Release Notes for NEdit Version 5.1.1, March 17, 1999
This file contains last minute notes to users about the release, which are not
included in the documentation or README files included with the distribution
kits. It also contains change information, for users who are interested in what
bugs have been fixed, and what features have been added in the current version.
If you are upgrading NEdit from a version prior to 5.0, please see the notes in
the README file which came with the (source or executable) distribution kit,
about updating macros and font settings in your .nedit file.
New Features in 5.1
- Significant extensions to the regular expression syntax. See details
below.
- Incremental search, and optional search bar.
- New ctags code with full support for Exuberant Ctags, better
handling of tag collisions, multiple tag file support, on-demand
loading of tag files, and automatic reload of modified tag files.
- Optional display of line numbers along the left side of the text.
- NEdit can now read and write MS DOS format files.
- New built-in syntax highlighting patterns for Lex, PostScript, SQL,
Many syntax highlighting pattern improvements.
- Improved international character set input
- New macro subroutines: list_dialog, getenv, set_language_mode.
- Optional warnings about external modifications to files
- Clearcase awareness
- Session manager restart capability
- Default language mode "*" for user-defined menu items, allows
per-language variations on a common base
- Allow additional modifiers like Sun diamond key in user defined
accelerators
- Option to sort open previous menu.
- -geometry and -iconic command line arguments act per-window, and
can be specified via nc
- -geometry now specified in characters, rather than pixels
- -lm (language mode) command line option
- Save As dialog defaults to same file name
- Better default fonts for Linux systems
- .nedit file version mechanism to make future upgrades easier
Bug Fixes in 5.1
- Crash on large amounts of data fed to shell command which does not
take input
- Delayed secondary windows when executable statements specified in
users .neditmacro file
- Many corrections to online help
- Many highlight patterns corrections
- Using window close box in file open/save dialogs leaves nedit server
unresponsive
- escape in macro dialogs can cause macro hang
- Lesstif-specific fixes: attachment warnings in font selector,
Work around replace dialog focus bug.
- NEdit no longer maintains original protection settings on files. It
allows them to be changed externally.
Details of Regular Expression Changes in 5.1
Bug Fixes
o Fixed bug that caused character classes with a character range not to
work properly if one of the range characters was an escaped character.
Improvements In Existing Features
o Increased maximum number of capturing parentheses from 40 to 50.
o Removed optimization that uses `must match' strings (it didn't work and
caused more problems than it solved.)
o Improved error messages.
o Improved Start-Of-Line and End-Of-Line detection by the `^', `$', and the
new `\B' (see below) anchors. The Start-Of-Word and End-Of-Word anchors
`<' and `>' where not enhanced due to syntax color highlighting pattern
compatibility issues.
o Changed code to use "unsigned char" in most cases instead of "signed
char". Also, use of ANSI character functions (e.g. isdigit(), isspace())
were added wherever possible. These changes should improve support for
locales other than "C", for example character sets with accented
characters.
o Added character escapes for:
- \e ASCII escape character (for environments that use the EBCDIC
character set, set the EBCDIC_CHARSET compiler symbol to get the
EBCDIC equivalent escape character.)
- \- minus sign
- \{ left brace
- \} right brace
o Removed the `\"' escape since `"' is not a meta character.
o In order to support numeric escapes, use of `\0' as a synonym for `&'
in replacement strings was removed. `\0' now signals the start of a
numeric (octal) escape sequence (see below.)
o Minor tweaks for improved performance.
Enhancements
o Octal and Hexadecimal Escapes
Octal and hexadecimal escapes begin with \0 and \x (or \X) respectively.
