Textpad 4.73 crashed on me today. I could hardly believe it. It rarely does. However, now I can't help but wondering ... could it be fate? This little accident prompted me to come here, just to see if the much anticipated update had come. Of course I kind of knew that it hadn't. After more than 2½ years of repeating the same procedure - go to Textpad web site, look for an update, leave with disappointment - of course I didn't expect much. In fact, I expected nothing at all.
I typed in www.te ... autocomplete did the rest. The page loaded.
- Well. I knew it. Same old, same old...
No new and flashy start page announcing the most anticipated software upgrade of the century. Just that damned old link ... "TextPad® 5.0 is a ..."
- What?!
I looked again: "TextPad® 5.0 ..."
- Wow!
I had to sit back. Let it sink in for a while. Was it actually true? I couldn't believe my eyes. I looked again.
- Yes.
It actually said "5.0".
- Wow ... I mean ...
- 5.0 ...
- Finally ...
Textpad 5.0 discussion
Moderators: AmigoJack, helios, bbadmin, Bob Hansen, MudGuard
"Wow" is a good word to use, yes. I'm amazed, truly. It's nice to see that it is in fact still alive. That said, I can't say i'm not disappointed. 2 1/2 years for:
The 5.0 release makes me both happy and sad. It's nice to be proven wrong about development being dead, but as far as releases go, this is a major disappointment.
and a few bug fixes? Sorry Helios but that's WAY too little WAY too late. I mean seriously, were any of the more major enhancement requests considered at all? And apart from the new tabbed docking windows and the dockable output/search windows the "redesigned user interface" is virtually identical to the old.Enhancements:
* Dockable File Explorer.
* Dockable Search Results and Tool Output.
* Tabbed document selector and clip library.
* Resizable Find/Replace dialogs.
* Drag and drop reordering of document tabs.
* Configurable environment variables.
* Vista 64 compatibility.
* Partial URLs of the form www.domain.com are now syntax highlighted.
The 5.0 release makes me both happy and sad. It's nice to be proven wrong about development being dead, but as far as releases go, this is a major disappointment.
Sure, I noticed that quote and thats a good thing. But do you realize how that appears when taken in context of what is in this release? I checked the old voting thread on what your customers wanted most and of the top 20 results you've only accomplished 1 in 2 1/2 years. In addition to that, this year your planning on multiple releases...so the question becomes, what happened during the past 2 years and how do we know it wont happen again? I don't mind being proven wrong about development being dead, I'm glad for it, I just would expect more given the time lapse.
As for the upgrade being free, thats a nice benie but it really doesn't matter IMO. I paid for 4 and I would pay again for 5 if it offered new, wanted features, but as it stands there is no reason to.
Anyway....I don't want to pee on your parade. The release of 5 is a good thing even if it's a disappointment. So gratz!
As for the upgrade being free, thats a nice benie but it really doesn't matter IMO. I paid for 4 and I would pay again for 5 if it offered new, wanted features, but as it stands there is no reason to.
Anyway....I don't want to pee on your parade. The release of 5 is a good thing even if it's a disappointment. So gratz!
This is great news although I had hoped for more too. I'm glad it hasn't strayed too far from the same clean lines. Have there been any 'under the hood' changes as many of the changes are to the GUI?
As far as I can tell Unicode support is unchanged. Are there any changes to the regular expression library? I think I scored zero out of twelve on my wishlist.
I also see the option for transparency still says that it only applies to Windows 2000 or above. This is redundant now as this is the basic requirement.
I find it slightly disconcerting that TextPad 5.0 works better on my MacBook than it does on my windows XP desktop. Some of the main points are:
As far as I can tell Unicode support is unchanged. Are there any changes to the regular expression library? I think I scored zero out of twelve on my wishlist.
I also see the option for transparency still says that it only applies to Windows 2000 or above. This is redundant now as this is the basic requirement.
I find it slightly disconcerting that TextPad 5.0 works better on my MacBook than it does on my windows XP desktop. Some of the main points are:
- TextPad 5.0 freezes displaying the explorer pane
- Search results/Toolout window does not repaint when resizing the application window
- Registration code required again on Windows, not on the Mac
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talleyrand
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Bob Hansen
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Thanks for the release of 5.0
Although there are still many enhancement requests not included, I think we can look forward to some of them with the indiicated future releases.
This release should quiet some of the non-believers, but many will still complain that development is dead, no matter what you do.
I may be naive, but I am expecting to see more substantial changes, and will continue to be silent on this issue, trusting your message. Many enhancement requests are niceties vs. necessities. I can still use TextPad for all of my editing needs, and will look forward to the future releases, whenever your schedule dictates it.
Thanks again for the free upgrade, have to wonder what the "pay for" upgrade will include.
Although there are still many enhancement requests not included, I think we can look forward to some of them with the indiicated future releases.
This release should quiet some of the non-believers, but many will still complain that development is dead, no matter what you do.
