G12 MiniZinc Distribution version 0.8
-------------------------------------

Changes to the MiniZinc language:

* Output items can now make use of show_cond(A, B, C) expressions.
  show_cond(A, B, C) is equivalent to show(B) if A is true, and
  show(C) if not.  Expression A does not have to be decidable at
  compile time.

* Some aspects of how arrays work have changed.
  - Array indices no longer are automatically coerced according to context.
  - 1d array literals (eg. '[1,2,3]') are now always indexed from 1, not 0.
  - 2d array literal syntax has been introduced.  For example:

      array[1..3,1..3] of int: a = [| 1, 2, 3 
                                    | 4, 5, 6
                                    | 7, 8, 9 |];

    2d array literals are always (1,1)-indexed.

  The choice to use 1-indexing instead of 0-indexing is because we have
  found that, in practice, modellers use 1-indexing the vast majority of the
  time.


Changes to the FlatZinc language:

* Output items can now make use of 'show_cond' expressions, as in MiniZinc.

* Solve minimize/maximize items can now specify linear expressions via the
  'int_float_lin' built-in.

* To match MiniZinc, array variables and literals are now always indexed
  from 1, not 0.

* Var scalars can now be assigned to when declared, eg. "var int: x = y;".


Changes to the G12 MiniZinc-to-FlatZinc converter:

* A new command line option, `--no-warn-unknown-annotations', allows warnings
  about unknown annotations to be suppressed.

* A new command line option, `--output-to-file', allows the name of the
  file in which the FlatZinc is written to be specified.

* The ordering of search directories for the converter has been changed so
  that its standard search directories come after any user specified
  search directories.  This allows the default globals.mzn to be more
  easily overridden with a custom version.

* Numerous bug fixes and other improvements.


Changes to the G12 FlatZinc interpreter:

* The interpreter now uses a generic interpretation framework that allows
  it to support multiple solver backends.  Currently, the only supported
  solver backend is the finite domain solver backend.  There are a
  number of other experimental solver backends, e.g. MIP, hybrid FD/MIP,
  SAT, column generation, that we hope to support in future releases.

* The following command line options have been added in order to provide
  finer grained control over warnings emitted by the interpreter:

  	--no-warn-unknown-annotations
	--no-warn-false-constraints
	--no-warn-ignored-annotations
	--no-warn-empty-initial-domains
	--no-warn-unsupported-search-params

Other Changes:

* We have added more examples and benchmarks.


G12 MiniZinc Distribution version 0.7.1
---------------------------------------

This is a bug-fix release.

* The implementation of the regular and range constraints in the
  MiniZinc library has been fixed.


Changes to the G12 MiniZinc-to-FlatZinc converter:

* The missing support for superset expressions has been added.

* Unused constants are no longer incorrectly changed into vars
  during flattening.

* Flattening of expressions containing the built-in operation dom
  no longer cause the converter to abort.


Changes to the G12 FlatZinc interpreter:

* A bug that with satisfiability checking of models containing LP
  variables has been fixed.


G12 MiniZinc Distribution version 0.7
-------------------------------------

Changes to the FlatZinc language:

* FlatZinc now supports additional linear equality and disequality builtins.


Changes to the G12 MiniZinc-to-FlatZinc converter:

* The converter now supports now includes a  `--statistics' option that
  allows its time and memory usage to be printed.

* String concatenation expressions are now flattened properly.

* Escaped single quotes can now be used in string literals.

* The absolute value function for ints is now implemented.

* Some bugs that caused the converter to run out of stack space have
  been fixed.


Changes to the G12 FlatZinc interpreter:

* The interpreter now includes a `--statistics' option that allows its
  time and memory usage to be printed.

* The interpreter no longer runs out of stack space when reading
  large models.


Other Changes:

* We have added suite of MiniZinc benchmarks to the distribution.
  The benchmark suite is in the `benchmarks' directory.


G12 MiniZinc Distribution version 0.6 
-------------------------------------

This was the initial public release of the G12 MiniZinc Distribution.