path: root/Lib/idlelib/NEWS.txt

+++++++++++++
IDLEfork NEWS
+++++++++++++

What's New in IDLEfork 0.9b1?
===================================

*Release date: XX-XXX-2003*

- Interrupt the subprocess if it is running when the user attempts to 
  restart the shell, run a module, or exit.

- Improved exception reporting when running commands or scripts from the
  command line.

- Added a comment to the shell startup header to indicate when IDLE is not
  using the subprocess.  (For now, set PyShell.use_subprocess to False to run
  in this mode.)

- Restore the ability to run without the subprocess.  This can be important for
  some platforms or configurations.  (Running without the subprocess allows the
  debugger to trace through parts of IDLE itself, which may or may not be
  desirable, depending on your point of view.  In addition, the traditional
  reload/import tricks must be use if user source code is changed.)

- Improve the error message a user gets when saving a file with non-ASCII
  characters and no source encoding is specified.  Done by adding a dialog
  'EncodingMessage', which contains the line to add in a fixed-font entry
  widget, and which has a button to add that line to the file automatically.
  Also, add a configuration option 'EditorWindow/encoding', which has three
  possible values: none, utf-8, and locale. None is the default: IDLE will show
  this dialog when non-ASCII characters are encountered. utf-8 means that files
  with non-ASCII characters are saved as utf-8-with-bom. locale means that
  files are saved in the locale's encoding; the dialog is only displayed if the
  source contains characters outside the locale's charset.  SF 710733 - Loewis

- Improved I/O response by tweaking the wait parameter in various
  calls to signal.signal().

- Implemented a threaded subprocess which allows interrupting a pass 
  loop in user code using the 'interrupt' extension.  User code runs
  in MainThread, while the RPCServer is handled by SockThread.

- Implemented the 'interrupt' extension module, which allows a subthread
  to raise a KeyboardInterrupt in the main thread.

- Attempting to save the shell raised an error related to saving
  breakpoints, which are not implemented in the shell

- Provide a correct message when 'exit' or 'quit' are entered at the
  IDLE command prompt  SF 695861

- Eliminate extra blank line in shell output caused by not flushing
  stdout when user code ends with an unterminated print. SF 695861

- Moved responsibility for exception formatting (i.e. pruning IDLE internal
  calls) out of rpc.py into the client and server.

- Exit IDLE cleanly even when doing subprocess I/O

- Handle subprocess interrupt in Windows with an RPC message.  

- Calling Run will restart the subprocess even if user code is running.
  SF RFE 661321

- Restart the subprocess if it terminates itself. (VPython programs do that)

- Support subclassing of exceptions, including in the shell, by moving the 
  exception formatting to the subprocess.

- Known issues:

  + Typing two Control-C in close succession when the subprocess is busy can
    cause IDLE to lose communication with the subprocess.  Please type one
    only and wait for the exception to complete.  If you do manage to 
    interrupt the interrupt, simply restart the shell.
  + Printing under some versions of Linux may be problematic.


What's New in IDLEfork 0.9 Alpha 2?
===================================

*Release date: 27-Jan-2003*

- Updated INSTALL.txt to claify use of the python2 rpm.

- Improved formatting in IDLE Help.

- Run menu: Replace "Run Script" with "Run Module".

- Code encountering an unhandled exception under the debugger now shows
  the correct traceback, with IDLE internal levels pruned out.

- If an exception occurs entirely in IDLE, don't prune the IDLE internal
  modules from the traceback displayed.

- Class Browser and Path Browser now use Alt-Key-2 for vertical zoom.

- IDLE icons will now install correctly even when setup.py is run from the
  build directory

- Class Browser now compatible with Python2.3 version of pyclbr.py

- Left cursor move in presence of selected text now moves from left end
  of the selection.

- Add Meta keybindings to "IDLE Classic Windows" to handle reversed
  Alt/Meta on some Linux distros.

- Change default: IDLE now starts with Python Shell.

