Remove unnecessary doc files.

Updating NEWS.txt and README.txt for pending release.

NEWS.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,57 @@
+2016-6-30, Alembic 1.6.0
+Thanks to your generous feedback and code contributions we are happy to announce
+the 1.6.0 release of Alembic.
+
+We've overhauled our build system, gotten rid of alembic_bootstrap.py in favor
+of going native CMake. We now better support Windows and also now require at
+least version 2.8.11 of CMake.
+
+For the latest build instructions please see:
+https://github.com/alembic/alembic/blob/master/README.txt
+
+Other changes include:
+
+Moved several core utilities out of examples and into bin.
+
+Make HDF5 an optional dependency.
+
+Allow install directory prefix to be explicitly set.
+(pull request 46)
+
+Add CMake generated configure file, so that the version of the project only
+needs to be set in one place, users know if Alembic was built without HDF5
+support, and whether it is using tr1, boost, or neither. (C++11) as a
+dependency.
+
+API:
+Add ability to create a Windows dll, and add symbol visibility flags for other
+compilers. (pull request 14)
+
+Improve Ogawa write speeds on Windows by adding a larger buffer.
+(pull request 38)
+
+Make the 3 int values on OSubD optional.
+(faceVaryingInterpolateBoundary, faceVaryingPropagateCorners, and
+interpolateBoundary issue 34)
+
+
+Remove unnecessary scoped static initialization of some variables. (issue 27)
+
+Arnold Procedural:
+Add Ogawa support. (pull request 20)
+
+Maya:
+Support exporting MFnFloatArray. (pull request 45)
+
+Fix bug when Nurbs curves group are only animated via the transforms and speed
+up the isAnimated check. (pull request 82)
+
+Many AbcImport/AbcExport changes based on feedback and contributions from
+Autodesk, and to bring the plugins more into line with what is in the devkit.
+(pull request 51 and 62 through 79)
+
+##-*****************************************************************************
+
 2015-1-15, Alembic 1.5.8
 Hello Alembic users, thanks to your feedback and reports we have a few bug
 fixes and enhancements.
@@ -503,7 +557,7 @@ bindings.
 Add abcview which uses PyQt and PyAbcOpenGL
 
     - This tool is perfect for debugging alembic caches. It offers Katana-
-      style, lazy-UI hierarchy traversal and a script editor to do more 
+      style, lazy-UI hierarchy traversal and a script editor to do more
       in-depth object and property queries using the Python bindings.
       SimpleAbcView is embedded into the application for easy reference.
 
@@ -591,7 +645,7 @@ Bug fixes:
 
 Maya AbcImport:
 
-Clean up temporary trim curves when the trim operation fails for 
+Clean up temporary trim curves when the trim operation fails for
 MFnNurbsSurface.
 
 ##-*****************************************************************************
@@ -627,24 +681,24 @@ people refer to collections as "groups" or "object sets" (as in Maya).
 - AbcMaterial.  Alembic now supports the concept of a material. This is done by
 defining a schema for a material definition which can act as a standalone object
 or as supplemental data attached to another object. AbcMaterial also defines
-conventions and utilities for binding and resolving marterial assignments 
+conventions and utilities for binding and resolving marterial assignments
 and overrides. We have not gone as far as defining what a material schema should
 actually contain (as we did with cameras); instead we allow you to define your
 own material "target" to allow all the many variations in material standards
 that exist today. However we have reserved the name "abc" for a target
 we will define at a later time; the hope is that this material target would
 become the standard for material interchange.
 
-- AbcLight. Alembic now supports the concept of a light. Light objects are 
+- AbcLight. Alembic now supports the concept of a light. Light objects are
 distinct objects that contain both a camera and a material schema.  The material
 on the light controls the shader parameters associated with the light and the
 camera can contain all relevant camera-like light information.
 
 - Python bindings.  At long last the Alembic team has finally completed the
 python bindings to allow scripters to access the full power of the alembic
-c++ api. All the new features listed above as well as the layers Abc though 
-AbcGeom are bound. The base bindings of typed data (including typed arrays) 
-are pyimath types so if your program can natively create imath data types 
+c++ api. All the new features listed above as well as the layers Abc though
+AbcGeom are bound. The base bindings of typed data (including typed arrays)
+are pyimath types so if your program can natively create imath data types
 there is no performance penalty to convert to and from alembic types.
 
 - Performance optimization. When we profiled Alembic we found that, for some
@@ -655,13 +709,13 @@ references which results in lookups that are  much faster. You pay the price
 of a slight disk size increase and memory footprint.
 
 - Maya plugin updates. The ".userProperties" compound property that is available
-on most Alembic objects is now supported for both read and write with full 
-support for animated values. Additional parameters have also been added to the 
+on most Alembic objects is now supported for both read and write with full
+support for animated values. Additional parameters have also been added to the
 AlembicNode to allow cache retiming along with support for loop, reverse and
 bounce.
 
 - Boost removal from the core. We are no longer dependent on boost to give us
-an implementation of a shared pointer (for example) so we were able to remove 
+an implementation of a shared pointer (for example) so we were able to remove
 the dependency on boost while building the core library.
 
