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Memory Management
Many improvements have been made to Cutter with respect to the way that
it handles memory. Prior to this version, Cutter would throw a Java "OutOfMemory"
exception (error) after a period of use.
Drag and Drop
Files may be loaded into Cutter via drag and drop. In addition, Cutter
will accept text that has been hilited and dragged from another application.
Text dropped onto Cutter's desktop is displayed in an untitled window.
This may not work with all varieties of Linux.
Errors automatically hilited
RIB and SL files that cause the renderer/compiler to identify an error
now trigger Cutter to automatically hilite the appropriate line of text
in the editing window. Alternatively, double-clicking on the error message
in the Rman Monitor window will have the same effect.
Automatic (error) line hiliting has also been added to the Process Info
window ie. when compiling/running source code other than RIB and SL.
Window Appearance
To help users identify the currently selected window I have changed the
appearance of (background) inactive windows. Upon de-selection the title
bar, upper button panel and scroll bars of a window become "grayed out".
Rman Tools
Some extra drop-down menu's relating to RenderMans raytracing capabilities
have been added the RIB and SL tabs.
Linux and Mozilla
HTML documents may now be opened in a Mozilla window using the ctrl+E or
option+E keyboard shortcuts.
Preferences
Cutter now maintains three individual preference files for use with WIN, OSX
and LINUX operating systems. Cutter detects the OS on which it is running
and uses the appropriate prefs file.
History
Prior to this version, Cutter handled history in this way:
- only documents that were executed or "run" were assigned history
- history was updated only when a document was executed or "run"
- history was saved as cutter_history/filename.zip
History is now handled in this way:
- history is established when a file is initially saved
- modified documents have their history updated
each time they are saved
- history is saved as cutter_history/filename.extension.zip
The last point is important because prior to version 4.0.0 a document,
say, foo.rib would have its history over-written by a document named
foo.sl! Now foo.rib will have a history file called foo.rib.zip that
is separate from foo.sl.zip.
MEL Documentation
Alias have re-vamped the format of their MEL command documentation
for version 6 of Maya. Versions of Cutter prior to version 4.0.0 are
unable to provide online help using the new MEL docs. I have rewritten
the html parser that extracts information from their html pages. However,
I have not tested it on all 1000+ MEL web pages. Alias have also changed
the "location" of their documentation. In Preferences->Languages->MEL
change the "MEL Docs Directory" to,
WIN
http://localhost:4446/Maya6.0.1/en_US/Commands
On WIN right mouse clicking on a MEL command in a ".mel" document
will diplay a drop down menu listing the flags and related commands.
Typing completion is still supported ie. right mouse click on a partially
spelt command and Cutter will display a list of completions.
TCL Documentation
Because the html documentation for ActiveTcl on Windows is provided
as a Windows compiled help file I have decided to include within the
cutter.jar a zipped copy of the html docs for the standard TCL
commands. By default Cutter will reference those docs when a TCL command
name is option (or control) double clicked in an editing window ie.
Cutter will open the relevent web page in its internal browser. According
to ActiveTcl I am able to re-distribute these html docs as long as
I provide access to their copyright info and do not alter their
documentation. Their copyright notice can be found at,
Cutter_Help/tcl/ActiveTcl/tcl/copyright.htm
Printing
Black and white printing with fixed margins of 18 points on the left,
top and right edges and 36 points on the bottom margin. Printing has
been implemented largely with the aid of code from "Swing" by Matthew
Robinson and Pavel Vorobiev. Later I'll implement my own scheme so that
color printing is based on Cutter's syntax parsers.
Help Menu
A help manu has been added to Cutter's main menu bar. Other than
providing a way to quickly go to the www.fundza.com
web site there is no other help available - this will be corrected later.
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