
ANNOUNCEMENT

Version 3.5.4 of the OFFIS DCMTK (DICOM ToolKit) software is now available
for public release.  This release includes the following main changes
over the previous version (Version 3.5.3):

- DCMTK 3.5.4 builds correctly with GNU gcc 4.0 and Visual Studio 2005.

- Newly supported platforms:
  - Linux on x86_64
  - FreeBSD 5.x, 6.x on x86
  - Solaris 10 on x86
  - QNX 6.2.1 on x86

- The use of CMake to generate project files on Windows is now required.

- New schema for include files. All includes files are now included as
  #include "dcmtk/module/file.h", e.g. #include "dcmtk/dcmdata/dctk.h".
  This allows the DCMTK header files to be installed in a public directory
  such as /usr/local/include and eliminates the risk of name clashes.

- New tool pdf2dcm allows to convert PDF files to DICOM Encapsulated PDF
  Storage SOP instances.

- The former "imagectn" tool has been renamed to "dcmqrscp" (Q/R SCP)
  and has been refactored into a simple class structure that offers a clean
  API for exchanging the index file back-end. Minimal support for compressed
  transfer syntaxes has been added. The tool can now also be started by root
  and change privileges to a different user and group specified in the config
  file.

- New lossless JPEG encoder that guarantees "true lossless" compression
  in contrast to the old implementation which could cause rounding errors
  in certain cases.

- StoreSCP now supports multi-process mode both on Posix and Win32 platforms
  where a separate client process is forked for each incoming association.
  On Posix platforms, the tool can also be started from inetd.

- DcmFileFormat::loadFile can now be prevented from attempting to load
  non-part 10 files as DICOM datasets. Many tools support a corresponding
  command line option "--read-file-only".

- Many tools support a new command line option that ignores the transfer
  syntax specified in the meta header and tries to detect the transfer syntax
  automatically from the dataset.

- Added support for X-Ray Radiation Dose SR and Procedure Log SR documents in
  dcmsr module.

- TLS module now supports AES ciphersuites if compiled with OpenSSL 0.9.7 or
  newer. All TLS-enabled tools now support the "AES TLS Secure Transport
  Connection Profile".

- Changed names of OpenSSL DLLs for Win32 release build - there are just too
  many tools that install "their" version of libeay32.dll and ssleay32.dll in
  c:\windows\system32 and cause DLL conflicts. We now call our versions of the
  OpenSSL DLLs dcmtkssl.dll and dcmtkeay.dll.

- Added command line options for separate DIMSE and ACSE timeouts to many
  tools.

- The dcmdata module now supports an automatic re-conversion of defined length
  UN elements read in an explicit VR transfer syntax, if the real VR is defined
  in the data dictionary. A corresponding command line option "--convert-un"
  is available in dcmdump and dcmconv.

- Compilation with OpenSSL 0.9.8, which introduces an incompatible API change,
  is now supported.

- Network tools support transmission and receipt of JPEG 2000 transfer
  syntaxes.

- DICOMDIR tools and classes now support Encapsulated Document, Real World
  Value Mapping, Hanging Protocol and Color Presentation State objects.

- The toolkit can now read DICOM files in which the meta header group length
  attribute (0002,0000) is absent, based on a heuristic that checks for group
  0002 attribute tags.

- Added option --read-dataset to dcmdjpeg that allows to decompress JPEG
  compressed DICOM objects that have been stored as dataset without
  meta-header.

- Added support for reading UN elements with undefined length according to CP
  246. A flag allows to revert to the prior behaviour in which UN elements with
  undefined length were parsed like a normal explicit VR SQ element.

- Added support for new Media Storage Application Profiles according to DICOM
  PS 3.12-2004. Removed support for non-standard conformant "No profile".

- The DICOM data dictionary has been re-worked based on the latest supplements
  and correction proposals, as usual.

- Many bug fixes and minor improvements as usual - see the CHANGES.354 file for
  more details.


Many people have contributed to this new release of DCMTK, appearing here in
alphabetical order.  Thank you very much for your support!

  Michael Albert <albertm@uphs.upenn.edu>
  Stefan Allers <stefan.allers@gmx.de>
  Dennis Ballance <dwballan@pacbell.net>
  Jesper Bojesen <jbb@medical-insight.com>
  Sean Chen <chen@cs.queensu.ca>
  Andre M. Descombes <andre@descombes.info>
  Michael Doppler <m.doppler@icoserve.com>
  Alexander Fedotov <fedotov@elektron.ru>
  Attila Gelle <attila.gelle@siemens.com>
  Indrajit Ghosh <indrajit_ghosh@hotmail.com>
  Firas Haj-Husein <fmhmhh@hotmail.com>
  Michael Heber <mheber.aup@t-online.de>
  Andrew Hewett <andrew.hewett@siemens.com>
  Anibal Jodorcovsky <anibal@intelerad.com>
  Alexander Karaivanov <adk@medical-insight.com>
  Karl Kiniger <karl.kiniger@med.ge.com>
  Bernd Kuemmerlen <bkuemmer@mevis.de>
  Mitchell Laks <mlaks2000@yahoo.com>
  John A. Meinel <john@arbash-meinel.com>
  Markus Mertens <markus.mertens@uni-muenster.de>
  Heiko Muench <H.Muench@CHILI-Radiology.com>
  Clay Nordquist <cnordquist@nbmedical.com>
  Igor Okulist <okigan@hotmail.com>
  Daniel Patel <daniel@cmr.no>
  A. M. Raportirenko <ram@sunct1.jinr.dubna.su>
  Alain Runa <alain.runa@rad.ma.uni-heidelberg.de>
  Markus Sabin <sabin@convis.de>
  Juergen Salk <juergen.salk@gmx.de>
  Erik Sanner <erik.sanner@elekta.com>
  Kent Tse <kent@intelerad.com>

OFFIS staff who have worked on this release are:
  Marco Eichelberg <eichelberg@offis.de>
  Joerg Riesmeier <riesmeier@offis.de>
  Thomas Wilkens <wilkens@offis.de>
  Michael Onken <onken@offis.de>

The DCMTK software can be downloaded via:
  http://dicom.offis.de/dcmtk

Kuratorium OFFIS e.V., Oldenburg, Germany, 2005-12-20