For example, \052 and \X2A both specify the `*' character. Escapes for
null (\00 or \x0) are not valid and will generate an error message.
o Shortcut Escapes for Common Character Classes
\d digits 0-9
\l letters a-z and A-Z
\s whitespace \t, \r, \v, \f, and space
\w word characters a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and underscore, `_'
`\D', `\L', `\S', and `\W' are the same as the lowercase versions except
that the resulting character class is negated.
o Anchors
The `\B' non-word boundary anchor has been added as the logical opposite
of `<' and `>' collectively. This anchor ensures that the left and
right characters are either both delimiter characters or both
non-delimiter characters.
o Word Delimiter Escape Sequences
\y Word delimiter character
\Y Not a word delimiter character
The `\y' token matches any single character that is one of the characters
that NEdit recognizes as a word delimiter character, while the `\Y' token
matches any character that is NOT a word delimiter character. Note:
these are not anchors and DO consume one character of input.
o Quantifiers
+ Minimal (lazy) Matching Quantifiers
*? Match zero or more
+? Match one at least one
?? Match zero or one
These quantifiers match only what is absolutely necessary to achieve
a match.
+ Counting (or Brace) Quantifier
{min,max} Match from `min' to `max' times the previous regular
expression atom.
If `min' is omitted, it is assumed to be zero. If `max' is omitted,
it is assumed to be infinity. Whether specified or assumed, `min'
must be less than or equal to `max'. If both are omitted, then the
construct is the same as `*'. Note that `{,}' and `{}' are both
valid brace constructs. A single number appearing without a comma,
e.g. `{3}' is short for the `{min,min}' construct, or to match
exactly `min' number of times.
o Non-Capturing Parentheses
Non-Capturing Parentheses are of the form `(?:<regex>)' and facilitate
grouping only and do not incur the overhead of normal capturing
parentheses.
o Positive Look-Ahead
Positive look-ahead constructs are of the form `(?=<regex>)' and
implement a zero width assertion of the enclosed regular expression. In
other words, a match of the regular expression contained in the positive
look-ahead construct is attempted. If it succeeds, control is passed to
the next regular expression atom, but the text that was consumed by the
positive look-ahead is first unmatched (backtracked) to the place in the
text where the positive look-ahead was first encountered.
o Negative Look-Ahead
Negative look-ahead takes the form `(?!<regex>)' and is exactly the same
as positive look-ahead except that the enclosed regular expression must
NOT match.
o Case Sensitivity
(?i<regex>) Case insensitive; `AbcD' and `aBCd' are equivalent.
(?I<regex>) Case sensitive; `AbcD' and `aBCd' are different.
Regular expressions are case sensitive by default, i.e `(?I<regex>)' is
assumed. All regular expression meta characters respond appropriately to
case insensitivity including character classes and back-references.
o Matching Newlines
(?n<regex>) `.', `[^...]', `\s', `\S' will match newlines
(?N<regex>) `.', `[^...]', `\s', `\S' do not match newlines
`(?N<regex>)' is the default behavior.
o Comments
Comments are of the form `(?#<comment text>)' and can be inserted
anywhere and have no effect on the execution of the regular expression.
o Notes on New Parenthetical Constructs
Except for plain parentheses, none of the parenthetical constructs
capture text. If that is desired, the construct must be wrapped with
capturing parentheses, e.g. `((?i<regex))'.
All parenthetical constructs can be nested as deeply as desired, except
for capturing parentheses which have a limit of 50 sets of parentheses,
regardless of nesting level.
New Features in 5.0.2:
- Word-selection (double click) can be used to select ranges of delimiters
- New built-in macro variables: $line, $column, and $modified
- Smart-indent mode available for Python language
- Minor improvements in default pattern sets for NEdit Macros, X Resources,
and Sh/Ksh/Bash
Bug Fixes in 5.0.2:
- -import did not work as advertised in 5.0.1. When used, it re-set a
number of preferences back to default values. Could also potentially
cause a crash.
- Macro -> Repeat crashes on some systems.
- Mouse state can get "stuck" on Alpha-based systems.
- Combination of auto-wrap, auto-indent, and unbreakable lines extending the
width of the window, caused nedit to unnecessarily insert blank lines.
- Incorrect case-insensitive comparison in character sets > 128 bits.
- in by-word drag-selection (double click then drag) when begun in the middle
of a whitespace selection, anchor would revert to original cursor position
rather than maintaining the entire whitespace block.
