixes. 
Geoff Shapiro and David Van Maren suggested many useful API changes.