- Removed the File Path from the Additional Help Sources scrolled list.

- Add capability to access Additional Help Sources on the web if the 
  Help File Path begins with //http or www.  (Otherwise local path is
  validated, as before.)

- Additional Help Sources were not being posted on the Help menu in the
  order entered.  Implement sorting the list by [HelpFiles] 'option' 
  number.

- Add Browse button to New Help Source dialog.  Arrange to start in 
  Python/Doc if platform is Windows, otherwise start in current directory.

- Put the Additional Help Sources directly on the Help menu instead of in
  an Extra Help cascade menu.  Rearrange the Help menu so the Additional
  Help Sources come last.  Update help.txt appropriately.

- Fix Tk root pop-ups in configSectionNameDialog.py  and configDialog.py

- Uniform capitalization in General tab of ConfigDialog, update the doc string.

- Fix bug in ConfigDialog where SaveAllChangedConfig() was unexpectedly
  deleting Additional Help Sources from the user's config file.

- Make configHelpSourceEdit OK button the default and bind <Return>

- Fix Tk root pop-ups in configHelpSourceEdit: error dialogs not attached
  to parents.

- Use os.startfile() to open both Additional Help and Python Help on the
  Windows platform.  The application associated with the file type will act as
  the viewer.  Windows help files (.chm) are now supported via the
  Settings/General/Additional Help facility.

- If Python Help files are installed locally on Linux, use them instead of
  accessing python.org.

- Make the methods for finding the Python help docs more robust, and make
  them work in the installed configuration, also.  

- On the Save Before Run dialog, make the OK button the default.  One
  less mouse action!

- Add a method: EditorWindow.get_geometry() for future use in implementing
  window location persistence.

- Removed the "Help/Advice" menu entry.  Thanks, David!  We'll remember!

- Change the "Classic Windows" theme's paste key to be <ctrl-v>.

- Rearrange the Shell menu to put Stack Viewer entries adjacent.

- Add the ability to restart the subprocess interpreter from the shell window;
  add an associated menu entry "Shell/Restart" with binding Control-F6.  Update
  IDLE help.

- Upon a restart, annotate the shell window with a "restart boundary".  Add a
  shell window menu "Shell/View Restart" with binding F6 to jump to the most
  recent restart boundary.

- Add Shell menu to Python Shell; change "Settings" to "Options".

- Remove incorrect comment in setup.py: IDLEfork is now installed as a package.

- Add INSTALL.txt, HISTORY.txt, NEWS.txt to installed configuration.

- In installer text, fix reference to Visual Python, should be VPython.
  Properly credit David Scherer.

- Modified idle, idle.py, idle.pyw to improve exception handling.


What's New in IDLEfork 0.9 Alpha 1?
===================================

*Release date: 31-Dec-2002* 

- First release of major new functionality.  For further details refer to
  Idle-dev and/or the Sourceforge CVS.

- Adapted to the Mac platform.

- Overhauled the IDLE startup options and revised the idle -h help message,
  which provides details of command line usage.

- Multiple bug fixes and usability enhancements.

- Introduced the new RPC implementation, which includes a debugger.  The output
  of user code is to the shell, and the shell may be used to inspect the
  environment after the run has finished.  (In version 0.8.1 the shell
  environment was separate from the environment of the user code.)

- Introduced the configuration GUI and a new About dialog.

- Removed David Scherer's Remote Procedure Call code and replaced with Guido
  van Rossum's.  GvR code has support for the IDLE debugger and uses the shell
  to inspect the environment of code Run from an Edit window.  Files removed:
  ExecBinding.py, loader.py, protocol.py, Remote.py, spawn.py



What's New in IDLEfork 0.8.1?
=============================

*Release date: 22-Jul-2001*

- New tarball released as a result of the 'revitalisation' of the IDLEfork
  project. 

- This release requires python 2.1 or better. Compatability with earlier
  versions of python (especially ancient ones like 1.5x) is no longer a
  priority in IDLEfork development.

