[Freeciv] Announce: freeciv 1.8.1 released!

[David Pfitzner <dwp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Freeciv People,

I am pleased to announce that Freeciv 1.8.1 has been released,
and is now available from the Freecig web site.  Go to:

   http://www.freeciv.org/download.php3

Or directly from the ftp site:

   ftp://ftp.freeciv.org/freeciv/stable_version/
   ftp://ftp.freeciv.org/freeciv/stable_version/freeciv-1.8.1.tar.bz2
   ftp://ftp.freeciv.org/freeciv/stable_version/freeciv-1.8.1.tar.gz

Or from CVS, with tag R1_8_1.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed.

Following is an extract from the NEWS file for this release.

Regards,
-- David

---- NEWS:

Welcome to Freeciv 1.8!

This is release 1.8.1.

Thanks again to all our developers, who continue to work so hard.
Special mention this release goes to Vasco Alexandre da Silva Costa,
who did most of the work for the new Gtk+ client.  Special thanks
also to Nicolas Brunel, who has retired from maintaining Freeciv,
after doing lots of work for this release, as well as for the 
previous 1.8.0 release. 

Those who are interested in seeing the detailed changes should check
the ChangeLog file.

WHAT'S CHANGED SINCE 1.8.0:

 - The biggest change is a new client which uses the popular Gtk+ 
   toolkit.  The old Xaw client is still included as well.
 - A new alternate (30x30) tileset: the "trident" tileset.
   Start the client with "--tiles trident" to try it out.
   (This replaces the "classic/brunus" tileset, which is still 
   available separately from the Freeciv ftp site.)
 - In the Gtk+ client, parts of the main window can be detached.
   Detaching them all allows a full-screen map window!
 - The data directory can now be specified as a "path" ($FREECIV_PATH), 
   instead of a single directory.  By default, ~/.freeciv is now in 
   the path, so if you download new tiles, modpacks, etc, you can now 
   simply put them in ~/.freeciv
 - Server console improvements: can abbreviate server command names, 
   and server option names.  Better prompt handling - eg, server no 
   longer prints an unnecessary prompt each turn.
 - Server commands can now be issued from the client chatline. 
   There is a new server command "cmdlevel", to control access to 
   this feature on a per-player basis.
 - Some of the "small" graphics have been improved.
 - Added a nice cursor for selecting the destination for "goto".
 - New column "corruption" in the city report.
 - Implemented Marco Polo's Embassy wonder.
 - New command to explode Nuclear units at an empty square.
 - Improved behavior of Caravans and "goto": the Caravan dialog will
   now popup when the Caravan arrives, whether moving by goto or by
   the keyboard.
 - Allow connecting to metaserver (in client) via $http_proxy.
 - Minor "Zone of Control" (ZOC) rules changes to better match Civ2.
 - Improved debug logging.
 - Server will refuse to run as root, as a security measure.
 - As always: lots of bug fixes, code cleanups, and help-text 
   improvements.