release 0.21rc1

Hei everyone

0.21rc1 is out, a prerelease
to try out in an python environment install with the --pre argument

  python3 -m venv du3
  cd du3
  bin/activate
  pip install --pre docutils

0.21 final is due in two weeks.

Release 0.21.rc1 (2024-03-26)
=============================

* General:

  - Drop support for Python 3.7 and 3.8.

  - Provide ``rst2*`` "console_scripts" `entry points`_
    (without the ``.py`` extension) instead of installing the
    ``rst2*.py`` `front end tools`_ in the binary PATH. [#]_

    Exceptions: ``rstpep2html.py`` and ``rst2odt_prepstyles.py``:

    - Use ``docutils --reader=pep --writer=pep_html`` for a PEP preview. [#]_
    - Use ``python -m docutils.writers.odf_odt.prepstyles``
      to `strip the page size`__ from an ODT writer stylesheet.

    __ docs/user/odt.html#page-size

  .. [#] Some Linux distributions already use the short names.
  .. [#] The final rendering is done by a Sphinx-based build system
         (cf. :PEP:`676`).

* reStructuredText:

  - Use the same CSV format for the ``:header:`` option and the main data
    of the "csv-table_" directive.

  - New option "loading" for the `"image" directive`_.
    Sets the new attribute loading__ of the <image> doctree element.

  __ docs/ref/doctree.html#loading

* Configuration changes:

  - New configuration setting root_prefix_.
    Configurable root directory for included files.

  - New configuration setting sources_ for the "buildhtml.py" application.

  - Simpler and more secure `input encoding`_ default behaviour:

    Do not use the locale encoding as fallback if Python is started in
    `UTF-8 mode`_. Stop using "latin1" as second fallback.

    Remove BOM (U+FEFF ZWNBSP at start of data) only if the `input_encoding`_
    configuration setting is None, '', 'utf-8-sig', 'utf-16', or 'utf-32'.
    Do not remove other ZWNBSPs.

* Output changes:

  HTML5:
    Stop setting the "footnote-reference" class value for footnote
    references. Use the CSS selector ``[role="doc-noteref"]``
    (works since Docutils 0.18, see minimal.css for examples).

    Fix MathML rendering problems in Chrome/Chromium based browsers.

    Embed SVG images as ``<svg>`` instead of data-URI.

    Support video inclusion via ``<video>``.

  manpage:
    Use .EE/.EX macros for literal blocks.

    Render URI references (do not use .UR/.UE).

    Use box option for tables.

* Removed objects:

  `docutils.nodes.reprunicode`, `docutils.nodes.ensure_str()`
    Python 2 compatibility hacks
  `docutils.utils.Reporter.set_conditions()`
    obsolete
  `docutils.core.Publisher.setup_option_parser()`
    internal, obsolete

* New files:

  ``docutils/writers/html5_polyglot/italic-field-names.css``
    Alternative style for Docutils field-lists.

* Removed files:

  ``install.py``, ``setup.py``
    Metadata is now stored in ``pyproject.toml``,
    supported by pip_ since version 19.0 (2019-01-22).
    See README__ for installation alternatives.

  __ README.html#installation

* Bugfixes and improvements (see HISTORY_).

.. _input encoding: docs/api/publisher.html#encodings
.. _csv-table: docs/ref/rst/directives.html#csv-table
.. _"image" directive: docs/ref/rst/directives.html#image
.. _root_prefix: docs/user/config.html#root-prefix
.. _sources: docs/user/config.html#sources

For details see https://docutils.sourceforge.io/HISTORY.html

cheers
 e