/www/trunk/htdocs/NEWS.txt

OVERVIEW OF CHANGES BETWEEN JEDIT 4.0 AND 4.1



jEdit 4.1 features improved functionality, usability and performance.



* User interface



- Improved menu bar layout and Utilities->Global Options dialog box

  usability.



- jEdit now remembers if windows were maximized across sessions when

  running on Java 1.4.



- The View->Unsplit Current command removes the currently focused split

  from the view. Other splits are left intact (unlike View->Unsplit All).



- The View->New Plain View command opens a new view without any tool

  bars or docked windows.



- The View->Docking menu now contains commands for moving keyboard focus

  to the four docking areas and the text area.



  The commands for closing each of the four docking areas have been

  merged into a single command that closes the currently focused docking

  area.



- All dockables now automatically have commands created for them for

  opening a new floating instance of that dockable, regardless of the

  docking configuration. The commands are named after the dockable name

  with "(New Floating Instance)" appended.



  Another way to open a new floating instance of a docked window is to

  select the appropriate command from a dockable button's right-click

  menu.



- The status bar now displays the word wrap mode and the line separator.



- The contents of the status bar can be customized in the Status Bar

  pane of the Utilities->Global Options dialog box.



* Text editing



- Rectangular selection now respects hard tabs, inserting text into

  columns has been much improved, and a there is now a "Vertical Paste"

  command.



- Auto indent in Java mode and similar file types now inserts indent

  after "if", "while", "for", and such.



- By rebinding commands in the Shortcuts pane of the Global Options

  dialog box, the C+LEFT/C+RIGHT commands can be reconfigured to skip

  whitespace, like they do in some other text editors.



  The standard commands are named "Go to Previous/Next Word"; the

  alternative versions are named "Go to Previous/Next Word (Eat

  Whitespace)". Corresponding "Select to..." commands exist for

  CS+LEFT/RIGHT.



* Search and replace



- Directory search can now be performed over virtual file systems.



- The HyperSearch Results window can optionally retain previous search

  results.



- HyperSearch within a rectangular selection is now supported.



- The search bar is now hidden by default. The quick search commands

  make it visible, and pressing ESCAPE hides it.



  If you prefer the old behavior where the search bar was always

  visible, specify so in the General pane of the Utilities->Global

  Options dialog box.



* File system browser



- The File->Open With Encoding menu has been removed. Files can now be

  opened in a different encoding by selecting the encoding from the file

  system browser's Commands->Encoding menu.



- The popup menu shown when right-clicking on a file now has commands

  for opening the file in a new horizontal split, and a new plain view.



- The text field in file system browser dialog boxes now auto-completes

  the currently entered file name.



* Syntax highlighting



- Syntax highlighting for 15 new file types has been added.



- HTML mode now correctly highlights most <SCRIPT> and <STYLE> tags.



- Perl mode now correctly highlights various esoteric constructions such

  as s/.../.../, m#...#, and so on.



- Added regular expression matching with SEQ_REGEXP, SPAN_REGEXP and

  EOL_SPAN_REGEXP rules.



- EOL_SPAN rules can now delegate to another rule set.



- SEQ rules can now specify a delegate -- this will switch the rule set

  for the remainder of the SEQ's context.



- Rules can now specify AT_WORD_START and AT_WHITESPACE_END attributes

  for more exact control of where they should match.



- Digit highlighting is now more flexible. Rulesets can specify a

  regular expression that matches numeric expressions in a DIGIT_RE

  attribute.



* Macro system



- jEdit now includes BeanShell 1.2b7, which features a number of minor

  improvements over version 1.2b6, which was shipped with jEdit 4.0.



- The "scriptPath" variable is now set to the full path of the currently

  running macro or script.



- If the system and user macro directories have a sub-directory with the

  same name, the contents of the sub-directory is merged into a single

  sub-menu of the Macros menu. Previously, two sub-menus with the same

  name would be created.



- Startup scripts can be written in any scripting language supported by

  an installed plugin, not just BeanShell. This lets you write startup

  scripts in Jython if the JythonInterpreter plugin is installed, for

  example.



* Plugin manager



- A SOCKS proxy server can now be specified in the Proxy Servers pane of

  the Global Options dialog box.



- The "Install Plugins" and "Update Plugins" dialog boxes now categorize

  the plugin list.



* Documentation



- The online help is now fully searchable.



- For macro and plugin developers, API documentation generated with

  javadoc is now included.



* Incompatible changes



- Older versions of some plugins might be incompatible with jEdit 4.1.

  Ensure you are running the latest set.



- Custom edit modes might need some minor updates to work with jEdit

  4.1. See the "Updating Edit Modes" section of the user's guide for

  details.



- Wheel mouse scrolling support for Java 1.4 is now built-in; if you

  previously installed the WheelMouse plugin, remove it.



- The "indent on enter" and "indent on tab" settings have been removed.

  Now, the behavior of the ENTER and TAB keys can be configured in the

  Shortcuts pane of the Global Options dialog box, just as with any

  other key. The ENTER key can be bound to one of the following

  commands, for example:



  - Insert Newline

  - Insert Newline and Indent (default)



  The TAB key can be bound to one of these commands:



  - Insert Tab

  - Insert Tab or Indent (default)

  - Indent Selected Lines



  Custom behavior can also be implemented by binding these keys to

  macros, etc.



- The "smart home/end" setting has been removed. Now, the behavior of

  the HOME and END keys can be configured in the Shortcuts pane of the

  Global Options dialog box, just as with any other key. The HOME key

  can be bound to one of the following commands, for example:



  - Go to Start of Line

  - Go to Start of White Space

  - Go to Start of Buffer

  - Smart Home (default three-keystroke behavior)



  The END key can be bound to one of these commands:



  - Go to End of Line

  - Go to End of White Space

  - Go to End of Buffer

  - Smart End (default three-keystroke behavior)



  There are corresponding "Select to..." commands that can be bound to

  S+HOME and S+END too.



And of course, there is much, much more; see the CHANGES.txt file for a

full list.



jEdit buffer local properties:

:wrap=hard:maxLineLen=72:indentSize=2: