OS/2 Shareware BBS: 5 Edit/05-Edit.zip/nedit50.zip/XFree86/doc/nedit/README

Text File | 1997-10-22 | 24KB | 548 lines

                     NEdit Version 5.0, Oct. 21, 1997


PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

NEdit is a standard GUI (Graphical User Interface) style text editor for
programs and plain-text files.  Users of Macintosh and MS Windows based text
editors should find NEdit a familiar and comfortable environment.  NEdit
provides all of the standard menu, dialog, editing, and mouse support, as
well as all of the standard shortcuts to which the users of modern GUI based
environments are accustomed.  For users of older style Unix editors, welcome
to the world of mouse-based editing!

Please be sure to check the platform specific README files, i.e. README.sun
and README.ibm, for additional information about your particular system.

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                             TERMS AND CONDITIONS
                             ====================

This software has been made freely available with a request for
collaborative input subject to standard Fermitools Terms and Conditions
given in full below.

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AUTHORS

    Mark Edel, Joy Kyriakopulos, Arnulfo Zepeda-Navratil, Suresh Ravoor, Donna
    Reid, Jeff Kallenbach

    Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory - Mail Station 234
    P.O Box 500
    Batavia, IL 60510
    Internet: [e-mail]

Fermilab Standard Government Sponsorship Notice

    This work was performed at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory,
    which is operated by Universities Research Association, Inc., under
    contract DE-AC02-76CHO3000 with the U.S. Department of Energy.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

    Syntax highlighting patterns were contributed by: Simon T. MacDonald,
    Maurice Leysens, Matt Majka, Alfred Smeenk, Alain Fargues, Christopher
    Conrad, Scott Markinson, Konrad Bernloehr, Ivan Herman, Patrice Venant,
    Christian Denat, and Philippe Couton.

    Regular expression code by Henry Spencer

    Nedit incorporates an altered version of Henry Spencer's regcomp and
    regexec code adapted for NEdit.  Original copyright notice:

    Copyright (c) 1986 by University of Toronto. Written by Henry
    Spencer.  Not derived from licensed software.

    Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose
    on any computer system, and to redistribute it freely, subject to the
    following restrictions:

    1. The author is not responsible for the consequences of use of this
    software, no matter how awful, even if they arise from defects in it.

    2. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented, either by
    explicit claim or by omission.

    3. Altered versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be
    misrepresented as being the original software.


VERSION 5.0

As of this writing, there are no known bugs in this software, except for the
few noted in the Problems/Bugs section of the on-line help, or the FAQ file and
the ReleaseNotes (if it exists) file in the distribution directory.  Please
report any problems, even if you think they are trivial.

Even though we don't know about the bugs, our experience with .0 releases
(significant new functionality) is that there will be some.  If you do have an
unworkable problem, 4.0.3 is still be available, and you can fall back to that,
but please tell us about it too.

New Features in 5.0

  - Completed macro extension language (Simple C/awk-like syntax, safe,
    fully interruptable)

  - Syntax highlighting.  Built-in patterns for C, C++, Java, Fortran, Pascal,
    Ada, Perl, Python, Tcl, Awk, Csh, HTML, LaTeX, VHDL, Verilog, and more.

  - Programmable Smart indent.  (Experimentally, at least.  There are only
    macros for C and C++, and they may not fit everyone's programming style.)

  - Language-sensitive preferences

  - Continuous wrap mode (long line wrapping), in addition to existing
    automatic-newline wrapping

  - User-defined menus can be hierarchical and language-sensitive.

