Preparation for Release 4.6.0

[slaff]

This issue is created to collect all the tasks we need to do before the 4.6.0 release.

Source Code

• Update Sming/Core/SmingVersion.h.
• Update Readme.md.
• Merge develop into master.
• Tag the source code in the master branch.
• Add upgrade document

New features

• Add IOControl library #2492
• Implement Smart Config for ESP32 #2474
• Initial Rp2040 Network framework #2467
• Implement SPI for Rp2040 #2466
• Feature: AnimatedGIF library #2495

Improvements

• Overhaul SPI classes, replacing byteOrder parameter with bitOrder #2462
• Reduce Host emulator CPU load #2472
• Update Adafruit libraries #2471
• Upgrade HardwareSPI library with Rp2040 support #2470
• Add uart interrupt config and format control #2488
• Storage, IFS and LittleFS improvements #2487
• Update: Adafruit SSD1306 to latest version. #2482
• Add TRange::clip() method #2480
• Add * and -> operators to Hashmap iterator #2479
• Add CStringArray push/pop methods #2478
• Host fixes (RTC clock setting, UART restrictions, thread race condition) #2477
• Wire support for Hosted (RPC servers and client) applications. #2503
• Initial network ping sample (ESP8266 only). #2513

Bug fixes

• Revise FixPath build function #2459
• Fix CI library python requirements #2458
• Fix appveyor CI library script #2457
• Fix esp32 clock definitions #2456
• Fix esp32 hardware timer performance #2455
• String::remove() should use memmove #2476

Changes

Deprecations

Breaking Changes

Security

• Fix stack-smashing bug in IDataSourceStream::readString() #2468

All PRs scheduled for this release can be seen from here