-------------------------- DEdit 0.9.4.2 readme ------------------------------------

NOTE:
	This is a beta release of DEdit.  This manual is very coarse and sometimes abusive.
	You have been warned.

What is DEdit?
	DEdit is a free, Win32 programmer's editor.  Small and efficient, DEdit weighs
	in at less than 100K.  DEdit was written in C, not Visual Baggage, without the
	use of ultra-bloat component libraries (like Microsoft Foundation Molasses).

	DEdit is an MDI application capable of handling very large files.  DEdit doesn't
	litter your screen with windows or waste your time with splash screens and
	shareware notices.  DEdit doesn't put obscure DLLs into the system directory.
	DEdit has a small memory footprint and a consistent user interface.  It also
	doesn't spew garbage throughout your registry (although it does use the registry
	to save settings.)
	
What's really nifty about DEdit?
	Focus follows mouse - when you move the cursor throughout the window, the edit
	control it rests over will get the keyboard focus, but will not be brought to
	the front.  That means you can have a maximized window and a little window on
	the workspace and edit both without obscuring the little window at any time.
	Very nifty.  This feature can be disabled in the options dialog.

	Auto Indent - when enabled, DEdit will automatically duplicate the leading
	spaces and tabs of the previous line after the return key is pressed.  That
	way you don't have to hit the tab key 9 times for a deeply nested function.

	Syntax Highliting - displays comments, preprocessor directives and keywords
	in different colors for easier editing.  DEdit currently only supports the C, 
	C++ and HTML languages.  Syntax highliting is somewhat slow when opening files
	over 50k in size or with large amounts of comments.  This feature can be disabled.
    
	Drag and Drop - Drag a file into the DEdit window and DEdit will open the
	file in a new window.  DEdit also supports Drag and Drop between the
	RichEdit controls.

	External commands - currently you can run a command prompt from DEdit and
	run 'make' on the active document.  DEdit will also search the current
	directory for any batch files it finds, and add them to the command menu.
	That way you can run the batch files without opening a command prompt.

	Quick select bar - Every window open in DEdit has a corresponding tab in
	the tab sheet at the top of the main window, allowing you to easily switch
	between windows without having to use the window menu.  This feature is really
	helpful when the editing windows are maximized.

	DEdit is smart - If an instance of DEdit is already open, DEdit will see
	that and send the command line to the original instance.  That way you can
	double-click files to your heart's content and DEdit will open new windows
	for them.  DEdit will also recognize if a file is already open, and bring
	the window to the front.  DEdit will remember where you left its main window
	and how large it was when it terminates.
	
	DEdit is fast - Drag a hundred and fifty files into its window and watch them
	wiz by, then select Window->Close All, and watch them disappear.
	
	DEdit uses threads to perform time consuming tasks that would otherwise
	render the program unresponsive (like find & replace, and syntax coloring).

	DEdit's find feature allows you to search and replace in the current
	window or all open windows at the same time.  It supports case sensitive and
	whole-word searching.  It uses a thread for each window that is being searched.
	
	DEdit keeps a history of the nine most recently accessed files, and shows them
	in the file menu for easy opening.

What capabilities will it eventually have?
	Regex searching.
	
	Syntax coloring support for Pascal and Basic.

	Doing dishes - The code is in place, but I'm having a few problems interfacing
	with my kitchen sink.  An effort is also being made to maintain compatability
	with other kitchen sinks.  Support for foreign sinks is not planned (buy American).
	Any suggestions in this area would be highly appreciated.

What features will it never have?
	A scripting langauge (DScript? sheesh.)

Things you can do that will irritate DEdit (sometimes):
	Opening several thousand windows in DEdit could cause a signifigant degredation
	in overall program responsiveness.  We (I) at Red Roby Software do *not* recommend
	having several thousand documents open at one time.  On the other hand, having
	several	dozen open windows at once will not cause a reduction in performance.

	The syntax highliting functionality is stored in COLORING.DLL.  This DLL needs
	to be in the same directory as the dedit.exe, or else syntax highlighting will
	be disabled.  You can also stick the DLL in the system folder.  If you manage
	to find the DLL while DEdit is running, just stick it in DEdit's folder and
	enable syntax coloring in the options dialog and DEdit will hot-load it.

What bugs does it have?
	I am almost certain there are a number of subtle bugs and many interface
	glitches and errors.  Input in these regards would be appreciated.

	Due to the way the command line parser is set up (there isn't one), you cannot
	drag more than one file at a time onto DEdit's icon in the shell.  You can still
	drag as many files as you want into the window, though.

A few notes from the author:
	Syntax coloring is slow:
	The EM_SETCHARFORMAT message is the most awfully slow procedure I have ever seen.
    What was Microsoft thinking?  Half the size of my syntax code deals with ways to
    *avoid* having to color anything - it is less expensive to spawn a thread that
    copies the entire text into a buffer, performs several dozen character comparisons
    and monitors every key press with elaborate algorithms then it is to color 1000
    lines of text!  The ratio of time spent coloring, to time spent parsing, is about
    1000:1.  The only way this problem can be rectified is by creating a custom edit
    control (not easy), or Microsoft getting their act together (never going to happen).
    
    In an effort to increase the speed of the syntax highlighting, I used a hard coded
    finite-state machine for each language DEdit supports.  The result was a parser that
    is finished almost as quickly as the window is displayed, and a moronic coloring loop
    that occupies up to several minutes worth of time.
    		  
OK already, so how do I use it?
	Simple.  First make sure the coloring.dll and dedit.exe files are living together
	in the same directory.  Then double-click or drag a file onto DEdit's icon.  From
	there, edit and save to your pleasing.  If you need to open more files, either open
	them through File->Open, or drag the files onto DEdit's window.  DEdit behaves
	as any MDI application should, so you should have no problems getting used to it.

How do I contact the author?
	Email Robert DeLuca at:
		deluca@gte.net
		rmdeluca@exchange.intermedia.com

--------------------------------------History--------------------------------------------

5-14-98:
	Highlighting is updated after a paste operation.
	Added a history to the find & replace dialog box.
	Version number now 0.9.4.2
	
5-13-98:
	Right-clicking on tab sheet now displays popup-menu.
	Popup menu now has 'Close Window' option.
	Goto line now sets the focus after positioning the cursor.
	Windows open in restored position now.
	Version number now 0.9.4.1
	
5-12-98:
	Preliminary HTML highlighting is in place.
	HTML coloring shows unterminated quotes and comments in red.
	Version number now 0.9.4
	
5-11-98:
	Fixed C highlighting being applied to HTML.
	Version number now 0.9.3.1
	
5-11-98:
	Printing is now implimented.
	Version number now 0.9.3
	
5-8-98:
	Revised the history feature so that it has keyboard shortcuts.
	Increased the number of history entries to 9.
	Fixed long-filenamed files not opening properly from the shell.
	Version number now 0.9.2.3
		
5-7-98:
	Implimented history feature.  It will keep track of the five most recently
	accessed documents.
	Version number now 0.9.2
    
5-2-98:
	Fixed menu updating when child window is maximized.
	Editing can take place now while the Goto Line box is open.
	DEdit now retrieves the long filename of files when started from the shell.

3-12-98:
	Moved tab control position around to improve appearance.
	Tab control now updated when current window changes.
	Tab controls now show the path-stripped filename.
	Tab control updated when filename changes.
	All focus-related bugs fixed.
	Version number now 0.9.1

3-11-98:
	Implimented a Quick-Tab bar to select windows without using the window menu.
	Version number now 0.9.0