I may be naive, but I am expecting to see more substantial changes, and will continue to be silent on this issue, trusting your message. Many enhancement requests are niceties vs. necessities. I can still use TextPad for all of my editing needs, and will look forward to the future releases, whenever your schedule dictates it.
Thanks again for the free upgrade, have to wonder what the "pay for" upgrade will include.
Hope this was helpful.............good luck,
Bob
Bob
One major improvement that hasn't yet been noted: scrolling with the mouse scroll wheel no longer does smooth scrolling, and is therefore much, much faster. This was possibly my biggest gripe. Here's my original post on this from way back in April 2003:
http://www.textpad.info/forum/viewtopic ... highlight=
I suppose this is due to the switch to newer Win2k/XP widgets?
Thanks!
Martin
http://www.textpad.info/forum/viewtopic ... highlight=
I suppose this is due to the switch to newer Win2k/XP widgets?
Thanks!
Martin
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gan
I agree to some of the comments here regarding the slow (or none existing) development of textpad for some years now. Some features/fixes should have been included a long time ago. But the reason why i been using textpad for many years now instead of switching to some of the other text editors available with much more features is because it's really fast, simple and stable. Still with less features it's a very good text editor (I still think it's the best). I hope they continue to develop textpad without doing as many other companies have done with other text editors and include lot of useless stuff that doesn't belong in a text editor just because they run out of good ideas. Like some include a ftp client into the text editor. If i want a ftp client there are other and much better options available then a simple ftp client integrated into a text editor.
So i hope they will continue to develop textpad to make it better, but still without including a lot of useless stuff and make this great editor just like all others out there. I hope they won't ruin textpad by making this a huge package with lot of stuff that has nothing to do with a text editor.
Regarding version 5.0 then it took at long time for this release and not a lot of new features, but i see no reason to complain. It's a upgrade free of charge and they promise there will be several new releases this year.
This is my opinion and it's not like you all have to agree.
So i hope they will continue to develop textpad to make it better, but still without including a lot of useless stuff and make this great editor just like all others out there. I hope they won't ruin textpad by making this a huge package with lot of stuff that has nothing to do with a text editor.
Regarding version 5.0 then it took at long time for this release and not a lot of new features, but i see no reason to complain. It's a upgrade free of charge and they promise there will be several new releases this year.
This is my opinion and it's not like you all have to agree.
There are the usual quirks that seem to accompany a new release and those will probably be resolved fairly quickly as they had been for TP 4. I think this release is for the devs to gauge how the basic app is working under a greater variety of operating environments before they move forward with any other enhancements.
I'm glad to see that Explorer has been integrated as I've been wishing for this basic functionality. A lot of other editors have offered this and other features for a long time. I've looked around but I always come back to Textpad because of one very important and apparently very unique feature: indent-maintaining word wrap. And it's that kind of basic usability that is more important to me than say hex editing and code folding features, though I would still love those features to be included at some point.
I've been using Textpad for almost 10 years now and I would gladly pay for an upgraded license when most of the kinks are worked out of version 5 and a few more general feature suggestions built into it.
Thank you, Helios.
I'm glad to see that Explorer has been integrated as I've been wishing for this basic functionality. A lot of other editors have offered this and other features for a long time. I've looked around but I always come back to Textpad because of one very important and apparently very unique feature: indent-maintaining word wrap. And it's that kind of basic usability that is more important to me than say hex editing and code folding features, though I would still love those features to be included at some point.
I've been using Textpad for almost 10 years now and I would gladly pay for an upgraded license when most of the kinks are worked out of version 5 and a few more general feature suggestions built into it.
Thank you, Helios.
~T
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Tomas Eklund
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I had to restrain myself from bashing 5.0 in my first post. Like many others I was quite disappointed with the lack of new features in this release. Couldn't we at least have expected some new XP/Vista:ish icons?? Eh?
It's not even very stable. The first time I ran it, it crashed. It's only some hours old and we have already found a number of bugs. I'm sure these bugs will be sorted out eventually, but you know ... when waiting for 2½ years, you do have the time to build up some really high expectations.
I'm trying to figure out why Helios chose to call it 5.0. Considering the number of new features it should have been 4.7.4. But then we do have this new interface, so perhaps 4.8 would have been appropriate. Perhaps it's the 64-bit support? I can't help but thinking though, that it would have been a smarter move of Helios to call it 4.8 and say that "please enjoy this interrim release and expect 5.0 to come out later this year". That way I don't think we would have felt so let down. Expectations for 5.0 were set sky high.
I expected better regular expression support. I expected unicode support. I expected some extremely basic text editor features such as spaces-to-tabs conversion. And I had hoped for a ton of other things.
I said in my first sentence that I had wished for some nice, modern icons - you know ... just to bring that new and shiny feel to it. Well, this may sound contradictory but I also wish for an option to have a completely clean and icon free interface. The icon-clad menues look bad and bloated. I have a lot of macros and now the macro menu extends below the bottom of the screen. Yuck!
