1 Release Notes for NEdit Version 5.2+, ??
4 $Id: ReleaseNotes,v 1.11 2001/11/20 15:36:57 amai 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.
19 - Added built-in patterns for CSS, XML, and regular expressions (Regex).
20 Many other pattern updates.
22 - Support for high- and true-color systems. NEdit now will automatically
23 select the best visual from your X server. This reduces the chance of
24 running out of colors.
26 - New features in the Find and Replace dialogs:
28 o Replacement across multiple windows in a session.
29 o Case sensitivity may be set independently of regular expressions.
30 o Add "Replace and Find" command, which saves keystrokes when doing
31 a large-scale find & replace.
33 - ClearCase version-extended pathnames.
35 - Many new macro subroutines and variables.
37 - Array support in macros.
39 - Range highlighting of matching delimiters.
41 - Undo and Redo highlights the text that has changed, when visible.
43 - Support for wheel mouse scrolling on servers that support it (XFree86).
45 - Improved accelerator key handling.
47 - Insert Control Code dialog accepts value in any valid C notation
49 - Optional beeping when search operations wrap.
51 - Additional default search styles.
53 - Optional displaying of path names in the window list menu.
58 - Fix a crash when entering an invalid line number in "Goto Line".
60 - Ignore the Caps-Lock key when invoking accelerators.
62 - Fix problems when running NEdit on 64-bit platforms like Alpha
64 - NEdit failed to open files if some directories above were not "readable"
66 - Fix potential crashes if some system calls fail
68 - When no colors are left, attempt to reuse the closest matching color. This
69 allows NEdit's syntax highlighting to better coexist with Netscape, which
70 unfortuntely takes all available colors.
72 - "Overtype" mode is now bound to the Insert key, to be consistent with
75 - Accelerators now available in confirmation dialogs, and may be invoked
78 - Don't even try to open a directory for editing
80 - Fix a couple of memory corruption problems
85 - Significant extensions to the regular expression syntax. See details
88 - Incremental search, and optional search bar.
90 - New ctags code with full support for Exuberant Ctags, better
91 handling of tag collisions, multiple tag file support, on-demand
92 loading of tag files, and automatic reload of modified tag files.
94 - Optional display of line numbers along the left side of the text.
96 - NEdit can now read and write MS DOS format files.
98 - New built-in syntax highlighting patterns for Lex, PostScript, SQL,
99 Many syntax highlighting pattern improvements.
101 - Improved international character set input
103 - New macro subroutines: list_dialog, getenv, set_language_mode.
105 - Optional warnings about external modifications to files
107 - Clearcase awareness
109 - Session manager restart capability
111 - Default language mode "*" for user-defined menu items, allows
112 per-language variations on a common base
114 - Allow additional modifiers like Sun diamond key in user defined
117 - Option to sort open previous menu.
119 - -geometry and -iconic command line arguments act per-window, and
120 can be specified via nc
122 - -geometry now specified in characters, rather than pixels
124 - -lm (language mode) command line option
126 - Save As dialog defaults to same file name
128 - Better default fonts for Linux systems
130 - .nedit file version mechanism to make future upgrades easier
135 - Crash on large amounts of data fed to shell command which does not
138 - Delayed secondary windows when executable statements specified in
139 users .neditmacro file
141 - Many corrections to online help
143 - Many highlight patterns corrections
145 - Using window close box in file open/save dialogs leaves nedit server
148 - escape in macro dialogs can cause macro hang
150 - Lesstif-specific fixes: attachment warnings in font selector,
151 Work around replace dialog focus bug.
153 - NEdit no longer maintains original protection settings on files. It
154 allows them to be changed externally.
157 Details of Regular Expression Changes in 5.1
161 o Fixed bug that caused character classes with a character range not to
162 work properly if one of the range characters was an escaped character.
164 Improvements In Existing Features
166 o Increased maximum number of capturing parentheses from 40 to 50.
168 o Removed optimization that uses `must match' strings (it didn't work and
169 caused more problems than it solved.)
171 o Improved error messages.
173 o Improved Start-Of-Line and End-Of-Line detection by the `^', `$', and the
174 new `\B' (see below) anchors. The Start-Of-Word and End-Of-Word anchors
175 `<' and `>' where not enhanced due to syntax color highlighting pattern
176 compatibility issues.
178 o Changed code to use "unsigned char" in most cases instead of "signed
179 char". Also, use of ANSI character functions (e.g. isdigit(), isspace())
180 were added wherever possible. These changes should improve support for
181 locales other than "C", for example character sets with accented
184 o Added character escapes for:
185 - \e ASCII escape character (for environments that use the EBCDIC
186 character set, set the EBCDIC_CHARSET compiler symbol to get the
187 EBCDIC equivalent escape character.)
193 o Removed the `\"' escape since `"' is not a meta character.
195 o In order to support numeric escapes, use of `\0' as a synonym for `&'
196 in replacement strings was removed. `\0' now signals the start of a
197 numeric (octal) escape sequence (see below.)
199 o Minor tweaks for improved performance.
203 o Octal and Hexadecimal Escapes
205 Octal and hexadecimal escapes begin with \0 and \x (or \X) respectively.
206 For example, \052 and \X2A both specify the `*' character. Escapes for
207 null (\00 or \x0) are not valid and will generate an error message.
209 o Shortcut Escapes for Common Character Classes
212 \l letters a-z and A-Z
213 \s whitespace \t, \r, \v, \f, and space
214 \w word characters a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and underscore, `_'
216 `\D', `\L', `\S', and `\W' are the same as the lowercase versions except
217 that the resulting character class is negated.
221 The `\B' non-word boundary anchor has been added as the logical opposite
222 of `<' and `>' collectively. This anchor ensures that the left and
223 right characters are either both delimiter characters or both
224 non-delimiter characters.
226 o Word Delimiter Escape Sequences
228 \y Word delimiter character
229 \Y Not a word delimiter character
231 The `\y' token matches any single character that is one of the characters
232 that NEdit recognizes as a word delimiter character, while the `\Y' token
233 matches any character that is NOT a word delimiter character. Note:
234 these are not anchors and DO consume one character of input.
239 + Minimal (lazy) Matching Quantifiers
241 *? Match zero or more
242 +? Match one at least one
245 These quantifiers match only what is absolutely necessary to achieve
248 + Counting (or Brace) Quantifier
250 {min,max} Match from `min' to `max' times the previous regular
253 If `min' is omitted, it is assumed to be zero. If `max' is omitted,
254 it is assumed to be infinity. Whether specified or assumed, `min'
255 must be less than or equal to `max'. If both are omitted, then the
256 construct is the same as `*'. Note that `{,}' and `{}' are both
257 valid brace constructs. A single number appearing without a comma,
258 e.g. `{3}' is short for the `{min,min}' construct, or to match
259 exactly `min' number of times.
261 o Non-Capturing Parentheses
263 Non-Capturing Parentheses are of the form `(?:<regex>)' and facilitate
264 grouping only and do not incur the overhead of normal capturing
267 o Positive Look-Ahead
269 Positive look-ahead constructs are of the form `(?=<regex>)' and
270 implement a zero width assertion of the enclosed regular expression. In
271 other words, a match of the regular expression contained in the positive
272 look-ahead construct is attempted. If it succeeds, control is passed to
273 the next regular expression atom, but the text that was consumed by the
274 positive look-ahead is first unmatched (backtracked) to the place in the
275 text where the positive look-ahead was first encountered.
277 o Negative Look-Ahead
279 Negative look-ahead takes the form `(?!<regex>)' and is exactly the same
280 as positive look-ahead except that the enclosed regular expression must
285 (?i<regex>) Case insensitive; `AbcD' and `aBCd' are equivalent.
286 (?I<regex>) Case sensitive; `AbcD' and `aBCd' are different.
288 Regular expressions are case sensitive by default, i.e `(?I<regex>)' is
289 assumed. All regular expression meta characters respond appropriately to
290 case insensitivity including character classes and back-references.
294 (?n<regex>) `.', `[^...]', `\s', `\S' will match newlines
295 (?N<regex>) `.', `[^...]', `\s', `\S' do not match newlines
297 `(?N<regex>)' is the default behavior.
301 Comments are of the form `(?#<comment text>)' and can be inserted
302 anywhere and have no effect on the execution of the regular expression.
304 o Notes on New Parenthetical Constructs
306 Except for plain parentheses, none of the parenthetical constructs
307 capture text. If that is desired, the construct must be wrapped with
308 capturing parentheses, e.g. `((?i<regex))'.
310 All parenthetical constructs can be nested as deeply as desired, except
311 for capturing parentheses which have a limit of 50 sets of parentheses,
312 regardless of nesting level.
315 New Features in 5.0.2:
317 - Word-selection (double click) can be used to select ranges of delimiters
319 - New built-in macro variables: $line, $column, and $modified
321 - Smart-indent mode available for Python language
323 - Minor improvements in default pattern sets for NEdit Macros, X Resources,
329 - -import did not work as advertised in 5.0.1. When used, it re-set a
330 number of preferences back to default values. Could also potentially
333 - Macro -> Repeat crashes on some systems.
