1 Release Notes for NEdit Version 5.4beta, May 2003
4 $Id: ReleaseNotes,v 1.21 2003/05/26 09:07:58 edg Exp $
6 This file contains last minute notes to users about the release, which are not
7 included in the documentation or README files included with the distribution
8 kits. It also contains change information, for users who are interested in
9 what bugs have been fixed, and what features have been added in the current
12 If you are upgrading NEdit from a version prior to 5.0, please see the notes in
13 the README file which came with the (source or executable) distribution kit,
14 about updating macros and font settings in your .nedit file.
18 - Calltips (SF patch #495286)
20 - Rangesets (SF patch #529298, #628933)
22 - Backlighting (SF patch #529298)
24 - Highlighting information macros (SF patch #529298)
26 - Full mouse wheel support (SF patch #715941)
28 - Look-behind matching for regular expressions (SF patch #530308)
30 - Regular expression and syntax highlighting speed-ups
32 - Flexible resource file location (SF patch #484674)
33 See the section "Upgrading from 5.3 to 5.4" of the README file for
36 - Color dialog (SF patch #595330)
38 - Option to auto-hide mouse pointer while typing
40 - Option to keep cursor away from top and bottom of the screen
42 - Check for real changes of externally modified files (SF patch #602426)
44 - Synchronized interaction between nc and nedit (SF patch #403647)
46 - Several smaller improvements on usability and speed
48 - Several smaller improvements to the macro language (SF patch #552760, ...)
52 - Unconvential word boundary semantics for regular expressions have
53 been corrected (including affected syntax highlighting patterns).
54 See the section "Upgrading from 5.3 to 5.4" of the README file for
55 important information.
57 - Config files didn't accept non-Unix file format (SF bug #411092)
59 - Removed regex search bugs (SF bug #429110, #515120)
61 - Smart-indent macros were unaffected by language mode renames (SF bug #439867)
63 - All dialogs have titles now (SF bug #480960)
65 - Giving long filenames at startup caused buffer overflows (SF bug #488412)
67 - Made sure that dialogs don't get wider than screen
68 (SF bug #488593, #489614, #713999)
70 - Dragging a rectangular selection could delete characters (SF bug #557225)
72 - Keyboard-based rectangular selections were forgotten if the selection ever
75 - Paths were still shown in current's window Windows menu after global option
76 was changed (SF bug #564782)
78 - Scrolling to searched or undone/redone section stopped short (SF bug #578551)
80 - Removed flicker in stats line due to bug prevention (SF bug #594838)
82 - NEdit coredumped while dismissing a resized help window (SF bug #600175)
84 - Macro functions were evaluated in a wrong order (SF bug #602336, #628552)
86 - Syntax highlighting failures in LaTeX (SF bug #607072)
88 - NEdit coredumped with wrong values for -tabs option (SF bug #608693)
90 - Macro shortcuts were sensitive to Lock and NumLock (SF bug #612558)
92 - Appending the terminating line break was not reflected in the buffer
95 - A new nc(1) hanged after a server was killed or crashed (SF bug #619231)
97 - Adds (short) list of deprecated macro functions (SF bug #619236)
99 - Removed hazardous command shortcut (SF bug #649442)
101 - Typo in SCO makefile (SF bug #689808)
103 - Syntax highlighting routines assumed ASCII encoding (SF bug #700823)
105 - Fixes various bugs about LANG settings (SF bug #703246, ...)
107 - Crash while manipulating highlighting pattern (SF bug #705495)
109 - Removed flicker in stats line during macro execution (SF bug #713780)
111 - Macro function goto_line_number() only accepted one argument (SF bug #726325)
113 - Newline macro inserting a string caused a recursive loop when triggered
116 - Close pane resize bug (SF bug #715767)
118 - Show Matching Range bug (SF bug #559902)
120 - Workaround for KDE's FONTLIST bug (SF bug #561659)
122 - Workaround for Motif drag icon bug (SF bug #526981: Crash using btn2 on
123 help window buttons and SF bug #582469: 5.3 crash when selecting stats
128 This is mainly a bug fix release. The list of new features is therefore
131 - The built-in Help system was revamped. Most notably, a hyperlink
132 mechanism was added for following cross-references.
