The Hessling Editor

File Release Notes and Changelog

Release Name: 3.1

Notes:
THE 3.1
======
THE-3.1.tar.gz - Source for THE 3.1
thesrc31.zip - Source for THE 3.1
the31djg.zip - Binaries of THE 3.1 for DOS DPMI
the31os2.zip - Binaries of THE 3.1 for OS/2
the31vcp.zip - Binaries of THE 3.1 for DOS VCPI
the31w32.zip - Binaries of THE 3.1 for Win32
THE-X11-3.1-1.i386.rpm - Binary RPM for i386 Linux - X11 port (requires RexxTrans, and PDCurses RPMs)
THE-ncurses-3.1-1.i386.rpm - Binary RPM for i386 Linux - ncurses port (requires RexxTrans and ncurses RPMs)
THE-3.1-a4.pdf.gz - PDF Documentation A4 - gzip compressed
THE-3.1-letter.pdf.gz - PDF Documentation US Letter - gzip compressed

Changes:
Changes since THE 3.0
==================
 --- Bug fixes:
     o Fix bug with QUERY ECOLOUR on Win32 platform.
     o Entering a shifted character in response to FILLBOX command
       on X11 port resulted in incorrect values being inserted.
     o Fixed compilation errors on platforms that don't have KEY_MOUSE
       in curses.h
     o Fixed compile error on AIX when using REXX/6000.
     o Fixed bug with SET MARGINS; second parameter did not allow '*'
       to be specified.
     o Fixed bug with ZONE command when only the first parameter was
       supplied.
     o Fixed small bug with identification of magic numbers in new
       files when the first line was copied into the file.
     o Changed limit on number of files that can be edited from 256 to
       2,147,483,647
     o Fixed bug with sorting a file with only 1 line.
     o When two different files are displayed as a result of SCREEN
       command, and COPY BLOCK (box block) is performed, block in
       source window does not get reset. Now fixed.
     o Changed HTML TLD comment terminator from "-->" to ">"
     o Fixed bug introduced in 3.0; QUERY and EXTRACT would not recognise
       abbreviated keywords. eg. QUERY ARB would fail and you needed to use
       QUERY ARBCHAR.
     o When editing a symbolic link, unless BACKUP INPLACE is ON, the
       symbolic link was lost. This is now fixed.
     o Display of pending prefix indicator in STATAREA now clear.
     o Added workaround for bug in AIX curses, where the cursor would
       move down one line when typing text into the last displayed column and
       the screen autoscrolled.
     o Fix for column position being calculated as a negative value on
       some platforms, resulting in scrolling to the left beyond column 1.
     o X11 port of THE more stable on startup (with PDCurses 2.5)
     o Fix bug with changing file name, path or extension when run in
       batch mode.
     o Fix bug with resizing of THE window to a small number of columns;
       still potential crashes if the window is resized to < 10 columns.
     o Functions: focuseof() and focustof() returned the wrong value when on the
       command line and the curos was last on a line other that 'top-of-file'
       or 'bottom-of-file'.
     o Fix error with wrong command being repeated (with REPEAT) command in
       a macro.
     o Minor changes to deregister dynamic functions like parser.1() so that
       Object Rexx 2.2 on Linux does not leak shared memory and cause THE to
       crash.
     o Fix bug with syntax highlighting for LABELS.
     o Comments delimiters defined in TLD files can now be specified as 
       case-insensitive.
     o Fixed bug with GET CLIP: under Win32.  Now doesn't crash after
       multiple uses of GET CLIP:
     o Use of ALT keyword on :function definitions in a TLD file did not
       work.
     o Remove limit on 20 directories in MACROPATH; now no effective limit.
     o Fixed Rexx/Trans DLL on Win32 platforms that caused THE to not work
       with Object Rexx on Win2K and XP.
     o Allow CMATCH command to be executed from a batch command.
     o Disallow CURSOR HOME from a batch command.
     o Allow C-C, C-S and similar commands in OS/2 port (fix to PDCurses)
     o Fix bug with SET TRAILING and empty file.
     o Allow more flexible specification of hex and decimal strings in targets.
       /   x'3e2d' /  is now identified as a valid hex string target (with
       HEX ON of course). Bug #531800
 --- Changed commands or behaviour:
     o Any ECOLOUR character can be used in the 'alternate' colour specifier
       for 'keywords' in a TLD definition. Previously, only the 'alternate'
       characters 1 through 9 were allowed.
     o Added optional targets on EXTRACT PENDING command.
     o Color on X11 port now behaves differently with PDCurses 2.5 and
       above.  "Bold" colors are now drawn in the same font, but in a
       brighter color.  This means that any monospaced font can be used;
       there is no need to have an equivalent bold font.
     o "Blink" color "modifiers" on X11 port now displays background in
       bright color.
     o Added extra color "modifier"; italic on X11 port. To display text in
       italics, you must have a normal font and italic font of the same size.
     o Cursor on X11 port can now be set to blink with PDCurses 2.5 and
       above. 
     o The "find" family of commands can now be run without the mandatory
       string parameter.  Like LOCATE, these commands can use the string
       used in the last "find" command if no parameter specified.
     o [SET] COLOUR and [SET] ECOLOUR have options to turn on or off display
       modifiers like BOLD, BLINK etc.  These can be set for individual
       colour specifications or for all colour specifications.
     o Profile files specified with the -p command line switch will use
       the same mechanism for locating the file as is done with the THE
       MACRO command. ie THE_MACRO_PATH=/usr/local/THE set and mymacro.the
       is in /usr/local/THE; the -p mymacro will find
       /usr/local/THE/mymacro.the
     o When setting variables via EXTRACT with Regina, THE now uses direct
       setting rather than symbolic setting of variables. Should be no user
       effect.
     o POPUP command now returns POPUP.2 which contains the item number selected
       or 0 if nothing selected and POPUP.3 which is the item number of the line
       last highlighted.
     o POPUP command now has no effective limit on what can be poped up. If the
       number of lines or columns is too large for the size of the screen,
       scrolling is now enabled.
     o SET FULLFNAME now switches between displaying the fully qualified filename
       of the current file and the FNAME omponent of the file.
     o Rewrote build.the macro to use POPUP command and to not stay in the macro
       after the build is executed.
     o Number of lines in SET MSGLINE can be specified as * to indicate as
       many lines as will fit on the screen. The number of lines argument
       is now validated against the screen size and starting line argument.
       A new CLEAR argument is also provided to clear the msgline contents.
     o Slight change with syntax highlighting; brackets are not coloured
       if there is no MATCH heading in the associated TLD file or if
       SET HEADER MATCH OFF is set.
     o New optional specification for coloring functions not specified
       explicitely.
     o Minor changes to syntax highlighting of numbers.
     o SCHANGE now executes the previous arguments when no arguments are
       specified.
 --- New features:
     o Support for GNU Regular Expressions in LOCATE and ALL commands. Command
       syntax is LOCATE Regexp /RE/ and ALL Regexp /RE/ respectively.
     o Added new SET REGEXP command to allow specification of which Regular
       Expression syntax that is to be used in targets.
     o Added new Appendix (7) for explaining some details of Regular Expressions.
     o New command line option; "1" for X11 port. This runs THE in
       "single window mode". What this means is that every time THE 
       is started, it checks to see if THE is already in "single window
       mode" for the curent user, with the same optional filename supplied.
       If so, the file or files requested to be edited on the command line are 
       sent to the running instance and are added to that instances ring.
       Values from command line of -l, -c and -r passed to server and applied
       to the file being edited.
       Works on Unix with XCurses and ncurses.
     o Added SYNONYM command. Not a full implementation yet; doesn't
       support parameter reordering.
     o Add support for Rexx/Trans on Unix and OS/2 platforms.
     o Added new command SET EQUIVCHAR to set a character to be used
       in parameters that would normally take '=' to specify a value
       from the current file or view. Default value is '='.
     o All SET commands can now use EQUIVCHAR where appropriate.
     o Any command parameter that specifies a filename can use the
       EQUIVCHAR to specify portions of the filename.
     o Ports of THE now available for Amiga, BeOS, AtheOS, Linux/390
       and Mac OSX.
     o Added QUERY/EXTRACT NBSCOPE; number of lines in scope.
     o Added EXTRACT FIELDWORD to return the current word in the current
       field.
     o Added new command, REDIT, to discard the changes to the current
       file and reload it back into the ring retaining the current
       location.
     o Added BOUNDMARK, a new SET command, and associated QUERY/EXTRACT
       and COLOR setting.  BOUNDMARK displays vertical lines between
       characters indicating columnar areas like ZONE or TABS.  Only
       significant on X11 port of THE with PDCurses 2.5 or above.
     o Implementation of :number, :column and :postcompare headers
       in a TLD file.
     o Added initial COBOL, MAKE and OPL TLD files in the distribution.
     o New command; SET HEADER, to turn on or off portions of the
       current syntax highlighting.
     o Added optional Common User Access (CUA) commands to allow
       THE to behave in a manner consistent with the CUA definition.
       New commands; SOS CUADELBACK, SOS CUADELCHAR.
       Changed commands; CURSOR now has a CUA option for UP, DOWN, LEFT,
       and RIGHT. enter command now has optional CUA option.
       MARK command also has a CUA option to mark a CUA block, which is
       like a STREAM block, but acts like the CUA mark.
       See the sample cua.the macro for setting up THE to work like a CUA
       editor.
     o Added new config.the macro. It is a GUI configuration tool for THE
       but is incomplete at this stage. This requires Rexx/Tk 1.2 or above
       to work.
     o Added new sample macro; tags.the. This is intended to be used with
       Exuberant Ctags.
     o Added new sample macro; nl.tld. This displays a POPUP with all the
       named lines in the file and moves the cursor to the selected line.
     o Added new sample macro; complete.the. This macro provides code
       completion for Rexx and C languages. Should be easy to extend it
       for other languages.
     o Added new colour setting capabilities; CPREFIX and CGAP. These are
       equivalent to PREFIX and GAP respectively, but relate to the current
       line.
     o Added THIGHLIGHT support; RESET, SET/MOD/QUERY/EXTRACT THIGHLIGHT, and
       [SET] COLOUR THIGHLIGHT.
       THIGHLIGHT displays found string or RE targets in the colour specified
       by [SET] COLOUR THIGHLIGHT.  Also string targets in SCHANGE command
       also displayed in thighlight colour.
     o Added [SET] TRAILING to change behaviour of trailing blanks in
       files. 
     o Added preliminary compatibility mode for ISPF.
       Changes include SET COMPAT, display of "TABS>", "COLS>" in prefix
       area for tabs and cols indicator lines.
       The changes are incomplete.
     o Added new command; CURSOR GOTO. This is similar to CURSOR FILE, but
       will move the cursor the the specified line/column even if they are
       not in view.
     o Added new SET command; TARGETSAVE. This allows you to specify which target 
       types are saved for subsequent calls to the LOCATE command without any
       parameters. By default; SET TARGETTYPE ALL, the LOCATE command without any 
       parameters, locates the last target irrespective of the type of target. 
       This is the current behaviour.  With SET TARGETTYPE STRING then
       the only target saved will be one that has a string target component.
       ie. if you executed LOCATE /fred/ then LOCATE :3 then LOCATE, the final
       LOCATE will look for /fred/ NOT :3
     o Added new SET command; PAGEWRAP. This allows the user to specify if
       FORWARD and BACKWARD commands wrap to the bottom and top of files
       automatically or not.
     o Added new SOS command; SOS CURSORSHIFT. Similar to SOS CURSORADJ but
       shifts text to the right of the cursor to the cursor position.
     o Added QUERY/EXTRACT EFILEID to return the original filename of the current
       file.
     o Added QUERY/EXTRACT LASTOP to return the last operand specified for
       various commands.
     o Added SET FILETABS, TABFILE command and SET COLOUR/COLOR FILETABS and
       FILETABSDIV. FILETABS allows for a single-line window displayed at the
       top of the screen containing the filenames of all files (except the
       current file) in the ring. Clicking the mouse on a filename makes it the
       current file.
     o Added new prefix commands for all compatibility modes:
         +---------------
         LC - lowercase line(s)
         UC - uppercase line(s)
         LCC - lowercase block
         UCC - uppercase block
         ( - shift left column(s) within zone
         ) - shift left column(s) within zone
         (( - shift left column block within zone
         )) - shift left column block within zone
         Not implemented yet...
         O - overlay line(s) - same as OVERLAYBOX (except ISPF mode)
         OO - overlay block(s) - same as OVERLAYBOX (except ISPF mode)
         +---------------
     o Added or modified prefix commands for ISPF compatibility mode:
         +---------------
         A - after target
         B - before target
         R - repeat line(s)
         RR - repeat block
         O - overlay line(s) - (ISPF behaviour)
         OO - overlay block(s) - (ISPF behaviour)
         COLS - column indicator line
         TABS - tabs indicator line
         BOUNDS - bounds indicator line
         +---------------