                  ===========================================
                     Package "Data::Locations" Version 2.0
                  ===========================================
                       for Perl version 5.000 and higher


           Copyright (c) 1997 by Steffen Beyer. All rights reserved.
           This package is free software; you can redistribute and/or
           modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.


New features in version 2.0:
----------------------------

In version 2.0, the following new methods and features have been added:

  *  $location->printf($format,@items); # equivalent of the C library "printf"

  *  $line = $location->read();         # to read the contents line by line

  *  @list = $location->read();         # to read the contents all at once

  *  $location->reset();                # reset the pointer for "read()"

  *  Data::Locations->reset();          # reset ALL locations at the same time

  *  $location->tie('FILEHANDLE');      # tie locations to symbolic filehandles

  *  $location->tie($filehandle);       # tie 'em to file handle references...

  *  print @items;                      # do $location->tie('STDOUT'); first!
                                        # (or "select(FILEHANDLE);")
  *  print FILEHANDLE @items;

  *  printf $format, @items;            # (select() and tie() to default first)

  *  printf FILEHANDLE $format, @items;

  *  $line = <FILEHANDLE>;              # to read the contents line by line

  *  @list = <FILEHANDLE>;              # to read the contents all at once

In addition to these new features, the name of this module has been changed
slightly in order to satisfy the naming conventions of CPAN (= Comprehensive
Perl Archive Network) and The Perl 5 Module List:

Use global search & replace to substitute "Data::Locations" for "Locations"
in all your programs that "use Locations".

Note also that tying locations to file handles requires Perl version 5.004,
whereas this module is otherwise perfectly happy with previous versions of
Perl 5 as well! (But see the "Preliminary steps for use with Perl prior to
version 5.004" in the "README" file in this distribution)


Version history in details:
---------------------------

Version 1.0 was the initial release.

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

Version 1.1 fixes a bug in the detection of potential infinite recursions
(this bug did not cause any malfunction, but increased the time needed for
this check unnecessarily!).

The code was cleaned from left-overs from previous versions, i.e., the
statements "carp - exit" were replaced by "croak", as this is what they
should be.

Finally, the description was changed to make it more accurate and easy
to understand, and the documentation was brushed up at a few places.

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

In version 2.0, the following new methods have been added:
"printf()", "read()", "reset()" and "tie()".

Moreover, a new companion module named "Tie::Handle" has been added to this
distribution which handles the tying of (arbitrary) objects to file handles,
which is used to tie locations to file handles in this case.

This new module allows you to use file handles to write data to and to read
data from locations using the normal Perl syntax for file handles, i.e.,
"print FILEHANDLE @items;" and "$line = <FILEHANDLE>;", to give you just
two examples.

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