  - Configurable right-button pop up menu

  - Pan-scrolling

  - Searchable on-line help

  - Word boundary matching (<>) in regular expressions

  - Repeat command

  - More dialogs have up-arrow recall

  - White-space selection via double-click

Bug Fixes and Enhancements to Existing Features in 5.0

  - No more limits on editing files containing ascii nul characters

  - Fill Paragraph command handles leading indents

  - Select to mark

  - Better directory defaulting in Open Selected and shell commands

  - Open Selected processes tilde (~) and wildcards

  - Goto Mark centers scroll position better

  - Multiple shell commands can be run simultaneously

  - Shell command execution doesn't block server command processing

  - Emulated-tab deletion treats auto-indent as emulated tabs

  - Auto-wrapping of pasted text is optional (off by default)

  - Notice that default preferences have changed and ask about saving
    on exit

  - Selections remain selected after shell command and filter execution

  - Wrap margin and emulated tab distance preferences are properly
    transferred to new panes in split window mode


BUILDING NEDIT

Pre-built executables are available for most major Unix and VMS systems, so
check ftp.fnal.gov in the /pub/nedit directory, and the contributed software
directory, /pub/nedit/v5_0/contrib, first.

The two directories called source and util contain the sources for NEdit.  Util
should be built first, followed by source.  The makefile in this directory can
be used to build both in sequence if your system is one of the supported
machines and no modifications are necessary to the makefiles.  To build NEdit
from this directory, issue the command: "make <machine-type>_nedit"; where
<machine-type> is one of the supported machine types: sgi, ultrix, sunos,
solaris, hp, dec, or ibm.  For example, to build the Silicon Graphics version,
type:

    make sgi_nedit

If everything works properly, this will produce an executable called nedit in
the directory called source.


The Source Directories

Since executables are already available for the supported systems, you are
probably not just rebuilding an existing configuration, and need to know more
about how the directories are organized.

The util directory builds a library file called libNUtil.a, which is later
linked with the code in the source directory to create the nedit executable.

The makefiles in both source directories consist of two parts, a machine
dependent part and a machine independent part.  The machine dependent makefiles
contain machine specific header information and invoke a common machine
independent part called Makefile.common.  To compile the files in either of
these directories, issue the command: "make -f Makefile.<machine-type>"; where
<machine type> is one of the supported machine types.  For example, on a
Silicon Graphics machine, you would type:

    make -f Makefile.sgi

To add a new machine type or configuration, copy one of the existing machine
dependent makefiles and give it the name of the new system, for example:
Makefile.sony.  Then, make any required changes in the new makefile.


Building NEdit on VMS Systems

Command files are provided for compiling and linking files in the source
and util directories.  comutil.com compiles the files in the util directory
and produces two library files, vmsutils.olb and libutil.olb.  comnedit.com
compiles and links the files in the source directory to produce the nedit.exe
executable.


INSTALLATION

NEdit consists of a single, stand-alone executable file which does not require
any special installation.  To install NEdit on Unix systems, simply put the
nedit executable in your path.  On VMS systems, nedit must be defined as a
foreign command so that it can process command line arguments.  For example,
if nedit.exe were in the directory mydir on the disk called mydev, adding the
following line to your login.com file would define the nedit command:

    $ ned*it :== $mydev:[mydir]nedit.exe

To use NEdit in client/server mode, you also need the nedit client program, nc,
which, again, needs no special installation, except in the VMS case, as above.


RUNNING NEDIT

If you are accessing a host Unix system from a remote workstation or X terminal,
you need to set the Unix environment variable for your display:

    % setenv DISPLAY devicename:0

where devicename is the network node name of the workstation or X terminal
where you are typing.  On VMS systems, the equivalent command is:

    $ set display/create/node=devicename

To run NEdit, simply type "nedit", optionally followed by the name of a file or
files to edit.  On-line help is available from the pulldown menu on the far
right of the menu bar.  For more information on the syntax of the nedit command
line, look under the heading of "NEdit Command Line."


PLATFORM SPECIFIC ISSUES

HP-UX Systems

If you have an older system, and experience problems, such as random crashing,
installing the patches:

    PHSS_5907
    PHSS_5908

or their newer counterpart:

   PHSS_6439
   PHSS_6440

is strongly suggested.  These fix a number of serious problems in HPs X and
Motif libraries.  If you still have problems, despite having installed these
patches, please send mail to [e-mail].

