[m-rev.] for post-commit review: announce fixed sized integer types in NEWS file

[Julien Fischer]

For post-commit review by anyone.

I am intending to restructure the NEWS file along the lines we discussed 
around 12 months ago - the intent of this diff is simply to add missing
content, not address some of the file's existing structural shortcomings.

Julien.

----------------

Announce fixed size integer types in NEWS file.

NEWS:
    As above.

    Shift the annoucement of additional predicates to existing
    library modules to sections listing changes to those modules.
    (Add such an annoucement for the io module, since it was lacking.)

Julien.

diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index fa57155..4294c9d 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -169,17 +169,24 @@ Changes that may break compatibility:

  Changes to the Mercury language:

-* We have added a new primitive type, uint, which is an unsigned integer type
-  of the same size as Mercury's int type. Literals of this type must have the
-  suffix `u', for example:
+* We have added nine new primitive types: uint, int8, int16, int32, int64,
+  uint8, uint16, uint32 and uint64. The type uint is an unsigned integer type
+  of the same size as Mercury's int type; the types int8, int16, int32 and
+  int64 are signed integer types of width 8, 16, 32 and 64 bits respectively;
+  the types uint8, uint16, uint32 and uint64 are unsigned integer types of
+  width 8, 16, 32 and 64 bits respectively.
+
+  Literals of these new types must have a distinguishing suffix, for example:

         999u
-       0b1111100111u
-       0o1747u
-       0x3e7u
+       561i32
+       0b1111100111i64
+       0o16u8
+       0x3e732i64

-  Basic operations on uint values are provided by the new standard library
-  module `uint'. (See below for details.)
+  Basic operations on the new primitive types are provided by the new standard
+  library modules: `uint', `int8', `int16', `int32', `int64', `uint8',
+  `uint16', `uint32' and `uint64'.  (See below for details.)

  * We have added a new kind of scope to the language: determinism checks
    for switch arms. These scopes are introduced by any of the new keywords
@@ -246,18 +253,13 @@ Changes to the Mercury language:

  Changes to the Mercury standard library:

-* We have added a new module, uint, that exports basic operations on the new
-  uint type.
-
-  The following predicates and functions have been added to other standard
-  library modules in order to support the uint type:
+* We have added the new modules uint, int8, int16, int32, int64, uint8,
+  uint16, uint32, and uint64. These modules export basic operations on the
+  new integer type of the same name as the module.

-  - integer.to_uint/2
-  - integer.det_to_uint/1
-  - integer.from_uint/1
-  - string.uint_to_string/1
-  - io.write_uint/3, io.write_uint/4
-  - stream.string_writer.put_int/4
+  Many other standard library modules have additional predicates that
+  support the new integer types; see the entries for those modules for
+  details.

  * We have added variants of the process_options predicates to the getopt
    and getopt_io modules that represent errors using a type instead of strings.
@@ -383,6 +385,30 @@ Changes to the Mercury standard library:
  * string.string_to_doc/1 now replaces characters in its input argument with
    backslash escapes when required.

+* The following predicates have been added to the io module:
+
+   - write_uint/3, write_uint/4
+   - write_int{8,16,32,64}/3, write_int{8,16,32,64}/4
+   - write_uint{8,16,32,64}/3, write_uint{8,16,32,64}/4
+   - write_binary_int8/3, write_binary_int8/4
+   - write_binary_uint8/3, write_binary_uint8/4
+   - write_binary_int{16,32,64}/3, write_binary_int{16,32,64}/4
+   - write_binary_int{16,32,64}_{le,be}/3, write_binary_int{16,32,64}_{le,be}/4
+   - read_binary_int8/3, read_binary_int8/4
+   - read_binary_uint8/3, read_binary_uint8/4
+   - putback_int8/3, putback_int8/4
+   - putback_uint8/3, putback_uint8/4
+   - read_binary_int{16,32,64}/3, read_binary_int{16,32,64}/4
+   - read_binary_int{16,32,64}_{le,be}/3, read_binary_int{16,32,64}_{le,be}/4
+   - read_binary_uint{16,32,64}/3, read_binary_uint{16,32,64}/4
+   - read_binary_uint{16,32,64}_{le,be}/3, read_binary_uint{16,32,64}_{le,be}/4
+ 
+* The following predicates have been added to the stream.string_writer module:
+
+   - put_uint/4
+   - put_int{8,16,32,64}/4
+   - put_uint{8,16,32,64}/4
+
  * The following classification predicates have been added to the float module:

     - is_finite/1
@@ -403,6 +429,15 @@ Changes to the Mercury standard library:
     - to_base_string/2
     - negative_one/0, two/0, ten/0
     - is_zero/1
+   - to_uint/2
+   - det_to_uint/1
+   - from_uint/1
+   - to_int{8,16,32,64}/2
+   - det_to_int{8,16,32,64}/1
+   - from_int{8,16,32,64}/1
+   - to_uint{8,16,32,64}/2
+   - det_to_uint{8,16,32,64}/1
+   - from_uint{8,16,32,64}/1

    The following functions in the integer module have been deprecated:

@@ -438,6 +473,9 @@ Changes to the Mercury standard library:
     - unsafe_index_next_repl/5
     - prev_index_repl/5
     - unsafe_prev_index_repl/5
+   - uint_to_string/1
+   - int{8,16,32,64}_to_string/1
+   - uint{8,16,32,64}_to_string/1

    The following procedures in the string module have been deprecated: