Just so people know, I've released a new version of JHTML, pre6. This represents quite a bit of bug fixing and feature adding by a very dedicated user that found JHTML to be helpful, Creighton Kirkendall.

As a lot of you will notice with this version, while it has quite a few bugfixes and nice polishing touches, the preference menu is broken. This is only a minor problem and should be fixed on my copy of JHTML sitting at work in the next few weeks (its probably an afternoon worth of coding, I just need to find the time). Also the next version, pre7 will be refactored considerably and cleaned up. I removed the addition of the SkinLF from pre7 as it adds quite a bit of size to the download, and can always be added later by any users that like it (but the ones that don't like it can just ignore it).

Sorry for the 2 year gap in updates, I actually considered this projects closed a while ago, but due to Creightons work and all the users that I get emails from, its motivated me to keep working on JHTML in my spare time.

I started another project, JDevelop; about a monther or 2 after releasing it, JDevelopeR (the IDE based on Eclipse) came out... damnit all to hell. I googled for that term before I named the project that, trying to copy KDevelop from KDE.

   Features new to JHTML 1.0pre5:

• Text editing abilities
• Configurable syntax highlighting
• Configurable tabs
• Project dir option
• Tab position option
• Find/Replace Dialoge
• Selected text to Upper/Lower case
• All HTML tag to Upper/Lower case
• Each menu item now has a associated help agent page
• Optimizable startup/runtime options, can decrease startup time 2x

   This is simply a PREVIEW release so people can see/comment on the direction JHTML is taking. This is the last rewrite from scratch I plan on doing but as you can see a lot of spit and polish has gone into the features that are there.

!YOU CANNOT EDIT/OPEN/SAVE A FILE!

   This is not a error or mistake, I just haven't written the text component yet I decided to really take time and work on the asthetic/usability nature of JHTML before I started in on the text component so I could get a better idea of how things were going to tie together. Over all I'm very happy with it. You should be able to edit files by pre5 if I my plans stay the way I have them laid out. I doubt I'll add content to the help until later ( but before 1.0 release ) and the same goes for java docing the methods. That will take QUITE A WHILE and I don't exactly want to do that right now. The javadoc that ships with pre4 is up to date so you can atleast take a look at how JHTML is working.
   Send all feedback/bug reports with what is included in this release to rsk@u.arizona.edu

   JHTML 1.0pre4 is my last re-write from scratch. From now on I promise I won't do it anymore :)
   pre4 is comming along very nicely, my main focus right now being the preference menu, it is functional and working but I have to design it in such a way that its easy not only for me to maintain, but nice for the user to look at. This is usually a trade off. After that preference menu is done I will start work on the Help Agent and Help System, I am trying to implement all the system componenets before tackling the text componenet. So basically I'm finishing everything I can before hitting a brick wall and needing to finally tackle the text component. Sorry if its been quite for a while, updating this webpage is such a bitch that I try and leave it only when I have to. I also haven't had the time to PHPify the webpage so I could update it dynamically online, which would be the SMART thing to do.

   JHTML 1.0pre3 is ready and released. The syntax highlighting is still giving me an uncontrollable headache, so I've basically cut-pasted jEdit's old 1.6.1 syntax code into JHTML so people will atleast have the feature until I understand it better.
   Currently everything on the File menu works, except the preferences option. I still need to implement that. I am considering doing a big rewrite and converting everything over to XML and using a SAX parser for ALL config options as well as syntax supported tags. I am starting a new job, so I don't know how much time I will have to do this.

   Minor updates to the webpage have been done. More pages and resources have been added to the webpage as well to help people find out more about JHTML and get in contact with the developers as well.
   Syntax Highlighting is buggy, but usable at this point so we integrated it into our document models. We are going to try and iron out more details before we make the next release ( with Syntax Highlighting ) but still have quite a bit of work to do implementing the basic text editor functionality.
   We've written and rewritten Syntax Highlighting about 5 times now, trying to narrow down what the best way to do it is and well, how to do it :). Hopefully within the next few releases we will be able to become more versed in the art of Syntax Highlighting and be able to deliver a high quality highlighter by the 1.0 release. If anyone wants to give us suggestions ( code snippets, methods, etc. ) on how to efficient do Syntax Highlighting, please feel free to contact us. We are not in the market to rip one off, so please don't suggest that we just use Slava's ( JEdit / Jext ). Its an incredibly well done and robust text component, but we learn nothing if we just use someone elses.

   An incredible amount of progress was made between today and yesterday and the progression of JHTML is all going in the right direction. The design specs are being followed very closely and we are maintaining a fairly strict MVC design paradigm successfully as well. Some of the features that have been implemented/fixed in the last 2 days are:

• All options possible have been bound to a user preference
• Syntax Highlighting is on its way out the door while the removing of characters is being fixed up
• Internal frame views ( e.x. MS Visual Studio ) have been implemented
• Standard frame views ( e.x. TextPad ) have been implemented
• Preference loader has some bug corrections
• GUIBuilder had some quick bug fixes as well and ability updates as well

   Work continues on Prerelease 3 of JHTML. The entire project was scrapped and rewritten from the ground up after Prerelease 2. The following are things we would like to incorporate into Prerelease 3, but may not make it:

• Syntax Highlighting
• Project Browser
• Extensive Configuration Options
• Load from Web

   Well work has started on the Syntax Highlighting. In the last few days it has been written and rewritten approximately 3 times. We are easily able to implement highlighting for when the user types from begining to end. The problems begin when the user wants to click on a certain part of text, away from where he/she was typing and insert/remove text. Another problem is when the user wants to cut/paste large amounts of text. These problems are slowly evolving solutions for us, but its by no means easy. Stand by for more news.