Well, 6 weeks since the last beta does not mean that things are stable
/ finnished already... But, knowing that I won't have much time during
the next two weeks, I thought that I'd better prepare a new beta now.

Progress has been made in several areas. One significant change is that
the printability of characters no longer depends on the locale settings.

Files (to appear soon):
  ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/unix/teTeX-beta/tetex-src-beta-2.96.4.20040627.tar.gz
  ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/unix/teTeX-beta/tetex-texmf-beta-2.96.4.20040627.tar.gz
  ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/unix/teTeX-beta/tetex-texmfsrc-beta-2.96.4.20040627.tar.gz
or
  ftp://ftp.dante.de/tex-archive/systems/unix/teTeX-beta/tetex-src-beta-2.96.4.20040627.tar.gz
  ftp://ftp.dante.de/tex-archive/systems/unix/teTeX-beta/tetex-texmf-beta-2.96.4.20040627.tar.gz
  ftp://ftp.dante.de/tex-archive/systems/unix/teTeX-beta/tetex-texmfsrc-beta-2.96.4.20040627.tar.gz

Changes in the src area:
        * xdvik 22.84.1
        * kpathsea/c-memstr.h: portability fixes (strings.h, index(), rindex())
        * Aleph RC3
        * more web2c fixes to support spaces in filenames
        * fix to texinfo from karl (fix potential core dumps in info/session.c)
        * update texinfo.tex
        * improve temp file handling in allcm
        * pdftex 1.20a-rc4
        * update to libxpdf-3.0
        * thumbpdf is now a link to texexec as well; thumbpdf.pl exists
          now in the texmf tree
        * upgrade dvipng to version 1.1
        * update zlib to version 1.2.1
        * fix from Olaf about undump of mpost / mf
        * upgrade to texi2html-1.70
        * added a2ping (GPL, from CTAN:graphics/a2ping)
        * epstopdf is GPL; add notice about it to the script
        * web2c changes by Olaf:
          - makempx now parses %& in temp. tex file
          - pdf*tex help strings
          - remove the locale-dependent code
          - add 'ctie' by Julian Gilbey
          - rename readlink to kpsereadlink
        * update dvips.1 / dvips.texi
        * add uninstall target to dialog
        * texdoctk-052
        * dvips fixes by rokicki: Updated the man page and texinfo file
          for -x and -y options; removed the 500 rounding factor from
          the magnification override calculation (-y); someone changed
          ints to floats without taking this into account.
        * apply fix by Olaf Weber for segfault in mpost
        * remove fontimport / fontexport (until someone complains)
        * add incompatibility with (unpatched) flex-2.5.31 to PROBLEMS
          file and mention the existing fix
        * fixes in t1lib.ac for --with-system-t1lib
        * dvipdft rewritten, dvipdft.1 and ebb.1 added
        * updmap now searches each map file twice: old and new path;
          user gets a message if something is not as it should be --
          manpage needs updating
        * add work-around for compile-problems on Irix 6.5.22m to
          PROBLEMS file
        * fix typo in install-etex-programs rule (actually, does not
          change anything, since we don't build etex by default; we use
          pdfetex instaed)
        * work-around missing symlinks: ofm2opl opl2ofm ovf2ovp ovp2ovf
        * increase max_names / max_refs in weave.ch
        * update config.guess config.sub from
          http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/config

Changes in the texmf area:
        * update pict2e, fontname, texinfo.tex, pstricks, babel, multirow, tocloft
        * add package appendix
        * update tds.dvi (version 1.1)
        * fontname update: variant.map (updated), qx.enc (added)
        * added memoir
        * update koma-script
        * update lettrine
        * update acronym, ntgclass
        * update pstricks, ukrhyph
        * add abstract
        * update uni2greek.otp (from TL), fancybox, geometry,
          showlabels
        * update germbib, oberdiek
        * added accents.sty, checkend.sty and dotlessi.sty (all lppl) from
          CTAN:macros/latex/contrib/bezos
        * update acronym package
        * add package xcolor
        * update lh fonts (to version 3.4i)
        * update t-amsl.tex, t-nath.tex
        * remove obsolete files: a4dutch.sty avantgar.sty doublespace.sty
          helvetic.sty isolatin1.sty landscape.sty ncntrsbk.sty sz.sty
          zapfchan.sty
        * consistently use tex/<format>/<package>/<filename> and
          doc/<format>/<package>/<filename>; no longer use "misc" and
          "styles"
        * add a few files to the documentation of subfig / subfigure
        * rm doc/latex/styles/a4.dvi doc/latex/styles/slashbox.tex
        * update caption
        * added bibunits, multibib
        * update eplain to version 2.8.2
        * update multirow.sty
        * updated newhelpindex.html (a few changes)

Happy testing + have fun!

Thomas