Updated RELEASE_NOTES.

[mp-5.x.git] / RELEASE_NOTES

Minimum Profit Release Notes
============================

5.2.2
-----

 - Major improvements:
   - Added Version Control commands (bound by default to `ctrl-p').
     The supported systems are (adding new ones is very easy):
     - Git
     - Subversion
     - Mercurial
   - If any file being edited is modified externally, the situation
     is detected and the user is prompted for file reloading.
   - GTK library detection: Uses 3.x if available, then 2.x.
   - Special information gathering on help: if the file being edited
     is C/C++ and asking for help (by pressing `F1') do not return
     a `man' page, a special routine inspects all source files and
     headers looking for structures, variables and function prototypes
     to be shown as help.
   - New "Pipes" game.
 - Minor improvements:
   - The `build' action remembers the last Makefile target.
   - The `section_list' action sets the list selector to the most
     appropriate section regarding the current cursor position.

5.2.1
-----

 - New actions:
   - `indent_block': Indents the current line or the selected block.
   - `unindent_block': Reverse of `indent_block'.
 - New features:
   - ~/.mp_templates can be a directory. If it is, the `global' file
   there is always read (and those templates put at the top) and it
   will also read a file named like the current syntax highlight
   definition (so different templates appear if your editing C, Perl,
   etc.).
 - New configuration options:
   - `mp.config.smart_bol': if set to nonzero, the `move_bol' action
     now moves to the first non-blank character in the line instead of
     to column 0 (unless the cursor is already on the first non-blank).
 - Other improvements:
   - The following actions accept additional arguments when called
     as functions (and do not ask for them, if present):
     - `goto'
     - `save_as'
     - `exec_command'
     - `filter_selection'

5.2.0
-----

 - New actions:
   - `filter_selection': to filter the selection (or the
     full document if no selection is done) through a system command.
   - `exec_action': that shows a list of actions to execute
     on the current document.
   - `cut_lines_with_string': that cuts to the clipboard all lines
     in a document or block that matches a regular expression.
   - `insert_real_tab': bound to `shift-tab', to insert a tab
     character (\t) regardless of whatever is set in the
     `tabs_as_spaces' configuration variable.
   - `insert_next_item': to insert a new enumeration item in
     a document.
 - Bugfixes:
   - Fixed insert / overwrite mode.
   - If a selection is invisible (incomplete or with the start and end
     in the same character), a new keystroke does not jump to it.
 - New configuration options:
   - `mp.config.hw_cursor': to activate the hardware cursor in
     text environments (disabled by default).
 - Text user interface improvements:
   - File opening list is fully navegable (directories up and down),
   - Selection lists accept letter keys to jump to elements,
   - If a text mode menu panel do not fit vertically on the screen,
     menu items are scrolled as needed.
 - New command line options:
   - `-txt': force text mode (instead of GUI).
 - General improvements:
   - If a block is selected, actions `word_wrap_paragraph',
     `join_paragraph' and `eval_doc' act only on it.
   - The internal engine has been partly rewritten, so it requires
     less memory and it's a bit faster.

5.1.4
-----

 * If a block is selected, any keystroke substitutes it.
 * Support for Alt + keys (ASCII and movement) has been added,
   and mostly left unbound to be used by the user for his own
   keybindings.
 * A new tab mode, which uses the previous line as a template
   for tab columns.
 * Fixed action `open_under_cursor'.
 * The `mp.paste()' function returns the clipboard content
   as a string if called without arguments.
 * New Grutatxt syntax highlighter.
 * Fix F10 in Win32.
 * Fix a bug when calculating the drawing position in the
   selected block, that were leading to crashes.

5.1.3
-----

 * A new Qt4 driver (adapted from the KDE4 driver).
 * A new hexadecimal viewer.
 * New action `open_dropped_files', to open files dropped from
   the underlying system GUI.
 * Improved file encoding autodetection by looking at the
   UTF BOM marks.
 * New configuration option `keep_eol', to keep the original
   end of line sequence each document had.
 * Fixed some clipboard issues, as replacing the selected block
   when pasting and some crashes.
 * win32 executable has been renamed to `mp-5.exe'.
 * The status line format string can also include the %e token
   to show the encoding used by the document.
 * Fixed win32 input processing in non-latin environments.
 * Setting an empty encoding (to fall back to system defaults)
   always work.

