README FOR MultiEd32   2.51

Please send comments to brinkje@plu.edu. Include version and date from the Help's about box.

MultiEd is a programmable text editor that runs under 32 bit Windows operating systems. It is designed especially for programmers and HTML writers. It is copyrighted and all rights are reserved by the author. However, it is available to educational, nonprofit organizations, faculty and students as freeware.

Additional options and updates may be available from the MultiEd web page:
      http://www.cs.plu.edu/~brink/multied/version2/MultiEdHomePage.html

Version 2.51 is an update to MultiEd 2.35 which was an updated version 2.2..

Usability improvements

• A few changes were made to accomodate Windows 7. Unfortunately that included deleting a few macros that no longer work in that version.
• Options are provided to allow search and replace panels above the status bar (something like that done in Mozilla Firefox) or below the tool bar something like Chrome) as an alternative to the traditional floating dialog box.
• Control-R can be used as well as Control-H for replace operations.
• The number of programmable tool buttons was increased to 12.
• New icons were provided for programmable tool buttons which suggest the buttons function rather than the file type for which it can be used. Users can supply text for the tool buttons if appropriate icons are not available.
• Only those tools that apply to the current file are shown in the programmable tool buttons. This allows up to ten programmable tools that apply to the current file. To provide even more language support, tool buttons may bring up menus of language specific templates.
• A project's file and method tree is automatically updated when a project file is loaded.
• The Save button is disabled if the current file has not been modified since the last save which makes it easy to tell if a file needs to be saved.
• Menu items and short cut keys (Ctrl + and Ctrl -) have been added to increase or decrease font size.
• Control-C and Control-V can be used to copy and paste into the macro dialog box and Control-C can be used to copy from the help dialog.
• JavaFX, Processing, and Processing.js are supported. See the "Special considerations" sections below!
• New options were added to the Word Wrap Conversion sub-menu to make it easy to "word wrap" entire files or selections even in line mode.
• New options were added to the Tabs and Indents sub-menu to automatically replace tabs by spaces or spaces by tabs in indentations at the beginning of lines.
• Several new virtual commands are provided for macros. They allow very powerful macros including the ability to convert unformatted text files into web pages. They can also add template code for such things as listeners and adapters in Java. These macros even make sure requiered import statements exist.
• The Tool Setup program was significantly modified to correspond to the new way programmable tools are handled. (For some unknown reason when the Tool Setup program is run, Windows 7 may ask if it can make changes on your computer. The only change that it makes is to the .ini file it is designed to edit. So you can safely allow it to make changes.)
• "Help" was improved and updated.
• The previously optional thesaurus is automatically included in version 2.5.
• "Color Mixer"s have been added for Java, JavaFX, and HTML to help users determine numbers for desired colors.
• Modern version of JavaScript are supported.
• Some new convenience features were added to help project users.

Downloading and installing MultiEd:

The best way to download MultiEd32: Use the URL:
      http://www.cs.plu.edu/~brink/multied/version2/MultiEd2-51Install.exe

Where do you want to install MultiEd?

By default, MultiEd is installed in the folder C:\MultiEd. You may prefer to install it in C:\Program Files\MultiEd. However, beware that there are some possible complications:

1. Certain features just may not work in older operating systems such as NT4.0, Windows 95, and Windows 98.
2. The first time you use the spell checker, you will have to "search" for the dictionaries. That is easy. They are in the same folder as MultiEd. The main directory is American.dct and the user directory is default.udt.
3. Storing MultiEd in a subdirectory of "Program files" slightly complicates programming of its programmable tools in Windows 2000 and Windows Me. In the older versions of Windows listed in point 1, it may make programming nearly impossible in certain situations.
4. It may complicate use with some older MS-DOS programs such Masm that cannot handle file or directory names with blanks in them.

To install MultiEd32 2.51:

1. Down load instillation file.
2. If have you installed any version of MultiEd, please uninstall it first. Just delete the folder
         C:\MultiEd
   (or the directory in which MultiEd is installed) In addition if you had version older than 2.0, please delete the files:
         LEdit32.dll
         MultiEd.ini
   from your windows directory, if they exist.
3. Execute the installation file. You will be given options to add MultiEd short cuts to the desk top and start menu. By default, it will put the files in
         C:\MultiEd.
   Please see the discussion above if you prefer a different directory.
4. (You may skip to step 6, if desired.) Test MultiEd by clicking on
         C:\MultiEd\MultiEd32.exe
   or its shortcut. Open some of the Example files in the
         C:\MultiEd\Examples
   directory. Check to see that files are properly colored. Try clicking the project tool button and open the
         C:\MultiEd\ExampleProject\ShapeDemo.proj
   and/or
         C:\MultiEd\Example\Example-Project.proj
   Then click on some of the files in its window. If the file and function tree does not appear on the left side of the MultiEd window when the project is open, check to make sure that
         "Project > Show Tree".
   menu item is checked.
5. You may need/want to setup some of the programmable tools buttons. Try clicking some of the programmable tool buttons while editing files for programming languages you use. If you have trouble, see the "Special considerations for ..." section below.
6. You may want to look at the tutorial files.
         http://www.cs.plu.edu/~brink/multied/Tutorials2-5/
   The tutorial
         http://www.cs.plu.edu/~brink/multied/Tutorials2-5/TourMultiEd.html
   is especially recommended to first time users.

