Merge branch '2.19'

Author: cowtowncoder

release-notes/VERSION-2.x

@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ a pure JSON library.
 === Releases ===
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-2.19.0 (not yet released)
+2.19.0-rc1 (07-Apr-2025)
 
 #633: Allow skipping `RS` CTRL-CHAR to support JSON Text Sequences
  (requested by Yanming Z)