5.1.2
-----

 * The `grep' action can now be recursive.
 * New syntax color for special documentation blocks.
 * Fix searching into empty selected blocks (this was bug #1269).
 * New action `section_list', that shows a list of _sections_
   in the current document to jump to. Sections are usually
   function definitions and special marks in programming
   languages.
 * New action `seek_misspelled', to search the next
   misspelled word. It has been assigned to keycode `f5'.
 * New action `ignore_last_misspell', to add the last misspelled
   word found by `seek_misspelled' to a whitelist so it won't
   be found again.
 * New action `seek_repeated_word', to search for words starting
   or ending with the same number of letters up to a maximum
   distance. It's controlled by the new configuration directives
   `mp.config.rw_num_chars' and `mp.config.rw_max_dist'.
   It has been assigned to keycode `f6' (this keycode was
   previously assigned to `join_paragraph', which has no
   keybinding now).
 * The action `open_templates_file' has been fixed.
 * Several GTK interface updates by fellow developer Sebastian Vöcking.
 * New command line option `-d', to change the working directory.
 * Several fixes to the win32 driver; word wrapping, combobox
   drop-down sizes, underlined text.
 * Avoid hanging if the external ispell program is broken.
 * The `dump()' function now dumps its argument as MPSL code.

5.1.1
-----

 * Internationalization works in all platforms (including KDE4,
   were it was faulty, and win32, where it was non-existent since
   the 3.x series).
 * The status line format string can also include the %w token
   to show the number of words in the current document or selection
   (can be slow).
 * Search and replace is now limited to the selected block, if any.

5.1.0
-----

Fixes to the KDE4 driver:

 * Underlined text works.
 * Text fields in forms now have history.
 * If no xserver can be contacted, fall back to the curses interface.

5.1.0-rc1
---------

 * KDE4 support.
 * Rectangular block copy/paste support.
 * New syntax highlight for the Euphoria language.

5.0.3
-----

 * New action `open_under_cursor', that picks the word in the
   current document under the cursor, accepts it as a document
   name and tries to open it. If it's in the format string:number,
   is accepted as a file name and a line number. It's bound by
   default to `ctrl-enter' (`alt-enter' under Curses).
 * The `grep' action bevahaviour has changed; instead of in a form,
   matches are shown in a read-only document that is only closed
   explicitly. Each change can be moved to by using the new
   `open_under_cursor' (`ctrl-enter' or `alt-enter') action shown above.
 * In a similar way, the `build' action also shows its output in a
   read-only document instead of a form that is not automatically closed,
   making the browsing and editing of compilation errors more useful.
 * Forms in the Curses driver have changed their look. All fields in a
   form are shown simultaneously on screen. This is one step to close
   bug #1249.
 * A set of character encoding converters have been natively implemented,
   improving those platforms where the 'iconv' library is not available
   (i.e. Windows and old Unix systems). The available encodings can be
   shown by executing

        dump(EMBEDDED_ENCODINGS);

5.0.2
-----

 * New option to mark end of line characters, with its associated
   configuration directive (mp.config.mark_eol).
 * The end of line string (mp.config.eol) is now system-dependent (so,
   on win32, it's set by default to \r\n).
 * Copy and paste on GTK has been fixed (this was bug #1205).
 * Fixed some redrawing issues (bug #1236 and others).
 * Ctrl-keys no longer fail on GTK (bug #1252).
 * New document _Minimum Profit Action Reference_.
 * New action `build', for building Makefile-based projects. See the
   action reference for details.

5.0.1
-----

 * Improved line edition in the Curses interface (full edition plus file
   expansion using the `tab' key in open / save file prompts).
 * Auto-indenting is temporarily disabled while pasting (bug #1250).
 * New document _Minimum Profit Function Reference_ (contributed by Lee Page).

5.0.0
-----

 * The search hit is highlighted.
 * When invoked from the menu, the `record_macro' action dropped
   the last key (bug #1245).
 * A Curses configuration detection has been fixed that made
   some things behave strangely, as the drop-down menu not
   responding under some terminal configurations (bug #1247).
 * The Curses menu no longer crashes if it doesn't fit on
   the screen (bug #1195).
 * The -f (execute script) command line argument really works
   (bug #1240).
 * New manual page (bug #1219) and README files (bug #1218).
 * Updated documents, _MPSL Overview_ and _Minimum Profit Cookbook_.
 * New documents, _Minimum Profit Data Model_ and
   _Creating interactive dialog boxes_.

5.0.0-rc3
---------

 * New session support. All open documents and its current position
   can be stored / retrieved with the new `save_session' and
   `load_session' actions. Two new configuration flags has
   been added: `mp.config.auto_sessions', to automatically load / save
   sessions, and `mp.config.local_sessions', to save sessions in the
   currently active directory instead of in the home directory.
 * Multiple key sequences for invoking actions (ala Emacs) are
   now possible. To create them, just assign a hash to a keycode
   instead of an action. For example, to assign the key sequence
   Ctrl-x Ctrl-f to `open' and Ctrl-x Ctrl-s to `save', you can use

        mp.keycodes['ctrl-x'] = {
                'ctrl-f'        => 'open',
                'ctrl-s'        => 'save'
        };

 * In the curses version, confirmations now have default values
   (shown in brackets), activated with the ENTER key.
 * New action `close_all', that closes all documents.