134 - Enhanced Exuberant ctags support (SF #491109).
136 - Line numbers are available in shell commands (SF #434451).
138 - Goto Line also accepts column numbers (SF #403435).
140 - Automatic line-feed termination when saving is now optional (SF #503073).
142 - A customizable window title (SF #477875/#519092).
144 - Optional syntax based parenthesis matching (iso. purely character based)
149 - Find Definition incorrectly reads the X selection when not needed
152 - Background popup menu could lock up X-server when used with any of
155 - Very wide windows when starting NEdit under fvwm (SF #496526).
157 - Workaround for illegal key bindings installed by other Motif applications,
158 causing PageUp/PageDown and arrow keys to stop responding in NEdit
159 (SF #493421/#525903). This is not an NEdit bug, it just looks like one.
161 - Fix for PageUp/PageDown keys not responding (SF #508961).
163 - Crash when running X on 2nd screen (SF #478234, #500353).
165 - Line number display updating in continous wrap mode (SF #516920).
167 - Performance problem with X Resources highlight patterns (SF #481290).
169 - Menu fonts showing up as blocks (SF #434383)
171 - Lockup's in syntax highlighting (especially Perl) (SF #512961).
173 - Crash when using characters with ASCII code >= 128 in syntax
174 highlighting patterns.
176 - Crash when modifying tab distance in continous wrap mode (SF #510631).
178 - Crash when running NEdit in low-depth color modes.
180 - Continous wrap mode + variable width font display bugs.
182 - Potential scroll bar corruption in continuous wrap mode (SF #510765).
184 - Workaround for selection copy/paste problems with recent versions
187 - Jump to tags only referenced by line number.
189 - Composed characters in learned sequence (SF #480966).
191 - Missing titles in some dialogs (SF #480960).
193 - Macro language: continue statement outside loop crash (SF #495293).
195 - Rectangular overstrike past fixes (SF #487945).
197 - Hard-coded statistics line font (SF #487153).
199 - Open filenames starting with a dash (SF #485610).
201 - Crash when closing window of non-existing file while error dialog is up.
203 - Bad CapsLock grab on certain keyboard configurations (SF #482504).
205 - Replacements in rectangular selections could sometimes fail.
207 - Various buffer overflow fixes.
209 - Multiple selection dialog does not pop up on first find (SF #473602).
211 - Tag not found (SF #466742).
213 - Files opened with -read command line option could not be unlocked.
217 - Added built-in patterns for CSS, XML, and regular expressions (Regex).
218 Many other pattern updates.
220 - Support for high- and true-color systems. NEdit now will automatically
221 select the best visual from your X server. This reduces the chance of
222 running out of colors.
224 - New features in the Find and Replace dialogs:
226 o Replacement across multiple windows in a session.
227 o Case sensitivity may be set independently of regular expressions.
228 o Add "Replace and Find" command, which saves keystrokes when doing
229 a large-scale find & replace.
231 - ClearCase version-extended pathnames.
233 - Many new macro subroutines and variables.
235 - Array support in macros.
237 - Range highlighting of matching delimiters.
239 - Undo and Redo highlights the text that has changed, when visible.
241 - Support for wheel mouse scrolling on servers that support it (XFree86).
243 - Improved accelerator key handling.
245 - Insert Control Code dialog accepts value in any valid C notation
247 - Optional beeping when search operations wrap.
249 - Additional default search styles.
251 - Optional displaying of path names in the window list menu.
256 - Fix a crash when entering an invalid line number in "Goto Line".
258 - Ignore the Caps-Lock key when invoking accelerators.
260 - Fix problems when running NEdit on 64-bit platforms like Alpha
262 - NEdit failed to open files if some directories above were not "readable"
264 - Fix potential crashes if some system calls fail
266 - When no colors are left, attempt to reuse the closest matching color. This
267 allows NEdit's syntax highlighting to better coexist with Netscape, which
268 unfortuntely takes all available colors.