335 - Mouse state can get "stuck" on Alpha-based systems.
337 - Combination of auto-wrap, auto-indent, and unbreakable lines extending the
338 width of the window, caused nedit to unnecessarily insert blank lines.
340 - Incorrect case-insensitive comparison in character sets > 128 bits.
342 - in by-word drag-selection (double click then drag) when begun in the middle
343 of a whitespace selection, anchor would revert to original cursor position
344 rather than maintaining the entire whitespace block.
346 - Language mode names containing spaces could not be used in language
347 sensitive user-defined menu items.
349 - New windows did not always see existing learn/replay sequence, recorded
350 before the window was created.
352 - Possible crash in search_string and search_window macros, when used with
355 - Possible crash in get_selection("any") macro.
357 - Under Solaris, crashes on window opening, file dialog, and language mode
358 selection, when user-defined sub-menus were used.
360 - Filenames containing spaces could cause the .neditdb file to become
363 - Escape key could not be used to cancel file-selection dialogs when the
364 file list had keyboard focus (which it almost always does).
367 New Features in 5.0.1:
369 - Repeat-over-range, and repeat-to-end capability for repeating last
370 command and learn/replay sequence.
372 - Import capability for loading macro/shell menu commands, highlight
373 patterns, and style sets created by other users.
375 - New macro language routines: string_to_clipboard, clipboard_to_string,
376 toupper, tolower, variables: $em_tab_dist.
378 - Additional default highlight patterns for sh and X resources.
380 - Sorted Open Previous menu.
382 - Numerous improvements to default highlighting patterns and smart indent
388 - Various crashes on Motif 2.0 (Linux and FreeBSD) systems, usually
389 associated with opening files and changing language modes. Usually,
390 but not necessarily, following changes to user-defined menu items.
392 - Background menu activation during drag operation could leave drag
393 unfinished, cause undo to malfunction, and eventually lead to a crash (which
394 was easy to trigger accidentally when the middle button is emulated with
395 mouse-chords on a two button mouse).
397 - X11R6 clients talking to X11R5 servers could crash on font dialog.
399 - Rapid repetition of long macros (such as binding to key and using keyboard
400 repeat) could cause crash.
402 - Several commands which put up dialogs were vulnerable to timing windows
403 where repeating the command could cause a crash.
405 - Calling macro close() routine could cause crash if used to close the window
406 in which the macro was executing.
408 - Using load_macro_file() as an "include" statement in macro files could
411 - Artifacts when using non-matching highlight fonts, and making certain types
412 of changes which change the fonts used to display other (not the line being
413 modified) lines in the file.
415 - Auto-newline wrap in overtype mode could duplicate part of wrapped text.
417 - Lower panes in split window mode allowed modification to read-only windows.
419 - Several minor dialog and window focus related problems for explicit (click
422 - Paste Column ignored existing selection.
424 - After copying and re-naming language mode information, highlight patterns
425 and smart indent macros remained attached to the re-named pattern instead of
428 - Trailing newlines should not have been prohibited in Open Selected.
430 - Help for creating smart indent macros was missing.
435 - Completed macro extension language (Simple C/awk-like syntax, safe,
438 - Syntax highlighting. Built-in patterns for C, C++, Java, Fortran, Pascal,
439 Ada, Perl, Python, Tcl, Awk, Csh, HTML, LaTeX, VHDL, Verilog, and more.
441 - Programmable Smart indent. (Experimentally, at least. There are only
442 macros for C and C++, and they may not fit everyone's programming style.)
444 - Language-sensitive preferences
446 - Continuous wrap mode (long line wrapping), in addition to existing
447 automatic-newline wrapping
449 - User-defined menus can be hierarchical and language-sensitive.
451 - Configurable right-button pop up menu
455 - Searchable on-line help
457 - Word boundary matching (<>) in regular expressions
461 - More dialogs have up-arrow recall
463 - White-space selection via double-click
466 Bug Fixes and Enhancements to Existing Features in 5.0
468 - No more limits on editing files containing ascii nul characters
470 - Fill Paragraph command handles leading indents
474 - Better directory defaulting in Open Selected and shell commands
476 - Open Selected processes tilde (~) and wildcards
478 - Goto Mark centers scroll position better
480 - Multiple shell commands can be run simultaneously
482 - Shell command execution doesn't block server command processing
484 - Emulated-tab deletion treats auto-indent as emulated tabs
486 - Auto-wrapping of pasted text is optional (off by default)
488 - Notice that default preferences have changed and ask about saving
491 - Selections remain selected after shell command and filter execution
493 - Wrap margin and emulated tab distance preferences are properly
494 transferred to new panes in split window mode