5.0.0-rc2
---------

 * New `complete' action, that asks for completion on the current
   word using any of the words found in the same document.
 * New `redo' action, to revert undo operations.
 * The global configuration file `/etc/mp.mpsl' is also executed.
 * In the `replace' action, the substitution string can contain
   the special character &, that will be replaced by the matched
   string (as in the `sed' command line tool).

5.0.0-rc1
---------

 * New support for translating key sequences into MP keycodes, mainly
   for redefining ANSI sequences not supported by current terminfo /
   termcap. For example, if your terminal sends the ANSI sequence [6;5~
   whenever you press Ctrl+page down, you can add to your config file
   the following line:

        mp.add_keyseq("[6;5~", 'ctrl-page-down');

 * A new `system_command' action, to pipe from and to system commands
   (Closed bug #1120).
 * A new `word_count' action, to count the number of lines and words
   in a document (or in the selected block).
 * Incorrect word wrapping has been fixed (Closed bug #1137).
 * Search and replace expand backslashed characters like \n and \t
   (Closed bug #1214).
 * New timer functionality has been added; a user function can be called
   each time a specified period of milliseconds have elapsed. If, for
   example, you want to print a string on standard output each two
   seconds, you can run

        mp.timer(2000, sub { print("Hi, world!\n"); });

5.0.0-pre1
----------

 * Password-protected files fully work.
 * Moving to next / previous instance of character (bound to ctrl-page-down
   and ctrl-page-up) works (Closed bug #1131).
 * Files open MUCH faster.
 * Selection can be done by pressing shift + any movement key (Closed bug #1182).
 * Dialog boxes work under Windows 98 (Closed bugs #1196, #1197).
 * Block selection can be done by dragging the mouse (Closed bugs #1200, #1201).
 * New `grep' functionality (Closed bug #1116).
 * New action `sync' (save all modified documents, closed bug #1206).
 * New action `document_list' (show a box with all open documents, allowing
   the selection of the active one; closed bug #1211).
 * Translations ported from mp 3.x (closed bug #1169).
 * Most syntax highlight definitions ported from mp 3.x (closed bug #1168).

4.99.12
-------

 * The menu in the Curses interface has been (finally) implemented.
 * Interfaces have changed internally; a new driver function, mp.drv.form()
   serves as a dialog box generic generator, resulting in more useful queries
   for data (for example, all data required for a `replace' operation is
   queried in only one dialog box). The Curses implementation, though
   functional, is still just a wrapper to the old interface functions
   and fields are queried one-by-one (which is annoying). This is an example
   of a call to mp.drv.form(); the r variable will contain an array of 5
   elements (one per widget) containing the values, or NULL if user cancelled:

        local r = mp.drv.form( [
        
                /* a 'text' widget */
                { 'label'       => "Replace this:",
                  'type'        => 'text',
                  'history'     => 'search',
                  'value'       => 'THIS' },
        
                /* another one */
                { 'label'       => "With:",
                  'type'        => 'text',
                  'history'     => 'replace',
                  'value'       => 'THAT' },
        
                /* a 'password' widget */
                { 'label'       => 'Password:',
                  'type'        => 'password' },
        
                /* a 'checkbox' widget */
                { 'label'       => "Case sensitive:",
                  'type'        => 'checkbox',
                  'value'       => mp.config.case_sensitive_search },
        
                /* a 'list' widget */
                { 'label'       => 'All C files:',
                  'type'        => 'list',
                  'list'        => glob('*.c'),
                  'value'       => 10 }
        ] );

 * Password protecting files works (but they cannot be opened yet, so this
   is far from useful, unless you use mp 3.x to open them).
 * Case sensitivity in searches can be controlled with the new
   config flag mp.config.case_sensitive_search.
 * Replace (and global replace by use of the new config flag
   `mp.config.global_replace') works.

4.99.11
-------

 * Syntax highlight definition have changed (again, hopefully for the last
   time). Definitions are now an array of attribute name / regexes in which
   the order is significative.
 * Template insertion works.
 * Tag selection (open the file where a symbol is defined) works.
 * Symbol completion (using tags) works.
 * Closed bugs #1159, #1158, #1153, #1161.