270 - "Overtype" mode is now bound to the Insert key, to be consistent with
273 - Accelerators now available in confirmation dialogs, and may be invoked
276 - Don't even try to open a directory for editing
278 - Fix a couple of memory corruption problems
283 - Significant extensions to the regular expression syntax. See details
286 - Incremental search, and optional search bar.
288 - New ctags code with full support for Exuberant Ctags, better
289 handling of tag collisions, multiple tag file support, on-demand
290 loading of tag files, and automatic reload of modified tag files.
292 - Optional display of line numbers along the left side of the text.
294 - NEdit can now read and write MS DOS format files.
296 - New built-in syntax highlighting patterns for Lex, PostScript, SQL,
297 Many syntax highlighting pattern improvements.
299 - Improved international character set input
301 - New macro subroutines: list_dialog, getenv, set_language_mode.
303 - Optional warnings about external modifications to files
305 - Clearcase awareness
307 - Session manager restart capability
309 - Default language mode "*" for user-defined menu items, allows
310 per-language variations on a common base
312 - Allow additional modifiers like Sun diamond key in user defined
315 - Option to sort open previous menu.
317 - -geometry and -iconic command line arguments act per-window, and
318 can be specified via nc
320 - -geometry now specified in characters, rather than pixels
322 - -lm (language mode) command line option
324 - Save As dialog defaults to same file name
326 - Better default fonts for Linux systems
328 - .nedit file version mechanism to make future upgrades easier
333 - Crash on large amounts of data fed to shell command which does not
336 - Delayed secondary windows when executable statements specified in
337 users .neditmacro file
339 - Many corrections to online help
341 - Many highlight patterns corrections
343 - Using window close box in file open/save dialogs leaves nedit server
346 - escape in macro dialogs can cause macro hang
348 - Lesstif-specific fixes: attachment warnings in font selector,
349 Work around replace dialog focus bug.
351 - NEdit no longer maintains original protection settings on files. It
352 allows them to be changed externally.
355 Details of Regular Expression Changes in 5.1
359 o Fixed bug that caused character classes with a character range not to
360 work properly if one of the range characters was an escaped character.
362 Improvements In Existing Features
364 o Increased maximum number of capturing parentheses from 40 to 50.
366 o Removed optimization that uses `must match' strings (it didn't work and
367 caused more problems than it solved.)
369 o Improved error messages.
371 o Improved Start-Of-Line and End-Of-Line detection by the `^', `$', and the
372 new `\B' (see below) anchors. The Start-Of-Word and End-Of-Word anchors
373 `<' and `>' where not enhanced due to syntax color highlighting pattern
374 compatibility issues.
376 o Changed code to use "unsigned char" in most cases instead of "signed
377 char". Also, use of ANSI character functions (e.g. isdigit(), isspace())
378 were added wherever possible. These changes should improve support for
379 locales other than "C", for example character sets with accented
382 o Added character escapes for:
383 - \e ASCII escape character (for environments that use the EBCDIC
384 character set, set the EBCDIC_CHARSET compiler symbol to get the
385 EBCDIC equivalent escape character.)
391 o Removed the `\"' escape since `"' is not a meta character.
393 o In order to support numeric escapes, use of `\0' as a synonym for `&'
394 in replacement strings was removed. `\0' now signals the start of a
395 numeric (octal) escape sequence (see below.)
397 o Minor tweaks for improved performance.
401 o Octal and Hexadecimal Escapes
403 Octal and hexadecimal escapes begin with \0 and \x (or \X) respectively.
404 For example, \052 and \X2A both specify the `*' character. Escapes for
405 null (\00 or \x0) are not valid and will generate an error message.
407 o Shortcut Escapes for Common Character Classes
410 \l letters a-z and A-Z
411 \s whitespace \t, \r, \v, \f, and space
412 \w word characters a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and underscore, `_'
414 `\D', `\L', `\S', and `\W' are the same as the lowercase versions except
415 that the resulting character class is negated.
419 The `\B' non-word boundary anchor has been added as the logical opposite
420 of `<' and `>' collectively. This anchor ensures that the left and
421 right characters are either both delimiter characters or both
422 non-delimiter characters.