If you are using HPVUE and have trouble setting colors, for example part
of the menu bar stubornly remains at whatever HPVUE's default is, try setting:

   nedit*useColorObj: False

IBM AIX Systems

Due to an optimizer bug in IBM's C compiler, the file, textDisp.c, must be
compiled without optimization on AIX systems.

IBM's Motif 1.2 library fixes a number of serious bugs in the earlier libraries
(the Motif 1.1 version has the menu items for setting the font in the current
window disabled, and can occasionally crash on window closing).

Linux Systems

Some Linux distributions are missing the /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XKeysymDB file,
which is necessary for running Motif programs.  When XKeysymDB is missing,
NEdit will spew screenfulls of messages about translation table syntax errors,
and many keys won't work.  You can obtain a copy of the XKeysymDB file from
the contrib sub-directory of the NEdit distribution directory.

The default key bindings for arrow keys in fvwm interfere with some of the
arrow key bindings in NEdit, particularly, Ctrl+Arrow and Alt+Arrow.  You
may want to re-bind them either in NEdit (see Customizing -> Key Binding
in the Help menu) or in fvwm in your .fvwmrc file.

SGI Systems

Beginning with IRIX 6.3, SGI is distributing a customized version of NEdit
along with their operating system releases.  Their installation uses an
app-defaults file (/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/NEdit) which overrides the
default settings in any new nedit version that you install, and may result in
missing accelerator keys or cosmetic appearance glitches.  If you are
re-installing NEdit for the entire system, just remove the existing app-
defaults file.  If you want to run a newer copy individually, get a copy of
the app-defaults file for this version the contrib sub-directory of the
distribution directory for this version on ftp.fnal.gov (/pub/nedit/<version>/
contrib/nedit.app-defaults), and install it in your home directory or set
XAPPLRESDIR or XUSERFILESEARCHPATH to point to a directory and install it
there.  In all cases, the file should be named simply NEdit.

No additional installation or resource settings are necessary on IRIX systems
before 6.3

Solaris (SunOS 5.3 and beyond) Systems

The nedit_solaris executable may require the environment variable OPENWINHOME
to be set to the directory where Open Windows is installed.  If this is not set
properly, NEdit will spew screenfulls of messages about translation table
syntax errors.

Solaris 2.5 -- Solaris 2.5 systems were shipped with a bad shared Motif
library, in which the file selection dialog (Open, Save, Save As, Include,
etc.) shows long path names in the file list, but no horizontal scroll bar,
and no way to read the actual file names.  Depending on your system, the
patch is one of ID# 103461-07, # 102226-19, or # 103186-21.  It affects all
Motif based programs which use the library.  If you can't patch your system,
you might want to just try the nedit_sunos executable (from ftp.fnal.gov
/pub/nedit), which is statically linked with a good Motif.  You can also set
the X resource: nedit.stdOpenDialog to True, which at least gives you a text
field where you can enter file names by hand.

Solaris 2.6 -- Many users have reported performance problems with NEdit and
other applications using the shared Motif library under Solaris 2.6 (If you
know about patches for this, please send us a note at nedit_support@fnal).
In NEdit, the symptom is that windows come up very slowly.  For now, the only
workaround if you have the problem, is to use the nedit_sunos executable,
which is statically linked with a good Motif.

SunOS 4.x Systems

On some SunOS systems, NEdit will also complain about translation table syntax
errors.  This happens when Motif can't access the keysym database, usually
located in the file /usr/lib/X11/XKeysymDB.  If this file exists on your
system, but NEdit fails to locate it properly, you can set the environment
variable XKEYSYMDB to point to the file.  If you can't find the file, or if
some of the errors persist despite setting XKEYSYMDB, there is a XKeysymDB
which you can use to update or replace your /usr/lib/X11/XKeysymDB file
available in the contrib sub-directory of the NEdit distribution directory.
If you don't want to change your existing XKeysymDB file, make a local copy
and set XKEYSYMDB to point to it.

