First, I decided that I would do without the help documentation and the "Tip of the day" feature. Opening jedit.jar with a zip file utility, I removed all of the files in the /doc directory and all of the HTML tip files. The resulting jedit.jar shrunk to 986KB. Not bad for a start.

Next, I looked at the edit modes in the /modes directory. What would I really need on the road? I narrowed the selection down to the following: beanshell, c, cplusplus, html, java, javascript, perl, php, python, text, xml and xsl. The largest price paid was for the php mode: the file was 97KB, over four times the size of the next largest. Maybe someday we'll have a php-lite mode, but I decided to keep it in.

• Run_Script.bsh - Runs script using interpreter based upon buffer's editing mode (by default, determined using file extension). This macro was recently revised to handle paths containing spaces correctly under Windows.


• Add_Import.bsh - Adds an import statement to the beginning of a Java source file and returns the editing caret to the starting location.


• Clip_Get_and_Set.bsh - Creates get() and set() methods from variables contained in selected text. This macro works by grabbing text on the lines of the selected text and parsing it to get the first two tokens that are not contained in the macro's global string variable 'modifiers'. It then copies simple get() and set() methods to the clipboard.

New Features

• MacOS plugin bundled (Kris Kopicki)
  
  
  
  • jEdit exits cleanly when Command+Q is pressed
    
  • Files created or associated with jEdit can now be opened from the Finder by double-clicking on them, or dragging them to the jEdit icon
    
  • jEdit is assigned as the creator of new files
    
  
  
• A few Alt-key shortcuts added for commonly-used commands so that you don't have to move your fingers all over the keyboard:
  
  
  
  • A+i, A+k: prev, next line
    
  • A+j, A+l: prev, next character

The changes are as follows:

• The EditBus plugin has been dissolved, and all classes have been moved to the ErrorList plugin. So you must remove any dependencies on "EditBusPlugin" from your plugin's property file.
  
• All ErrorSource API classes have been moved to the "errorlist" package; so you will need to add "import errorlist.*;" where necessary.
  
• To register an error source, you must now call:
  ErrorSource.registerErrorSource(errorSource);
  Instead of
  EditBus.addToBus(errorSource);
EditBus.addToNamedList(ErrorSource.ERROR_SOURCES_LIST,errorSource);

A few users have asked about the mechanics of submitting a macro script to our Downloads area. The easiest way to do this is to go to the Add download page of the Downloads area and fill out the form. If you want to upload your macro to the jEdit Community server instead of supplying your own link, leave the URL empty and send your source file as an email attachment to John Gellene. Now you have no excuse, so let's see your macros!

The plugin currently provides a useful but limited set of features. Please take a look at it and let us know what suggestions you might have for improvements or additional features. What follows are some technical comments on the plugin that have also been posted on the jedit-devel mailing list.

The plugin is designed to present task comments for more than one buffer at a time, but the feature is not available because the code is not completely realized. Are there any thoughts on how this should be done? Here are mine: the sets could be tied to file set classes used by jEdit's Search and Replace routines, so you could have all open buffers, all files in a directory or directory tree satisfying a file mask, or a single buffer.

jEdit 3.2

• JythonInterpreter 0.6: completely redesigned GUI, with a toolbar and a text area, directly editable; new implementation mostly in Jython; new run current buffer button; new run current buffer to another buffer button; new import current buffer button; new JythonPath editor; new PathBrowser; improved error handling, including an Error button which allows to jump to the error source; check jython version, which verifies if the right version is in use; history moved to CTRL+UP and CTRL+DOWN keys; documentation moved to DocBook; requires jEdit 3.2.2, EditBus 1.0, and JDK 1.4 (will probably revert to 1.3 in next release)

• JythonInterpreter 0.6.1: removed JDK 1.4 dependencies; requires jEdit 3.2.2, EditBus 1.0, and JDK 1.3



• Tags 1.0.4: the "1.0.4" release contains the changes that should have been released as "1.0.3" (the "1.0.3" released recently was actually still "1.0.1"); [ from previous announcement ] fixed bug where if you removed tag index files from the search the code would remember the later entries; fixed bug where searching for tag search string in file was using the search file set; fixed bug in option panel where changes to the list of tag index files

The specs of the computer are:

• Pentium 4 1800 CPU
  
• 512 Mb SDRAM
  
• 40 Gb HD
  
• GeForce II MX 400 video card
  
• 19" monitor
  
• SB live sound card, with a nice set of speakers + subwoofer
  
• Microsoft optical mouse (only good product MS has ever made )
  
• No Windows XP! This saves 200 dollars.
  

As soon as the broadband link is in place, I will resume development of jEdit. Expect a 4.0pre3 very soon.

• AStylePlugin 0.4: updated for jEdit 4.0; requires jEdit 4.0pre1 and JDK 1.1
• SpeedJava 0.1.3: fixes focus bug under JDK 1.4; requires jEdit 3.2final and JDK 1.2
• TomcatSwitch 0.3: added support for Tomcat 3.3.x and 4.x; 'javaw' is called only if appropriate (thanks to John Gellene and Ingo Herschmann); the "status" command shows the current invocation command text; changing preferences is not allowed when Tomcat is running; the open folder button icon in the option pane is visible; removed explicit dependence from the EditBus plugin; requires jEdit 3.2.2, Console 3.0, Jakarta Tomcat 3.2, 3.3, or 4, and JDK 1.1

In an effort to fashion a useful project management framework for jEdit plugins, an initial draft of documentation of the JProjexx framework is being made available in the Downloads section. The documentation currently covers 17 classes and interfaces that lay out the basic building blocks of the framework and provide a few illustrative applications. At present only javadocs are being released as a discussion draft, but source code, executables and definitive documentation will eventually be released under an Open Source license.

jEdit 4.0pre3 is now available. This release features improved folding, context-sensitive commenting commands, ActionScript syntax highlighting, and some miscellaneous enhancements and bug fixes. Full changelog can be found here.

The jEdit home page needs some screenshots of jEdit 4.0; there aren't any there yet. Please e-mail me some jEdit 4.0 screenshots (PNG format only, please).