In this release of PREDITOR/2, we've concentrated on emphasizing
   source code awareness.  Take a look at what we've done . . .
                                   

COLOR HIGHLIGHTING

The Colors page in the Settings notebook enables you to move beyond
uniform foreground and background text colors with color highlighting
of source code expressions and keywords.  Built-in support is provided
for many languages including C and C++, COBOL, REXX and PASCAL.  You
can easily modify these languages and even add entire new languages
through the Colors page.

The Colors page is part of the new Types section of the Settings
notebook.  Other pages allow you to define compilers and enable
language templates.


DETACHED WINDOW MODE

Beyond the single and multiple document interface modes, you can now
detach your windows from the main editor window.  In detached mode, you
can move your toolbar and windows anywhere on the display.  A control
panel acts as your main editor window, providing quick access to all
open files.

The One buffer per window option enables you to specify that each new
buffer will have its own window.  The next and previous buffer commands
then switch between windows, and closing a window closes the associated
buffer.  These options are enabled in the Window section of the
Settings notebook or in the new Quick Settings dialog.


C AND C++ SOURCE BROWSING

We've improved Hypertext browsing of C and C++ programs with a new
CTags Make dialog box and the addition of incremental compilation for
the source database.  To use this feature, select CTags make... on the
Tools menu and specify the source directories and file extensions for
your C and C++ source files.
Once the database is built, you can select the Tags locate... item on
the Tools menu to jump to the file containing the definition of a
symbol. See the function local_keys() in the file LOCAL.PEL for sample
key assignments for the tags and tags_auto commands. Subsequent
invocations of the CTags Make dialog will only compile files that have
changed.


HEX EDITING

For help in editing files containing non-text characters, you can
enable hex mode with the Toggle hex mode item on the Window menu.  When
PREDITOR/2 is in hex mode, the screen contains two columns:  the hex
characters on the left, and the matching ASCII characters on the right.
Now there's no need to use different tools for text and data file
editing.

Use the [Tab] key to move between the hex side (on the left) and the
character side (on the right).  Both sides reflect any changes,
regardless of where they were made.  To leave hex editing mode, press
the [Esc] key (in all emulations except VI and EMACS) or select Toggle
hex mode again.


SMART TEMPLATES AND MATCHING

This release of PREDITOR/2 significantly improves the source code
awareness of many editor operations. For example, language templates
will not expand if they are typed within comments or strings.  Also,
the goto_matching command (Find matching item on the Edit menu) will
ignore matching pairs in comments and strings.  The definition of
comments and string literals is language-specific and shared with the
Colors notebook page.
Template expansion is enabled on the Quick Settings dialog or the
Template page in the Types section of the Settings notebook.  The
matching pairs for each language can be single or multiple character
strings and are defined on the Extensions page, also in the Types
section.


LINE DRAWING

A new function, linedraw(), lets you diagram source code simply and
effectively.  This function causes the arrow keys on your keyboard's
number pad to be redefined to draw lines in one of four different
styles:

   1              2
     ÚÄÄÄÂÄÄÄ¿      ÛßßßÛßßßÛ
     ³   ³   ³      Û   Û   Û
     ÃÄÄÄÅÄÄÄ´      ÛßßßÛßßßÛ
     ³   ³   ³      Û   Û   Û
     ÀÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÙ      ßßßßßßßßß
   
   3              4
     +---+---+      ÉÍÍÍËÍÍÍ»
     |   |   |      º   º   º
     +---+---+      ÌÍÍÍÎÍÍ͹
     |   |   |      º   º   º
     +---+---+      ÈÍÍÍÊÍÍͼ

In addition, using the [Ctrl] key with any of these arrow keys draws an
arrow in the appropriate direction.


QUICK SETTINGS

Use the Quick Settings item on the Options menu to change some of the
editor's most commonly used settings. A subset of the Settings
notebook, your Quick Settings are applied to all buffers, windows, and
types, and are made defaults as appropriate.
For more detail on a Quick Settings option, open the corresponding
section in the Settings notebook.


PERFORMANCE AND USABILITY

This release contains many performance and usability improvements.
Most significantly, startup time is reduced up to 50 percent and
scrolling speed is improved - even with the addition of color
highlighting.  For workgroup support, files can be locked individually
or by type (LAN, local or floppy) and optionally copied to virtual
memory when opened or modified.
The PREDITOR/2 User's Guide and online help have been rewritten and
reorganized to allow quicker and more accurate access to needed
information.  The Settings notebook, while more extensive, has been
made easier to use with the addition of OK and Cancel buttons and
better organization of options.


ADDITIONAL IMPROVEMENTS

ú  Recursive option for file search and replace
ú  Support for DOS compilers and compilers that require input
ú  Formatted source code printing with optional headers and footers
ú  Customizable cursor