If you find that some of the labeled keys on your keyboard are not properly
bound to the corresponding action in NEdit, try the following:

  1) Get a copy of motifbind.sun (for Sun standard keyboards), or
     motifbind.sun_at (for Sun PC style keyboards) from the NEdit contrib
     directory on ftp.fnal.gov:/pub/nedit/v4_0_1/contrib.
  2) Copy it to a file called .motifbind in your home directory.
  3) Shutdown and restart your X server.


COMPATIBILITY WITH PREVIOUS VERSIONS

Existing .nedit Files

NEdit 5.0 is backward-compatible with .nedit files from older versions (unless
you wrote a .nedit file from the beta version, or the experimental syntax
highlighting version, as discussed below).  However, you may want to
temporarily re-name your existing .nedit file and run NEdit without one, since
there are some worthwhile new commands among the new example macros.

There are two ways to integrate macros from the new version into an old .nedit
file.  If you have not added new macros of your own, simply remove the line
beginning "nedit.macroCommands" and all of the indented lines which follow it
from your existing .nedit file, and NEdit will re-generate the Macro menu from
its stored defaults.  If you have added macros of your own:

   1) Temporarily re-name your existing .nedit file
   2) Generate a new .nedit file by choosing Save Defaults from the
      Preferences menu.
   3) Copy and paste the new macros from the newly generated .nedit
      file into the "nedit.macroCommands" resource in your old .nedit file.
      Note that there are improvements in the implementations of some of the
      existing macros, which are worth replacing as well.

Beta 5.0 .nedit Files

If you wrote a .nedit file from the beta test version of 5.0, you will be
missing one or two highlight styles used by default highlight patterns for
Perl, Verilog, and NEdit Macro, and you will get an error on the FORTRAN
highlight patterns, because the name has changed to "Fortran".  If you want to
preserve your existing .nedit file, you can edit it by hand to change the two
occurrences of "FORTRAN" to "Fortran", and either remove the section beginning
"nedit.styles", or if you have made changes to styles that you want to
preserve, re-name your .nedit file, write a new one, and integrate the
new styles into your existing file.

Experimental Syntax Highlighting Version .nedit Files

If you wrote a .nedit file using the experimental syntax highlighting version
(color_nedit.tar), the syntax of the languageModes resource has changed, and is
not readable with 5.0.  If you want to preserve the .nedit file, you will have
to edit it by hand to remove the line beginning "nedit.languageModes", and all
of the indented lines that follow.  If you made significant changes to language
mode information which you don't want to re-enter via the Language Modes
dialog, you can edit each line of the resource by hand to conform to the new
spec by adding colons to the end).


FURTHER INFORMATION

More information is available in the file nedit.doc in this kit, from NEdit's
on-line help system, and from the enclosed FAQ file.  There is also a web page
for NEdit at: http://www-pat.fnal.gov/nirvana/nedit.html, or find out more
about Fermilab: http://www.fnal.gov, or information on other publicly available
Fermilab software: http://www.fnal.gov/fermitools.  For discussion with other
NEdit users, or to receive notification of new releases and news about news,
you can subscribe to one or both of the official nedit mailing lists.  You'll
find information on subscribing in the NEdit on-line help under Mailing Lists.


SUPPORT

Help with the installation or use of NEdit is available by sending mail to

                        [e-mail]

which is auto-forwarded to the group in charge of NEdit support at Fermilab.

This software is furnished by Fermilab on an "as is" basis as a service
to the wider community with the goal of stimulating collaborative use and
further development.

Provision of the software implies no commitment of support by Fermilab.

The Fermilab Computing Division is open to discussing other levels of
support for use of the software with responsible and committed users and
collaborators.

Use of the software in experiments at Fermilab will be assured of a level
of support as agreed to through the standard Memorandum Of Understanding
process.

Users may send mail to the mail address given above, with the expectation
that it will be read and noted.

Fermitools Special Products

Because of the special support needed for a few selected products Fermilab
is only able to support the software under special agreement. The support
offered will be discussed and negotiated on an individual basis and may be
different for different users.  To initiate discussions send mail to the
mail address given above.


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                         TERMS AND CONDITIONS IN FULL
                         ============================

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    Fermitools Software Legal Information - October 16, 1997
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