Uninstalling MultiEd:

To uninstall this version (or any version from 2.0 to 2.43), just delete the C:\MultiEd folder (or the folder in which MultiEd is installed) and any desktop icons or start menu items that reference MultiEd. All files are in the C:\MultiEd folder or its subfolders. MultiEd does not use the registry.

Installation of MultiEd files in computer labs:

MultiEd has some features that make a "read-only" installation feasible. It is even possible to allow users to customize their own private initialization files. See help on Custom Initialization.

Special considerations for Java, JavaFX, Processing, Processing.js, and MASM

MultiEd is not an IDE. Instead it provides connections to compilers and assembers. To achieve full support of Java, JavaFX Processing, Processing.js and assembler, consider the following:

• Java: You must install the Java JDK and optional the Java documentation before the tool buttons can support Java properly. See http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html. As of this date, "Java SE Development Kit 7" is suggested but there are frequent updates to Java. IMPORTANT: Make sure that you look at the "Installation Instructions". It is particularly important to "Update the PATH variable". It is also suggested that the CLASSPATH be set to "." unless you already have a class path. In that case, you must to add ".;" to the beginning of the CLASSPATH. (While setting the CLASSPATH to "." is not really needed, it can be prevent serious problems if installation of another program adds its own CLASSPATH without bothering to tell you what it did.) The installation instructions will tell you how to set environmental variables in your version of Windows. You are strongly encouraged to look at http://www.cs.plu.edu/~brink/multied/Tutorials2-5/JavaTutorial.html

  The programmable tool buttons used by Java use runjava.bat and runjavadoc.bat found in the MultiEd folder. Both assume the folders for Java's binary files and documents are included in the path. If not, these files can be easily modified. The tool button to show Java API documents will normally have to be modified to give its location using the menu item Options > Tool Button Setup and then using the appropriate tab for its button. The documents can be on the local computer or a URL for their location on the internet can be used.

• JavaFX: You need to install the JavaFX JDK before you can compile JavaFX programs. See http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html. Currently MultiEd supports JavaFX version 1.You will need edit to the PATH and CLASSPATH environment variables in a manner similar to that discussed for Java above. An update for JavaFX version 2 will be posted on MultiEd web site when it is available.

  Some of the programmable tool buttons for JavaFX assume the folder for JavaFX's bin files is included on the path. If not, the runjavafx.bat file found in MultiEd folder can be eaily modified. The tool button for JavaFX's documentation will probably need to be modified to specify the location of the files. Use the menu item Options > Tool Button Setup, select the appropriate tab for the tool and give the location of the documentss in the "Program name" field. The location can be a local file or an URL on the internet.

• Processing: You must install the Processing http://www.processing.org/). While Processing has its own IDE, it is often convenient to use MultiEd as the default editor. To set this up, in the Processing IDE, select "Preferences" from its "File" menu. Then check "Use external editor". Remember that Processing requires ".pde" files which must be in a folder of the same name. Clicking MultiEd's "Compile and Run" the first time will save the file, open the Processing IDE and open the file. Click the IDE to run the program. Subsequent, clicking MultiEd's "Compile and Run" button will save the file, and activate the IDE. Click its "Run" button to load the update version of the file and run it. See the next section if you want to treat .pde file as if they were Processing.js files.

  The Compile and Run tool button for .pde files may need to be modified to give the location of the Processing IDE. Use Program Name field on the appropriate tab after using the menu item Options > Tool Button. Setup

  Because .the pde extension is used both Processing and Processing.js, the WEB tool button appears for ..pde files. For the same reason, tool buttons for both Processing and Processing.js documentation are provided for .pde files.

• Processing.js: You should install the Processing.js http://processingjs.org/ package before writing Processing.js programs but examples can be run without doing so if they are set up properly. A browser that supports the HTML 5 canvas tag is required. As of Aug, 2011, Firefox allows running local files directly. For most other browsers, you will need a local host sever. For Processing.js you will normally need both the program file (typically .pjs or .pde) and a .html file that the loads the file into a HTML 5 canvas element as well as loading the Processing.js routines.

  Use the "WEB" button to load a Processing.js file (either .pde or .pjs) into a browser. It uses the runProcessingjs.bat file. If clicked while editing a Processing.js file, the bat file attempts to load a correspondingly named .htm or .html file into the browser. If such a file does not exist, it creates a simplistic default .html file and loads it into the browser. (This is similar to the action runjava.bat uses for applets.) The default file uses http://processingjs.org/js/pjs/processing.min.js for the required Javascript files but could be customized to use local files. If you use a local host server, you will need customize the .bat file accordingly. It is found in the MultiEd folder.

• There are two options for assembling and linking assembly programs. In order to assemble and link assembly language programs, you can use the ml program that is part of Visual Studio 8 or 9 or Visual C++ 2005 or 2008. Another alternative is to install the Masm 6.15 from the CD that comes with Kip Irvine's book Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers, 4th Edition, Prentice-Hall. If Masm is used, it should be installed in C:\MASM615, its default directory.

In case there are comments, questions or problems, **please** contact brinkje@plu.edu. Please include the version and the date in the About box.

Thank you for using MultiEd.

James Brink Department of Computer Science and Computer Engineering Pacific Lutheran University.

MultiEd home page

Revised: 10/5/2011