ANNOUNCEMENT

Version 3.3 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 3.2.1):

- Improved support for Windows95/NT with project makefiles for
  Microsoft Visual C++ 4.0

- Fixes several problems related to opening files and networking
  under Windows95/NT.  

- Fixes several problems related to incorrect encoding of group length 
  attributes, sequences and item lengths.  

- Improved data dictionary support.  The data dictionary is now
  implemented as a hash table with an optimised hash function.  Loading 
  a data dictionary is now 4 times faster.

- Provides a new framework for pixel data codecs (e.g. the JPEG processes).
  This includes the new classes DcmPixelData, DcmCodec and supporters
  but does not yet include any specific compression codec code.

- Provides an emulation of ANSI-C++ string, list and stack classes.

- Various bug-fixes detected during and after the CAR'97 DICOM Demonstration.

See the dcmtk/CHANGES file for more details.

The DCMTK software can be downloaded via:

	http://www.offis.uni-oldenburg.de/projekte/dicom/dicom_software_e.html


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Andrew Hewett, Marco Eichelberg, Andreas Barth, Sandra von Gehlen
7 October 1997,
Oldenburg, Germany