- This release is based on a merging of the earlier IDLE fork work with current
  cvs IDLE (post IDLE version 0.8), with some minor additional coding by Kurt
  B. Kaiser and Stephen M. Gava.

- This release is basically functional but also contains some known breakages,
  particularly with running things from the shell window. Also the debugger is
  not working, but I believe this was the case with the previous IDLE fork
  release (0.7.1) as well.

- This release is being made now to mark the point at which IDLEfork is 
  launching into a new stage of development. 

- IDLEfork CVS will now be branched to enable further development and
  exploration of the two "execution in a remote process" patches submitted by
  David Scherer (David's is currently in IDLEfork) and GvR, while stabilisation
  and development of less heavyweight improvements (like user customisation)
  can continue on the trunk.


What's New in IDLE fork 0.7.1?
==============================

*Release date: 15-Aug-2000*

- First project tarball released.

- This was the first release of IDLE fork, which at this stage was a
  combination of IDLE 0.5 and the VPython idle fork, with additional changes
  coded by David Scherer, Peter Schneider-Kamp and Nicholas Riley.



IDLE fork 0.7.1 - 29 May 2000
-----------------------------

   David Scherer  <dscherer@cmu.edu>

- This is a modification of the CVS version of IDLE 0.5, updated as of
  2000-03-09.  It is alpha software and might be unstable.  If it breaks, you
  get to keep both pieces.

- If you have problems or suggestions, you should either contact me or post to
  the list at http://www.python.org/mailman/listinfo/idle-dev (making it clear
  that you are using this modified version of IDLE).

- Changes:

  - The ExecBinding module, a replacement for ScriptBinding, executes programs
    in a separate process, piping standard I/O through an RPC mechanism to an
    OnDemandOutputWindow in IDLE.  It supports executing unnamed programs
    (through a temporary file).  It does not yet support debugging.

  - When running programs with ExecBinding, tracebacks will be clipped to
    exclude system modules.  If, however, a system module calls back into the
    user program, that part of the traceback will be shown.

  - The OnDemandOutputWindow class has been improved.  In particular, it now
    supports a readline() function used to implement user input, and a
    scroll_clear() operation which is used to hide the output of a previous run
    by scrolling it out of the window.

  - Startup behavior has been changed.  By default IDLE starts up with just a
    blank editor window, rather than an interactive window.  Opening a file in
    such a blank window replaces the (nonexistent) contents of that window
    instead of creating another window.  Because of the need to have a
    well-known port for the ExecBinding protocol, only one copy of IDLE can be
    running.  Additional invocations use the RPC mechanism to report their
    command line arguments to the copy already running.

  - The menus have been reorganized.  In particular, the excessively large
    'edit' menu has been split up into 'edit', 'format', and 'run'.

  - 'Python Documentation' now works on Windows, if the win32api module is
    present.

  - A few key bindings have been changed: F1 now loads Python Documentation
    instead of the IDLE help; shift-TAB is now a synonym for unindent.

- New modules:
  
  ExecBinding.py         Executes program through loader
  loader.py              Bootstraps user program
  protocol.py            RPC protocol
  Remote.py              User-process interpreter
  spawn.py               OS-specific code to start programs

- Files modified:

  autoindent.py          ( bindings tweaked )
  bindings.py            ( menus reorganized )
  config.txt             ( execbinding enabled )
  editorwindow.py        ( new menus, fixed 'Python Documentation' )
  filelist.py            ( hook for "open in same window" )
  formatparagraph.py     ( bindings tweaked )
  idle.bat               ( removed absolute pathname )
  idle.pyw               ( weird bug due to import with same name? )
  iobinding.py           ( open in same window, EOL convention )
  keydefs.py             ( bindings tweaked )
  outputwindow.py        ( readline, scroll_clear, etc )
  pyshell.py             ( changed startup behavior )
  readme.txt             ( <Recursion on file with id=1234567> )


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Refer to HISTORY.txt for additional information on earlier releases.
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