- Language mode names containing spaces could not be used in language
sensitive user-defined menu items.
- New windows did not always see existing learn/replay sequence, recorded
before the window was created.
- Possible crash in search_string and search_window macros, when used with
long search strings.
- Possible crash in get_selection("any") macro.
- Under Solaris, crashes on window opening, file dialog, and language mode
selection, when user-defined sub-menus were used.
- Filenames containing spaces could cause the .neditdb file to become
unreadable.
- Escape key could not be used to cancel file-selection dialogs when the
file list had keyboard focus (which it almost always does).
New Features in 5.0.1:
- Repeat-over-range, and repeat-to-end capability for repeating last
command and learn/replay sequence.
- Import capability for loading macro/shell menu commands, highlight
patterns, and style sets created by other users.
- New macro language routines: string_to_clipboard, clipboard_to_string,
toupper, tolower, variables: $em_tab_dist.
- Additional default highlight patterns for sh and X resources.
- Sorted Open Previous menu.
- Numerous improvements to default highlighting patterns and smart indent
macros.
Bug Fixes in 5.0.1:
- Various crashes on Motif 2.0 (Linux and FreeBSD) systems, usually
associated with opening files and changing language modes. Usually,
but not necessarily, following changes to user-defined menu items.
- Background menu activation during drag operation could leave drag
unfinished, cause undo to malfunction, and eventually lead to a crash (which
was easy to trigger accidentally when the middle button is emulated with
mouse-chords on a two button mouse).
- X11R6 clients talking to X11R5 servers could crash on font dialog.
- Rapid repetition of long macros (such as binding to key and using keyboard
repeat) could cause crash.
- Several commands which put up dialogs were vulnerable to timing windows
where repeating the command could cause a crash.
- Calling macro close() routine could cause crash if used to close the window
in which the macro was executing.
- Using load_macro_file() as an "include" statement in macro files could
cause hang.
- Artifacts when using non-matching highlight fonts, and making certain types
of changes which change the fonts used to display other (not the line being
modified) lines in the file.
- Auto-newline wrap in overtype mode could duplicate part of wrapped text.
- Lower panes in split window mode allowed modification to read-only windows.
- Several minor dialog and window focus related problems for explicit (click
to focus) users.
- Paste Column ignored existing selection.
- After copying and re-naming language mode information, highlight patterns
and smart indent macros remained attached to the re-named pattern instead of
the original.
- Trailing newlines should not have been prohibited in Open Selected.
- Help for creating smart indent macros was missing.
New Features in 5.0
- Completed macro extension language (Simple C/awk-like syntax, safe,
fully interruptable)
- Syntax highlighting. Built-in patterns for C, C++, Java, Fortran, Pascal,
Ada, Perl, Python, Tcl, Awk, Csh, HTML, LaTeX, VHDL, Verilog, and more.
- Programmable Smart indent. (Experimentally, at least. There are only
macros for C and C++, and they may not fit everyone's programming style.)
- Language-sensitive preferences
- Continuous wrap mode (long line wrapping), in addition to existing
automatic-newline wrapping
- User-defined menus can be hierarchical and language-sensitive.
- Configurable right-button pop up menu
- Pan-scrolling
- Searchable on-line help
- Word boundary matching (<>) in regular expressions
- Repeat command
- More dialogs have up-arrow recall
- White-space selection via double-click
Bug Fixes and Enhancements to Existing Features in 5.0
- No more limits on editing files containing ascii nul characters
- Fill Paragraph command handles leading indents
- Select to mark
- Better directory defaulting in Open Selected and shell commands
- Open Selected processes tilde (~) and wildcards
- Goto Mark centers scroll position better
- Multiple shell commands can be run simultaneously
- Shell command execution doesn't block server command processing
- Emulated-tab deletion treats auto-indent as emulated tabs
- Auto-wrapping of pasted text is optional (off by default)
- Notice that default preferences have changed and ask about saving
on exit
- Selections remain selected after shell command and filter execution
- Wrap margin and emulated tab distance preferences are properly
transferred to new panes in split window mode