I did, however, very much enjoy the new tab bar with movable tabs. Yay! Thank you Helios for this!
It's not even very stable. The first time I ran it, it crashed. It's only some hours old and we have already found a number of bugs. I'm sure these bugs will be sorted out eventually, but you know ... when waiting for 2½ years, you do have the time to build up some really high expectations.
I'm trying to figure out why Helios chose to call it 5.0. Considering the number of new features it should have been 4.7.4. But then we do have this new interface, so perhaps 4.8 would have been appropriate. Perhaps it's the 64-bit support? I can't help but thinking though, that it would have been a smarter move of Helios to call it 4.8 and say that "please enjoy this interrim release and expect 5.0 to come out later this year". That way I don't think we would have felt so let down. Expectations for 5.0 were set sky high.
I expected better regular expression support. I expected unicode support. I expected some extremely basic text editor features such as spaces-to-tabs conversion. And I had hoped for a ton of other things.
I said in my first sentence that I had wished for some nice, modern icons - you know ... just to bring that new and shiny feel to it. Well, this may sound contradictory but I also wish for an option to have a completely clean and icon free interface. The icon-clad menues look bad and bloated. I have a lot of macros and now the macro menu extends below the bottom of the screen. Yuck!
I did, however, very much enjoy the new tab bar with movable tabs. Yay! Thank you Helios for this!
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talleyrand
- Posts: 625
- Joined: Mon Jul 21, 2003 6:56 pm
- Location: Kansas City, MO, USA
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I didn't really need any new features from TextPad but I went ahead and upgraded to see what's new. My guess is that this is called 5.0 because even though it appears to be a incremental upgrade to us the end users, the code base has been rewritten from scratch. Helios's goal is to provide a nearly identical look and feel to the existing product, provide upgrades that were "freebies" with using the new windowing widgets (dockables, resizeable S&R, etc) and fix some known issues. By doing so, they now have a modern codebase to work from and one that allows them to provide rough a timeframe for future releases (don't think I didn't catch that one 
)
One thing I noticed that wasn't mentioned in release notes was the addition of "Environmental Variables" under the Preferences menu. Nothing in the help file (size has increased so I assume it was updated) about what it's for. It doesn't appear to affect your actual environment (I set a value there, shelled to a command prompt and didn't see it listed. Closed TP and repeated but it still didn't show.) and it only allows uppercase variable names. Nothing showing under the Tool menu so I'm not sure where it will factor in.
Hopefully over lunch I'll get a few moments to dummy up a script that will access those variables. I'll try two variables, one with a set value and one that will attempt to access the "old" environmental variables $File, $FileDir etc. Perhaps it works in reverse, you can define new environmental variables that will be accessible to Tools.
)One thing I noticed that wasn't mentioned in release notes was the addition of "Environmental Variables" under the Preferences menu. Nothing in the help file (size has increased so I assume it was updated) about what it's for. It doesn't appear to affect your actual environment (I set a value there, shelled to a command prompt and didn't see it listed. Closed TP and repeated but it still didn't show.) and it only allows uppercase variable names. Nothing showing under the Tool menu so I'm not sure where it will factor in.
Hopefully over lunch I'll get a few moments to dummy up a script that will access those variables. I'll try two variables, one with a set value and one that will attempt to access the "old" environmental variables $File, $FileDir etc. Perhaps it works in reverse, you can define new environmental variables that will be accessible to Tools.
I choose to fight with a sack of angry cats.
Overall, a nice release.
Other than the slow preferences dialog and the weird character showing up on the menu items, the one thing I noticed that bothers me is that using F11 to show/hide the Document Selector now only shows it. It does not hide it anymore.
That functionality is critical for me in my work - having to use the mouse to close the Document Selector messes up my "routine".
Other than the slow preferences dialog and the weird character showing up on the menu items, the one thing I noticed that bothers me is that using F11 to show/hide the Document Selector now only shows it. It does not hide it anymore.
That functionality is critical for me in my work - having to use the mouse to close the Document Selector messes up my "routine".
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gan
I'm sure this is a bug. You could create a new post in a new thread to report the bug and hope they will fix it in the next release.....or maybe they read this post. Seems like 5.0 is ful of bugs and i hope they release a 5.01 soon to fix all the bugs that came in version 5.bgclarke wrote:I noticed that bothers me is that using F11 to show/hide the Document Selector now only shows it. It does not hide it anymore.
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bveldkamp
Those variables are passed to custom tools you start from TP. BTW it seems that once defined, it's impossible to delete variables, they're removed from the UI, but not from the environment.talleyrand wrote:One thing I noticed that wasn't mentioned in release notes was the addition of "Environmental Variables" under the Preferences menu. Nothing in the help file (size has increased so I assume it was updated) about what it's for. It doesn't appear to affect your actual environment (I set a value there, shelled to a command prompt and didn't see it listed. Closed TP and repeated but it still didn't show.) and it only allows uppercase variable names. Nothing showing under the Tool menu so I'm not sure where it will factor in.