[m-rev.] for review: convert NEWS file to markdown and begin restructuring it

[Julien Fischer]

On Tue, 31 Dec 2019, Zoltan Somogyi wrote:

> On Mon, 30 Dec 2019 23:56:51 +1100 (AEDT), Julien Fischer <jfischer at opturion.com> wrote:
>> In addition to the diff, I have attached the full NEWS file and also the
>> HTML version generated by pandoc.  Reviews wishing to generate their own
>> HTML versions using pandoc, should use the command:
>>
>>     $ pandoc -s -o news.html NEWS
>>
>> You should also note that ancient versions of pandoc will produce very
>> strange results.  I found this out the hard way :-(
>
> Which version is too ancient, and which works?

In my case 1.12 is the ancient version -- it's what ships on CentOS 7
systems; the working version is 2.2, which is also quite old as it
happens.

>> I haven't really edited the content of the entries beyond removing some
>> redundancies and shifting some things that make break compatibility with
>> exisiting code into the appropriate section.
>
> I had a look at the initial part of the diff, and it looks fine, though I have to assume
> that the quotations are right, since I have no idea what markdown rules the NEWS
> file now follows.

They are correct.  The rules we are following are here: https://commonmark.org

> The part about the individual library modules is not effectively reviewable due to
> all the reordering, but then again I don't think it needs review that badly; I, at least,
> trust you to get it right.
>
>> I will deal with the sections of the document separately.
>
> What does this mean?

I meant to say the *other* sections of the document, mainly the "Changes
to the Mercury compiler" section.

>> I would also note that there several fairly major changes that currently
>> have no entry, notably:
>>
>> * the library license change.
>> * the changes to the random module.
>
> I just noticed that there is another change that maybe should be mentioned:
> the --show-definitions compiler option.

Yes, that should be mentioned; I'll do it when I clean up the compiler
changes section.

Julien.