424 o Word Delimiter Escape Sequences
426 \y Word delimiter character
427 \Y Not a word delimiter character
429 The `\y' token matches any single character that is one of the characters
430 that NEdit recognizes as a word delimiter character, while the `\Y' token
431 matches any character that is NOT a word delimiter character. Note:
432 these are not anchors and DO consume one character of input.
437 + Minimal (lazy) Matching Quantifiers
439 *? Match zero or more
440 +? Match one at least one
443 These quantifiers match only what is absolutely necessary to achieve
446 + Counting (or Brace) Quantifier
448 {min,max} Match from `min' to `max' times the previous regular
451 If `min' is omitted, it is assumed to be zero. If `max' is omitted,
452 it is assumed to be infinity. Whether specified or assumed, `min'
453 must be less than or equal to `max'. If both are omitted, then the
454 construct is the same as `*'. Note that `{,}' and `{}' are both
455 valid brace constructs. A single number appearing without a comma,
456 e.g. `{3}' is short for the `{min,min}' construct, or to match
457 exactly `min' number of times.
459 o Non-Capturing Parentheses
461 Non-Capturing Parentheses are of the form `(?:<regex>)' and facilitate
462 grouping only and do not incur the overhead of normal capturing
465 o Positive Look-Ahead
467 Positive look-ahead constructs are of the form `(?=<regex>)' and
468 implement a zero width assertion of the enclosed regular expression. In
469 other words, a match of the regular expression contained in the positive
470 look-ahead construct is attempted. If it succeeds, control is passed to
471 the next regular expression atom, but the text that was consumed by the
472 positive look-ahead is first unmatched (backtracked) to the place in the
473 text where the positive look-ahead was first encountered.
475 o Negative Look-Ahead
477 Negative look-ahead takes the form `(?!<regex>)' and is exactly the same
478 as positive look-ahead except that the enclosed regular expression must
483 (?i<regex>) Case insensitive; `AbcD' and `aBCd' are equivalent.
484 (?I<regex>) Case sensitive; `AbcD' and `aBCd' are different.
486 Regular expressions are case sensitive by default, i.e `(?I<regex>)' is
487 assumed. All regular expression meta characters respond appropriately to
488 case insensitivity including character classes and back-references.
492 (?n<regex>) `.', `[^...]', `\s', `\S' will match newlines
493 (?N<regex>) `.', `[^...]', `\s', `\S' do not match newlines
495 `(?N<regex>)' is the default behavior.
499 Comments are of the form `(?#<comment text>)' and can be inserted
500 anywhere and have no effect on the execution of the regular expression.
502 o Notes on New Parenthetical Constructs
504 Except for plain parentheses, none of the parenthetical constructs
505 capture text. If that is desired, the construct must be wrapped with
506 capturing parentheses, e.g. `((?i<regex))'.
508 All parenthetical constructs can be nested as deeply as desired, except
509 for capturing parentheses which have a limit of 50 sets of parentheses,
510 regardless of nesting level.
513 New Features in 5.0.2:
515 - Word-selection (double click) can be used to select ranges of delimiters
517 - New built-in macro variables: $line, $column, and $modified
519 - Smart-indent mode available for Python language
521 - Minor improvements in default pattern sets for NEdit Macros, X Resources,
527 - -import did not work as advertised in 5.0.1. When used, it re-set a
528 number of preferences back to default values. Could also potentially
531 - Macro -> Repeat crashes on some systems.
533 - Mouse state can get "stuck" on Alpha-based systems.
535 - Combination of auto-wrap, auto-indent, and unbreakable lines extending the
536 width of the window, caused nedit to unnecessarily insert blank lines.
538 - Incorrect case-insensitive comparison in character sets > 128 bits.
540 - in by-word drag-selection (double click then drag) when begun in the middle
541 of a whitespace selection, anchor would revert to original cursor position
542 rather than maintaining the entire whitespace block.
544 - Language mode names containing spaces could not be used in language
545 sensitive user-defined menu items.