 Bug Fixes:
@@ -848,7 +902,7 @@ Some highlights:
  - The renderman procedural has some small bug fixes, e.g. fixes related
    to arbitrary geometric parameters
 
-As always, any files generated by either Alembic 1.0.0 or 
+As always, any files generated by either Alembic 1.0.0 or
 Alembic 1.0.1 will interoperate. If you are working in Maya
 we encourage you to look at this update.
 
@@ -1237,7 +1291,7 @@ Some highlights:
  - The renderman procedural has some small bug fixes, e.g. fixes related
    to arbitrary geometric parameters
 
-As always, any files generated by either Alembic 1.0.0 or 
+As always, any files generated by either Alembic 1.0.0 or
 Alembic 1.0.1 will interoperate. If you are working in Maya
 we encourage you to look at this update.
 

README.txt

@@ -13,32 +13,26 @@ dependencies:
 
 Required:
 
-    A unix-like OS (Linux, Mac OS X); Windows support is experimental
-    CMake (2.8.11+) www.cmake.org
-    Boost (1.44+) www.boost.org
-    ilmbase (1.0.3) www.openexr.com
-    zlib
+    CMake (2.8.11+ newer is better for Windows builds) www.cmake.org
+    OpenEXR (2.2.0) www.openexr.com (for ilmbase)
 
 Optional:
 
     HDF5 (1.8.9) www.hdfgroup.org/HDF5
-    pyilmbase (1.0.0) # to build the python bindings
+    Boost (1.55) www.boost.org
+    pyilmbase (1.0.0) (to build the python bindings)
     Arnold (3.0)
     Pixar PRMan (15.x)
-    Autodesk Maya (2012)
-    OpenEXR (1.7.1) www.openexr.com
+    Autodesk Maya (2012+)
+    zlib
 
 Note that the versions given parenthetically above are minimum-tested
 versions.  You may have good luck with later or earlier versions, but this is
 what we've been building Alembic against.
 
 They may be installed in their default system locations (typically somewhere
-under /usr/local), or some other centralized directory at your discretion; it's 
-best not to install your dependencies under the Alembic source root. 
-
-Look in your Alembic source root's "doc" directory for help with building 
-Boost and HDF5; see next step for details. Mostly, those packages' libraries
-just need a little encouragement to build static archives and with -fPIC.
+under /usr/local), or some other centralized directory at your discretion; it's
+best not to install your dependencies under the Alembic source root.
 
 
 1) Clone the Alembic repo source into your desired source root:
@@ -49,14 +43,39 @@ This will create your source root directory that contains the Alembic source
 code.
 
 
-2) Run the cmake command. You can either run this in your source root, or
-create a separate build root and pass the source root to cmake:
+2) Run the cmake command. You should create a separate build root and pass the
+source root to cmake:
 
     $ cd <build root>
-    $ cmake <source root> [OPTIONS]
+    $ cmake  [OPTIONS] <source root>
+
+Some examples of OPTIONS you may want or need to use include:
+
+    -DALEMBIC_SHARED_LIBS=OFF  If you want the primary Alembic library to be
+    built as a static library, instead of a dynamic one.
+
+    -DUSE_HDF5=ON
+    Specify this if you want to include optional HDF5 support.
+    -DHDF_ROOT=HDF5Path may need to be specified if HDF5 is not installed in
+    a standard location.
 
+    -DUSE_MAYA=ON If you want to build AbcExport and AbcImport.
+    -DMAYA_ROOT=MayaPath may need to be specified to point at a specific
+    installation of Maya.
 
-3) Run the make command.  Kind of a no-brainer, really.  You can safely run
+    -DALEMBIC_LIB_USES_TR1=ON or -DALEMBIC_LIB_USES_BOOST=ON if you do not have
+    a C++11 capable compiler specify one of these to use TR1, or boost as
+    a dependency of the Alembic library.
+
+    -G "Visual Studio 14 2015 Win64"  If you want to create the project file for
+    the 64 bit build of Alembic with the Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition.
+
+    -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=customPath  If you want to install the Alembic into
+    an arbitrary location.
+
+For Unix like operating systems:
+
+3a) Run the make command.  Kind of a no-brainer, really.  You can safely run
 make with the '-j' flag, for doing multi-process builds.  In general, you can
 profitably run as many "make" processes as you have CPUs, so for a dual-proc
 machine,
@@ -80,14 +99,19 @@ will give you a list of possible targets.  If you want to make a debug build,
 run ccmake or cmake-gui (depending on what you installed when you installed
 cmake), and change the build type to "Debug".
 
+For Windows:
+3b) Open the Visual Studio project file and build the solution. (ALL_BUILD)
+
+Once the Alembic project has been built, you can optionally run the unit tests:
+    C:\BUILD_DIR\> PATH=%PATH%;location of Alembic dlls (and OpenExr if not in a standard place)
+    C:\BUILD_DIR\> ctest
 
 4) To build the API documentation via Doxygen:
 
     $ doxygen Doxyfile
 
 This will generate html documentation in the doc/html folder.
 
-
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