I've just uploaded Ged to the Specials collection - it is a GUI front-end to the "ed" line editor, and has been written for Java 1.5 using Swing. It enhances "ed" in several ways, such as providing optional themes, sound effects, and a stunning splash screen rendered in POV-ray.[1]
ok, the real reason I'm coding in Java/Swing is to test drive the new Java 1.5 features and the Swing API. I've coded in Java before, however the last few years I've been using mostly Shell, Perl, C and DTrace. There are some really great features in Java 1.5 to try out. I'm also planning on writing some more freeware GUI-based programs; such as performance monitoring tools (DTrace) and Games.
In the past I've coded in OSF/Motif, GTK 2.0, Java/AWT and now Java/Swing. It's hard to choose a single winner - they each have different pros and cons; however I do like coding in both GTK and Swing.
For now, enjoy Ged. No, I didn't write "ed" itself in Java - it borrows /bin/ed. Of course - I could write "ed" entirerly in Java, which would make Ged more portable, but there are higher things on my todo list!
[1] which was then mutilated by downsampling to "classic" 2-bit colour.
2 comments:
Brendan,
It now needs syntax highlighting, this would then make ed a real killer app it always should have been. Are you going to do an edlin port for the PC, or a teco port for VMS???
Doug
G'Day Doug,
Ahh - syntax highlighting would be great! Of course, if I add it, it will only highlight languages from the days of ed: COBOL, ALGOL 68, FORTRAN 70, SNOBOL, LISP, APL, BASIC, LOGO, PL/1, ... and a bunch of others that noone has heard of.
I didn't think of edlin or teco, edlin would be entertaining. It could be a replacement for notepad. perhaps "noteline"? :-)
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