ANN: Leo 4.1 beta 5: An outlining editor

[Edward K. Ream]

Leo 4.1 beta 5 is now available at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/leo/

For the first time in months there are no serious bugs outstanding.

Warning: By default Leo 4.1 creates .leo files that can not be read by older
versions of Leo.

Warning: Use the __wx_gui.py plugin with _extreme_ caution until further
notice:
bugs in this plugin could cause body text to be lost when changing nodes.

Beta 5:
  * Leo runs in batch mode when invoked with --script aScriptFile.py
    - Created "null gui" classes that do not write to the screen.
  * Leo supports Unicode characters (e.g. Chinese) in path and file names.
  * Fixed several long-standing bugs:
    - Fixed several minor problems with the Extract Section and Import
commands.
    - Fixed problem that prevent the Find panel from working on the Mac.
    - Improved @url handling so that @url file:\\path\x.leo works properly.
    - Improved support for @lineending platform.
    - Leo honors outline/body pane ratio when opening .leo files.
    - Leo now ensures that newly-opened windows fit entirely on the screen.
    - Fixed a crasher when Undoing a Change All command when searching
headlines.
  - Fixed other bugs resulting from the 4.1 reorg:
    - Fixed problem loading plugins on Linux.
    - Fixed crashers in the Extract Section and Extract commands.
    - Fixed crasher when writing a file containing an undefined section.
    - Removed duplicate bindings in popup menus.
    - Made sure to show Leo's windows in wx gui plugin.

Beta 4:
  * Allow @directives and section references when executing scripts!
  - Fixed several "reorg" bugs, some of which affected plugins.
  - More than one section reference may now appear on the same line.
  - Use "utf-8" encoding for filenames under MacOS (Darwin)
  - Allow command or cmnd prefix for menu shortcuts under Darwin.

Beta 3:
  - Completed the reorg, making _many_ changes to the code base.
  - Fixed a LaTeX coloring bug

Beta 2:
  - Fixed a startup problem on Linux: the "mbcs" text encoding is not valid
on Linux.

Beta 1:
  * New script-based find/change commands.
  - Hoist & DeHoist commands for viewing parts of an outline.
  - Check Outline command finds user clone mistakes.
  * New configuration settings:
    - use_gnx specifies whether .leo files use integers as indices:
      use_gnx = 0 makes .leo files compatible with previous versions of Leo.
      use_gnx = 1 makes .leo files cvs-friendly
    - config_encoding specifies the encoding of leoConfig.txt.
  * Several significant code-level changes:
    - The 4.1 code base has been reorganized to support gui plugins.
    - An example wx_gui plugin is partly functional.
    - Created a flexible framework for creating & running regression tests.
    - app.forceShutdown now works when called from plugins.

Quotes of the month
-------------------
"I like Leo more the more I use it...It's an unexpected pleasure to
see my (linearly written) code outlined in Leo. I can't wait to use
Leo to start a new project, going from outline to code...Thanks again
for providing the computing community with such a fine piece of
software." -- Jim Shapiro, Ph.D.

"If you think you have used all possible programmer's editors, but
have not yet tried Leo, you are wrong...I rate Leo as a 'must have'
for Python programmers. The code makes for a good read."
-- John Tobler  http://weblogs.asp.net/Jtobler/

What is Leo?
------------
- A programmer's editor, an outlining editor and a flexible browser.
- A literate programming tool, compatible with noweb and CWEB.
- A data organizer and project manager. Leo provides multiple views
   of projects within a single outline.
- Fully scriptable using Python. Leo saves its files in XML format.
- Portable. leo.py is 100% pure Python.
- Open Software, distributed under the Python License.

Leo requires Python 2.1 or above and tcl/tk 8.3 or above.
Leo works on Linux, Windows and MacOs X.

Links:
------
Leo:      http://webpages.charter.net/edreamleo/front.html
Home:     http://sourceforge.net/projects/leo/
Download: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=3458
CVS:      http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=3458
Wiki:     http://leo.hd1.org/

Edward K. Ream
December 5, 2003
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Edward K. Ream   email:  edreamleo@charter.net
Leo: Literate Editor with Outlines
Leo: http://webpages.charter.net/edreamleo/front.html
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