Yesterday, Plugin Central has been updated to include version 1.5 of the IRC plugin. Due to quick development and release cycles, version 1.6 is already complete.

For those of you who don't have CVS or do not want to get the current version and compile it yourself, you can grab a pre-compiled version of the IRC plugin at the IQ Computing web site. To install it, just replace your existing IRC.jar in jEdit's "jars" directory with the new Jar file.

The documentation outlines each of the more than 200 classes and interfaces created by jEdit and provides a breakdown of its data fields, methods and relationships with other classes.

A version of the documentation suitable for local browsing remains available in our Downloads section.

The online documentation was generated using version 1.3 of Sun's javadoc tool and a doclet customized for jEdit Community.

We have restored all content and services to jEdit Community following a security breach at around 1430 UTC on October 24. We also took the opportunity to upgrade portions of the web portal software. Our apologies for the interruption in service.

A new beta plugin from Calvin Yu awaits you in the Downloads section. The Docker plugin will automatically expand and collapse a view's tabbed panes based on mouse and focus movements.

As our base of users increases, we hope to receive more contributions of news items, articles and downloads to share with everyone. There is an enormous amount of knowledge and sophistication among so many of our users. It would be terrrfic if you could spend a little time sharing it with others online. That's why we called it "jEdit Community".

As always, let us know if there is something you want to see added (or subtracted!) from the site, and especially if you would like to contribute content.

Based on the recent survey regarding message boards and mailing lists, and a review of message board traffic, we have made a few small changes to the message boards.

The jEdit Community web site now has a moderated, Interactive FAQ facility where you can post questions about installing and using jEdit and submit answers to your own questions or to questions submitted by others. This new feature, developed especially for jEdit Community, will allow users to help develop a question and answer base for a static FAQ document as well as for general reference. We hope you will take advantage of this new service and let us know any comments or suggestions you have about it.

Like nearly every software project, jEdit is built from its source code using what is called a "make" or "makefile" system. These terms come from the original "make" utility that was created for use on the UNIX operating system; there are now a variety of makefile utilities available for all operating systems. Besides the source code and related resources, a makefile system has two main elements. The first is a "makefile", a plain text file that specifies the steps necessary to build the application, such as the invocation of a compiler, an object code linker or an archiving program. The makefile also describes the dependencies among the final product, intermediate files and the underlying source code. This file will be written in a special format designed to satisfy the requirements of the second major element, the "make" utility.

To register, you need only supply an email address for receipt of the newsletter. You may register more than once to send copies of the newsletter to multiple addresses. You can select whether to receive the newsletter in HTML or plain text format. You can also customize the contents of your own copy of the newsletter by specifying the `type`s and number of postings contained in your email.

This new feature is available only to registered members of jEdit Community. Registration at jEdit Community is free and also allows you to specify the display theme of the web site and leave messages for other members.

• CharacterMap 1.0.3: fixes an incompatibility with the upcoming jEdit 4.0pre1; requires jEdit 3.0final and JDK 1.1



• HartMathPlugin 0.7.pre17: initial Plugin Central release; Fold() function added; new symbol attributes NHoldAll, NHoldRest, NHoldFirst added in com\hartmath\expression\HSymbol.java; requires jEdit 3.2.1, Console 3.0, EditBus 1.1, ErrorList 1.1, and JDK 1.2



• InfoViewer 1.0: no longer dependent on EditBus plugin (plugins that used the message org.gjt.sp.jedit.msg.ViewURL from the EditBus plugin should now use public static void InfoViewerPlugin.openURL(View,String) directly); the internal (Java/Swing driven) browser is now dockable into jEdit's view (Use this to create a HTML preview pane, when editing HTML files); new options for automatic update of the current page of the internal browser: update on buffer switch, on buffer save, periodically (Use this to watch a stock ticker, or to sync your edit buffer with the preview pane automatically); some other minor enhancements; bugfix: "Edit current URL" didn't work if URL had an anchor; requires jEdit 3.1final and JDK 1.1

This release has a lot of new features, but is also likely to be very buggy, and the documentation has not been updated for any of the new goodies yet. Also, a number of plugins (including mine) are broken by this release. Take care and have fun.

I would like to release jEdit 4.0pre2 two weeks from now, along with an updated set of plugins at the same time. There will then be a pre3 release at the start of December, right before I move back to New Zealand, where I will buy a new computer and switch to Java 1.3 as my primary JDK. 4.0pre4 will follow soon after, and this release will finally drop 1.1 compatibility.

Notable changes from jEdit 3.2.2 include the new Buffer class (which is no longer derived from the Swing Document class) and changes in the Plugin API that will simplify the writing and maintenance of plugins.

The javadocs distribution will be updated with successive developement release of jEdit 4.0.

• CharacterMap 1.0.4: 1.0.3 was broken: fixed "Character Map" menu item; requires jEdit 3.0final and JDK 1.1
• Tags 1.0.1: fixed bug with reordering a newly added tag index file; tag file list is now stored as a set of numbered properties; requires jEdit 3.2final and JDK 1.1

• BeanShell_Scratch_Pad.bsh - this macro provides a multi-line text area for entering and testing BeanShell scripts.


• Build_CDBB_Database.bsh - this macro from Tom Gutwin automates the building of a CodeAid database file.


• ChangeUIFonts.bsh - based on code written by Dirk Moebius, this macro changes display fonts used by jEdit and most dockable plugins.


• EditBus_Components.bsh - this macro writes a list of EditBus components to the current editing buffer.


• EditBus_Viewer.bsh - adapted from a deprecated plugin, this macro provides a graphical list of components attached to the EditBus.

Because they are already available with jEdit 3.2.2, these macros will not be featured in the "Latest Downlaods" report. They have been revised to work with jEdit 4.0 where necessary and contain their own documentation. A group of six search macros from version 3.2.2 that work together are available in a single archive as the "Find Occurence" macro package.

These additions bring the current number of macros in our Downlaods database to 82 (not counting multiple macros bundled in packages).