What's new with 3.51a
Index
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Kawa 3.51a
This is a maintanence release for Kawa 3.50. The following changes/fixes were made with this release:
- The bug in opening XML documents has been fixed.
- Kawa will now retain the Package Classpath settings without any problem.
- You can open .kawa files by associating them with Kawa. This used to crash in Kawa 3.50.
- Kawa will now retain the .pkg file for "JDK Package Index Files" setting under Customize/Options/Kawa Paths. This setting was not retained in Kawa 3.50.
- The breakpoints dialog to add breakpoints in source files not belonging to the project.
- Code completion has been improved to display overloaded methods in a submenu.
- The time limit for adding User Index has been increased so that large index files can be added.
- The Windows 2000 bug which was not adding a file with spaces in its name or with spaces in the directory properly, has been fixed.
- The tabs problem while copy and paste on Windows 2000 has also been fixed.
- The "JDK Debug Classes Path" setting under Customize/Options/Advanced Paths now accepts multiple files using a
comma delimiter.
- Other minor bug fixes.
Kawa 3.50
The major feature of this release is Code Completion. Code Completion provides information
on the context, thereby saving time for you. This version also supports JPDA (Java Platform Debugger Architecture)
for debugging. This debugger is more stable, and robust. Finally, we also introduced Workspaces for better
Project Management.
Following is a run down of all the new features and bug fixes with this release -
- Code Completion: It displays the Methods and Variables of the Object in the order in which it
inherits from other super classes. It also completes Java keywords, Class names and
interface names. It is accessed by pressing the hot key Ctrl+Space
- JPDA Support: Java Platform Debugger Architecture (JPDA) is the new support for the
Java 2 platform. We have a new debugger which supports this architecture which is more stable.
This debugger also supports some additional features over Kawa's
standard debugger.
- Watch Window: Watch window is introduced for the Debugger. This will help in
monitoring the variables easily during debugging sessions.
- Workspaces: Workspaces let you divide your project into subprojects. You can now do Rebuild all and Rebuild dirty
on any project in the workspace by right clicking on the item and selecting the appropriate menu options.
You don't need to open a project anymore to do this. Also, during debugging Kawa can optionally search all
the projects in the workspace for source files.
- XML format for packages: We have changed the package file format to XML. We are also doing just in time loading
of the packages. Hence, the memory consumption while running Kawa should go down. It should
also help during debugging and during multiple sessions of Kawa. The starting time of Kawa
should also come down. This might slow down opening of source files, code completion
and method override in some cases.
- Ability to add JAR files:We have introduced the ability to add JAR files to the package tree by
Reflection. The JAR file needs to be in the Extension direction of the JDK (i.e., jre/lib/ext directory) for
the VM to be able to find it. This feature is available for JDK 1.2 and JDK 1.3 only.
- The Breakpoints dialog has been modified so that breakpoints can be enabled or
disabled without removing them. Breakpoints can also be edited, this will help
in added flexibility.
- Other bug fixes.
As you can see most of the enhancements and bug fixes were in response to your comments and feedback.
Obviously, we were not able to implement all the suggestions and bug fixes for this release. Since this
release had some important enhancements we felt it was necessary to get the release out
as quickly as we can to benefit the entire Kawa user community. We urge you once again to send as much
feedback as possible to make Kawa the best Java IDE.