2025-05-13 Version 4.8.0 Vincent Rogier vince.rogier@ocilib.net

  * Enhancements (C API)

        - Oracle VECTOR type is now supported 
            * Requires Oracle 23.4 client and database 
            * For prior Oracle clients, VECTOR type can be binded and fetched as string
            * Added OCI_Vector* data type (OCI_CDT_VECTOR) 
            * Added the following new APIs:               
                - OCI_VectorCreate()
                - OCI_VectorFree()
                - OCI_VectorArrayCreate()
                - OCI_VectorArrayFree()
                - OCI_VectorGetInfo()
                - OCI_VectorGetValues()
                - OCI_VectorSetValues()
                - OCI_VectorFromText()
                - OCI_VectorToText()
                - OCI_GetVector()
                - OCI_GetVector2()
                - OCI_RegisterVector()
                - OCI_BindVector()
                - OCI_BindArrayOfVectors()
                - OCI_ColumnGetDimension()
            * Added Vector element types : OCI_VEC_INT8, OCI_VEC_FLOAT32, OCI_VEC_FLOAT64 and OCI_VEC_BINARY (OCI_VEC_FLEX is only used for describing column)
            * Vector element type OCI_VEC_BINARY is only supported from 23.5
            * OCI_ColumnGetType() reports "VECTOR" as SQL type
            * OCI_ColumnGetFullSQLType() reports same details as SQLPlus( e.g., VECTOR({dimension}, {type]) )
            * OCI_ColumnGetSubType() returns OCI_VEC_XXX values
            * OCI_GetString() returns a string representation of a VECTOR object

        -  Added the ability to retrived localized strings from Oracle client
            - Added OCI_LST_XXX entries
            - Added OCI_GetLocaleString() 
        
   * Enhancements (C++ API)
   
        - Oracle VECTOR type is now supported (see C API for more details)
            * Added ocilib::Vector class wrapping OCI_Vector* handle
            * Added ocilib::Column::GetDimension() method         
        - Added the ability to retrived localized strings from Oracle client
            - Added ocilib::Environment::LocaleCode enum
            - Added ocilib::Environment::GetLocaleString() method
           
    * Fixes (C API)
        - Issue 371 : Build failure with gcc14
        - Issue 377 : Binding arrays of non scalar types (big_int/OCI_Datetime/OCI_Timestamp/OCI_Interval) with a PL/SQL block statement provides NULL values to Oracle client
      
    * Fixes (C++ API)
        - Issue 370 : Calling Environment::Initialized() before Environment::Initialize() throws an exception