jEdit 4.2pre6 is now available. While this is mostly a bug fix release, it has a few nice new features too, like C+b that completes from all visible buffers, and auto-detection of a buffer's encoding if an XML encoding processing instruction is present. A full changelog is available.

According to this article jEdit is included in Sun's Java Desktop System (or at least in the demo version). Which is actually a reworked and rebadged SuSE Linux distribution.

I've been working on a couple new themes for the site. I made the Slashdot theme for practice, but I think it came out pretty well. The Miller theme doesn't really do justice to the design provided by Joshua Miller, but it's not bad. I'll work on refining it some more when I get time.

• BufferList 0.9: added tooltips to the tree view; added an option to fully expand the tree by default; requires jEdit 4.0final and JDK 1.3
  
  
• Dict 0.4: updated to 4.2 API; upgraded menus; upgraded options pane; upgraded the DictPlugin menu; requires jEdit 4.2pre1 and JDK 1.3
  
  
• FTP 0.7: improved SFTP support thanks to SSHTools 0.2.5; improved FTP thanks to various bug fixes; requires jEdit 4.2pre3, JakartaCommons 0.3, and JDK 1.3
  
  
• IRC 2.0: new features like DCC File Transfer and CTCP added, as well as support for Bots written as jEdit plugins; you can also have the time printed in front of each message on a channel; requires jEdit 4.1pre5 and JDK 1.3

Because downloads need to be written by the web user, and sourceforge is a pain in the ass, the downloadable files were world writable. Some $%#!@ thought it would be cute do go around deleting other peoples' files.

Changes include: eliminating the need for manual conversion between primatives and wrappers (int -> Integer), improved for loop, generic typing, Metadata, Static imports, and Typesafe enum.

jEdit 4.2pre5 is now available. This release adds text drag and drop, and fixes a large number of bugs. See the change log for a full list.

This has interesting potential regarding jEdit, but it's still fairly early in the java community process. If it were approved and implemented, you could write a plugin once and use it with any of the major java IDEs.

They don't appear to have made public any specifics, so it's not possible to tell how hard it would be for jEdit to implement this, or whether jEdit could feasibly support this new API in addition to its current plugin API. Hopefully supporting the new API wouldn't interfere with things like dynamic loading.

From MacNN News :

Apple has released Java 1.4.1 Update 1 via the the Mac OS X Software Update preferences The update adds improved Java applet support for Safari and other Web browsers, improved rendering, and other compatibility enhancements. A Web download link is currently not available.

Don't be shy about submitting news. Not all news has to go on the front page. Other news can be found in the 'Categories' menu on the right side of the main page. Submitting a news article is a good way to provide more information about a download you submit.

You can also submit tutorials and info for people working with particular programming languages; they can go in their own categories. If you think we need more categories for anything, feel free to ask. It's not hard for me to add more.

If you'd like to help out with the community site, that's good too.

A native binary of JDK 1.3.1 for FreeBSD has been
Released

This release contains many bug fixes and they recommend everyone upgrade immediately.

See the Release Announcement or Change Log for more details.

"minor bugfix release that fixes a problem with the javah task on JDK 1.4.2 and a couple of bugs in the Visual Age for Java intergration tasks. If you don't use javah or VAJ, there is no reason to upgrade.

Ant News

"...the Apache Software Foundation has initiated a project to develop an open source, Apache-licensed implementation of the J2EE specification. In addition, the project is committed to certifying the implementation as J2EE compliant."

Original announcement is here.

Cookie Nest, a site for the Java programmer has recently relaunched. They have lots of java applets, applications, articles, beans, tutorials and more. Their most popular feature is a 24 chapter Java manual for beginners which is also good for those who want to review their basics. They also have forums, a chat room and a list of top Java sites. Go on over and give them a visit. ( http://www.cookienest.com )

Since loosing stuff is bad, we'll be implementing a new backup policy which will put a copy of all the important stuff in a nice safe place every night.

The only parts of the site really affected by this are the message boards and the wiki Please re-create any changes that have been lost once we are back on the main server.

The outage affected all projects that start with j, q, s, or y as well as all users whose login names start with c, i, r, or z.

• CodeBrowser 1.3.0: improved support for ftp and other remote file systems; added caching; added context menu; simplified internal structure; requires jEdit 4.1final and JDK 1.3; requires separate installation of Exuberant CTags http://ctags.sourceforge.net/
  
  
• Console 3.7: added TOGGLE_ENTRY, LONG_ENTRY, FILE_ENTRY and DIR_ENTRY controls to commando; bug fixes; requires jEdit 4.2pre2, ErrorList 1.3, and JDK 1.3
  
  
• FastOpen 0.9: added the ability to open file + jump to a line number; optimised implementation to ArrayList instead of Vectors; requires jEdit 4.1final, ProjectViewer 2.0, and JDK 1.3

We now have a wiki but currently it's almost completely unchanged from the default install. It's up to all the jEdit users to turn it into whatever you want it to be. Get a user name and go to work. Almost everypage can be edited by anyone. If you've never used a wiki before you can play around in the Sandbox web to try things out. Some content suggestions to get you started:

Configurations for working with java, C++, HTML, etc

Tips for people switching from Emacs, vi, bbedit, ...

Feature suggestions for jEdit or plugins

We're going to call the latest site update completed. Not everything we hoped to do has been finished, but everything that's here works. A few of the biggest changes:

Download submissions will be stored locally rather than on individual user's servers.

Much nicer forums. If feasible, the old messages will be ported over.

While only registered users can start new forum topics, anyone can read and respond to them

Outdated information has been removed

Hopefully we'll get a wiki up and running soon too. If you have ideas for further improving the