547 - New windows did not always see existing learn/replay sequence, recorded
548 before the window was created.
550 - Possible crash in search_string and search_window macros, when used with
553 - Possible crash in get_selection("any") macro.
555 - Under Solaris, crashes on window opening, file dialog, and language mode
556 selection, when user-defined sub-menus were used.
558 - Filenames containing spaces could cause the .neditdb file to become
561 - Escape key could not be used to cancel file-selection dialogs when the
562 file list had keyboard focus (which it almost always does).
565 New Features in 5.0.1:
567 - Repeat-over-range, and repeat-to-end capability for repeating last
568 command and learn/replay sequence.
570 - Import capability for loading macro/shell menu commands, highlight
571 patterns, and style sets created by other users.
573 - New macro language routines: string_to_clipboard, clipboard_to_string,
574 toupper, tolower, variables: $em_tab_dist.
576 - Additional default highlight patterns for sh and X resources.
578 - Sorted Open Previous menu.
580 - Numerous improvements to default highlighting patterns and smart indent
586 - Various crashes on Motif 2.0 (Linux and FreeBSD) systems, usually
587 associated with opening files and changing language modes. Usually,
588 but not necessarily, following changes to user-defined menu items.
590 - Background menu activation during drag operation could leave drag
591 unfinished, cause undo to malfunction, and eventually lead to a crash (which
592 was easy to trigger accidentally when the middle button is emulated with
593 mouse-chords on a two button mouse).
595 - X11R6 clients talking to X11R5 servers could crash on font dialog.
597 - Rapid repetition of long macros (such as binding to key and using keyboard
598 repeat) could cause crash.
600 - Several commands which put up dialogs were vulnerable to timing windows
601 where repeating the command could cause a crash.
603 - Calling macro close() routine could cause crash if used to close the window
604 in which the macro was executing.
606 - Using load_macro_file() as an "include" statement in macro files could
609 - Artifacts when using non-matching highlight fonts, and making certain types
610 of changes which change the fonts used to display other (not the line being
611 modified) lines in the file.
613 - Auto-newline wrap in overtype mode could duplicate part of wrapped text.
615 - Lower panes in split window mode allowed modification to read-only windows.
617 - Several minor dialog and window focus related problems for explicit (click
620 - Paste Column ignored existing selection.
622 - After copying and re-naming language mode information, highlight patterns
623 and smart indent macros remained attached to the re-named pattern instead of
626 - Trailing newlines should not have been prohibited in Open Selected.
628 - Help for creating smart indent macros was missing.
633 - Completed macro extension language (Simple C/awk-like syntax, safe,
636 - Syntax highlighting. Built-in patterns for C, C++, Java, Fortran, Pascal,
637 Ada, Perl, Python, Tcl, Awk, Csh, HTML, LaTeX, VHDL, Verilog, and more.
639 - Programmable Smart indent. (Experimentally, at least. There are only
640 macros for C and C++, and they may not fit everyone's programming style.)
642 - Language-sensitive preferences
644 - Continuous wrap mode (long line wrapping), in addition to existing
645 automatic-newline wrapping
647 - User-defined menus can be hierarchical and language-sensitive.
649 - Configurable right-button pop up menu
653 - Searchable on-line help
655 - Word boundary matching (<>) in regular expressions
659 - More dialogs have up-arrow recall
661 - White-space selection via double-click
664 Bug Fixes and Enhancements to Existing Features in 5.0
666 - No more limits on editing files containing ascii nul characters
668 - Fill Paragraph command handles leading indents
672 - Better directory defaulting in Open Selected and shell commands
674 - Open Selected processes tilde (~) and wildcards
676 - Goto Mark centers scroll position better
678 - Multiple shell commands can be run simultaneously
680 - Shell command execution doesn't block server command processing
682 - Emulated-tab deletion treats auto-indent as emulated tabs
684 - Auto-wrapping of pasted text is optional (off by default)
686 - Notice that default preferences have changed and ask about saving
689 - Selections remain selected after shell command and filter execution
691 - Wrap margin and emulated tab distance preferences are properly
692 transferred to new panes in split window mode