JEdit

[PyTom]

Now that I have a new mac, I feel compelled to bring Ren'Py's mac support up to the same level as some of the other platforms. One area where Ren'Py has been sorely lacking is text editor support on the mac, since SciTE only runs on Windows and Linux/Unix.

I'm strongly considering switching over to JEdit for all three platforms. This is a Java application, so it will mean that Java 1.5 or higher will have to be installed on the system. It won't be required to run games, but will be required to open script files in the default text editor that ships with Ren'Py.

The big downside is that some of the keybindings will have changed, which means people will have to relearn them. One big upside is that there's a spell-checking plugin for JEdit, so you'll be able to spell-check your game.

Anyway, like all new development, here's a screenshot:

I will be making the old (SciTE) editor available as a download, at least for a while, for people who don't want to change. That being said, I would like peoples' feedback as to if they think this is a reasonable idea. I'd also like to know what version of Java people have installed by default. You can find out by going to the start menu, picking run, typing in "cmd", hitting ok, and then entering in "java -version" at the command prompt.

[Mikan]

:s Java?

I haven't heard anything good about any Java-based programs.
I hope it turns out to be an okay editor...

[N0UGHTS]

I haven't heard anything about Java programs. :laughs:

The spellcheck feature sounds nice... And I'm young. So yeah, still versatile. I think I can adapt pretty well. :feels pity for those over age twenty-five:

The only issues I have with JEdit are that I don't know if it has any bugs, don't know how well it'll run on a (relative's shoddy) Vista laptop, and, the biggest issue: Looks like I have to scroll right and left. Dangit... Oh, and that shade of purple? Absolutely hideous! If you ask me, that line should've been the color of those blue scrollbars. And it's obvious that shade of blue goes better with grey than that purple does.

Java build 1.6.0_07-b06...

[Showsni]

Mine says "1.6.0_03" when I do that.
Java (TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_03-b05)

[Dusty]

'java version "1.6.0_07"' or 'java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_07-b06)'

Weaklings, I always code in Notepad! There are "keybindings" in the current editor? What are those, and what are they used for?

[sciencewarrior]

JEdit has been around for a century in Internet years. It's pretty solid and has lots of nifty plugins. Besides the aforementioned added requirement, the only downside I see is that it is a bit slower on startup.

EDIT: Java 1.6.0_05 on both machines.

[N0UGHTS]

Hmmm... Does JEdit support Commonwealth English? I don't want to be corrected on "omelette"...

[Jake]

Oh, and that shade of purple? Absolutely hideous! If you ask me, that line should've been the color of those blue scrollbars. And it's obvious that shade of blue goes better with grey than that purple does.

The blue scrollbars are OSX standard-issue; I expect the purple was probably chosen to fit in with whatever ghastly KDE theme the lead developer uses. :3

Hmmm... Does JEdit support Commonwealth English? I don't want to be corrected on "omelette"...

Their website says they use ASpell. I'm fairly sure I've heard of an English dictionary for ASpell, which is close enough to Commonwealth English for a Canadian or Kiwi to probably not notice the difference; certainly we spell 'omelette' correctly over here. The default will undoubtedly be AmEng, though...

[Wintermoon]

I never used SciTE and I won't use JEdit. gvim über alles! (I don't suppose you could offer gvim integration as a user-selectable option?)

I do have Java 1.6.0_06 installed FWIW.

[PyTom]

I never used SciTE and I won't use JEdit. gvim über alles! (I don't suppose you could offer gvim integration as a user-selectable option?)

Yes. See the documentation for config.editor, which describes how to set up your own editor. Ren'Py reads the default value for config.editor out of the RENPY_EDITOR environment variable.

For those of you who want to try out the new editor today, you can grab one of the attached file. The first file is a 7zip self-extracting file, so if you are on Windows (or on Linux and Mac and have 7zip), please grab that one. 7zip can shave 3.5 megs off the current Ren'Py distribution, so I'm planning on offering it as an option for the bandwidth-impaired.

[denzil]

I think that jedit is a nice editor. The only think I didn't like was the way it's handling multiple files. I think it's confusing. There's a BufferTabs plugin that replaces it with tabs (and thus makes it much cleaner IMO), so it would be nice to have installed it by default.

[Wintermoon]

Yes. See the documentation for config.editor, which describes how to set up your own editor. Ren'Py reads the default value for config.editor out of the RENPY_EDITOR environment variable.

config.editor/RENPY_EDITOR works, of course, but setting a correct command line with all three command-line substitutions (only two of which are mentioned in the documentation) is fiddly work. Example command lines for common editors in config.py would be an improvement. A menu for selecting an editor from within the launcher would be even better.

[jack_norton]

Spell check is cool, another cool thing would be code completion or syntax checking.
Downloaded it, going to try. If the new keybinding means F5 to run the game for me is better since I'm used to VC keys

[delta]

jEdit is one of the more powerful editors around, and it can do nearly anything with a bit of tinkering, so I applaud this move. The only thing is that it's a bit of a resource hog and slow, but it's still a text editor, so neither is really problematic. For the comparatively slow startup time, the best workaround is to just not close it.

And 99% of people really serious about text editors will use something else anyway, regardless of what you recommend.

[Adorya]

Will it be able to do a spellcheck in the code like comma forgotten and such?