Merge from existing archive branch

[pcre3.git] / README

diff --git a/README b/README
index 88f2dfd4efd677651ddc8ddb9eb19d385891ea43..4887ebf350e7e6f7881b54f0e1e0077d1091adda 100644 (file)
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -1,7 +1,16 @@
 README file for PCRE (Perl-compatible regular expression library)
 -----------------------------------------------------------------
 
-The latest release of PCRE is always available in three alternative formats
+NOTE: This set of files relates to PCRE releases that use the original API,
+with library names libpcre, libpcre16, and libpcre32. January 2015 saw the
+first release of a new API, known as PCRE2, with release numbers starting at
+10.00 and library names libpcre2-8, libpcre2-16, and libpcre2-32. The old
+libraries (now called PCRE1) are still being maintained for bug fixes, but
+there will be no new development. New projects are advised to use the new PCRE2
+libraries.
+
+
+The latest release of PCRE1 is always available in three alternative formats
 from:
 
   ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/pcre-xxx.tar.gz
@@ -45,14 +54,16 @@ the 16-bit library, which processes strings of 16-bit values, and one for the
 32-bit library, which processes strings of 32-bit values. The distribution also
 includes a set of C++ wrapper functions (see the pcrecpp man page for details),
 courtesy of Google Inc., which can be used to call the 8-bit PCRE library from
-C++.
+C++. Other C++ wrappers have been created from time to time. See, for example:
+https://github.com/YasserAsmi/regexp, which aims to be simple and similar in
+style to the C API.
 
-In addition, there is a set of C wrapper functions (again, just for the 8-bit
-library) that are based on the POSIX regular expression API (see the pcreposix
-man page). These end up in the library called libpcreposix. Note that this just
-provides a POSIX calling interface to PCRE; the regular expressions themselves
-still follow Perl syntax and semantics. The POSIX API is restricted, and does
-not give full access to all of PCRE's facilities.
+The distribution also contains a set of C wrapper functions (again, just for
+the 8-bit library) that are based on the POSIX regular expression API (see the
+pcreposix man page). These end up in the library called libpcreposix. Note that
+this just provides a POSIX calling interface to PCRE; the regular expressions
+themselves still follow Perl syntax and semantics. The POSIX API is restricted,
+and does not give full access to all of PCRE's facilities.
 
 The header file for the POSIX-style functions is called pcreposix.h. The
 official POSIX name is regex.h, but I did not want to risk possible problems
@@ -988,4 +999,4 @@ pcre_xxx, one with the name pcre16_xx, and a third with the name pcre32_xxx.
 Philip Hazel
 Email local part: ph10
 Email domain: cam.ac.uk
-Last updated: 17 January 2014
+Last updated: 10 February 2015