4.99.10
-------

 * A big advance in the Curses interface; alerts, confirmations, and open
   file, save file, search and generic prompts are working. Still lacking
   the selection lists (as the rest of interfaces) and the menu.
 * Improved menus; if an invalid action is added to a menu, it's shown
   followed by a ?; if a key is bound to that action, it's shown between
   square brackets.
 * For systems lacking iconv support (MS Windows), a crappy, ad-hoc utf-8
   converter has been added. This means that hitting `escape' and typing
   `encoding('utf-8');' makes reading and writing utf-8 encoded files
   possible on every system.
 * New action `join_paragraph', to join current paragraph all in one line.
 * New action `word_wrap_paragraph', that re-word-wraps current paragraph.
   Word wrapping must be set ('mp.config.word_wrap = number;') for this to
   work.

4.99.9
------

 * The GTK and win32 drivers now include a native open/save file dialog.
 * Interactive help (help for the word under the cursor, triggered by
   pressing `f1') works.
 * The menu in GTK and win32 works.
 * New icon!
 * Some bugs that caused random crashes has been fixed.
 * New action `exec-doc', that executes the active open document as
   MPSL code.

4.99.8
------

 * New configuration option `mp.config.tabs_as_spaces', to store tabs
   as spaces.
 * Each syntax highlight definition can contain an optional function
   called detect() that receives the document as argument and can be used
   to tailor special detection rules.
 * A big part of the internal storage of colors and attributes have
   been rewritten to make it more dynamic.
 * Tag target for the word over the cursor is shown in the status line.
 * Move word left works.
 * Opening an already open file makes it the active one instead of
   re-opening it.
 * The `execute code' action has been remapped from `ctrl-f1' to escape.
 * Spellchecking via ispell works (though it's SLOW!). Activate it by
   hitting escape and typing:

        mp.ispell(1);

 * By default, files are now unlinked before (re)written. File permissions
   and ownership are restored if available. This behaviour can be disabled
   by setting `mp.config.unlink' to zero.
 * The GTK driver drawing code has been optimized, so it's much more
   responsive now.

4.99.7
------

 * The `modified' flag of documents is maintained, so now closing files
   with pending modifications ask for confirmation. Also, the %m status
   line directive works (marking modified files with an asterisk).
 * Flex and bison are no longer needed to build.
 * The `close window' button in GUIs (win32 and GTK) now generate the
   special keycode `close-window'.
 * The `exit' action now closes all open documents, asking for saving
   confirmation on those modified.
 * Temporary versions of the `open' ans `save' actions (using
   mp.drv.readline() instead of an ad-hoc open file dialog) have
   been implemented.
 * The GUI interfaces now can have their font preferences configured
   by using mp.config.font_face and mp.config.font_size.
 * The actions `zoom-in' and `zoom-out' (font size rescaling, bound to
   `f11/f12' and `ctrl-kp-minus/ctrl-kp-plus') have been implemented.
 * New mouse-related actions; `move-to-mouse-position', `move-mouse-wheel-up'
   and `move-mouse-wheel-down'.

4.99.6
------

This is an EXPERIMENTAL version for evaluation purposes only. There are
many things that aren't implemented, others fail miserably and many more
do it incorrectly. Basically, what is known to work is:

 * Basic text editing fully works. I've been using it for six months or so
   to maintain itself, and there has not been a crash in three months,
   more or less.
 * Scripting works fine (90% of Minimum Profit 5.x itself is implemented
   in MPSL, its internal scripting language).
 * Undo works fine. It's bound to ctrl-z.
 * Works cleanly in an UTF-8 environment.

I do development on the GTK version, so it's where it works best. The
curses version lacks many of the interface (alerts, confirmations,
asking for text, etc.), so it's barely usable. The win32 version seem
to work, but it needs to be manually installed and probably need some
tweaking.

What it doesn't work:

 * The dialogs to open or save a file by its name aren't implemented.
   There are workarounds for this: files can be opened from the command
   line and save works correctly if the edited file has a name. Also,
   files can be opened by hitting `ctrl-f1' (execute script code) and
   typing:

        mp.open("file-to-be-opened");

 * There is no menu.
 * No ispell support.
 * No password protected files.
 * No grep.
 * No external commands (so no support for help, tags, etc.).
 * Some movement commands as moving a word left, moving to matching
   brackets, etc. are still not implemented.
 * Only a few syntax highlight definitions are implemented.
 * Many other things I cannot remember.

Documentation is still scarce: the more interesting bits are inside the
mpsl/doc directory. This is where the scripting language is documented,
with some basic overviews and implementation notes (there is even an
embryo of a PostScript quick reference guide).

Customizing can be done by writing MPSL commands in the ~/.mp.mpsl file,
which is read on startup.

I have not tried to optimize the internal engine, so it's probably some
magnitudes slower than the 3.x version.