ViEmu Blog

So, we had to hurry this a bit since the beta 6 period will expire tomorrow:

http://www.viemu.com/ViEmuVS2010-Beta7.vsix

We left out the settings window (which is half-done now but not included in this release) and the new documentation. Hopefully by next wee. Anyway, here is the list of thing we improved (quite a few):

• Fixed: When the cursor is on a collapsed section, Shift-Y hangs the IDE.
• Fixed bugs related to selections and collapsed regions.
• Fixed: With the cursor on the same line as a collapsed section, ‘o’ doesn’t insert a line below the expanded section, but instead above it, without the cursor moving down a line, effectively staying on the same line as the collapsed section.
• zR now does ‘ToggleAllOutlining’.
• Fixed: sometimes VS caret regained visibility in views.
• Fixed bug&exception when doing v$x (did nothing or throwed an exception). It also happened with any other command after v$.
• Fixed an exception in Output/Find Result/… windows related to refering to different snapshots when doing hlsearch.
• Added viemu undo markers to ‘create/destroy fold’ actions.
• Extended trial period to 9/7/2010

Again, all feedback is welcome. We expect a Beta8 by next week which should already feel like an RC. We’ll leave the performance issues for a revision shortly after the RC.

Beta 6 is now ready. This will work even after the “expiry” of the built-in trial period for some more time, as the beta proceeds:

http://www.viemu.com/ViEmuVS2010-Beta6.vsix

This is closer to the Release Candidate, hopefully ready in a few days. Here are the main changes:

• Folding/outlines/wordwrap support (pending gj/gk)
• Added commands for all key combinations. Now you can map Ctrl-Shift-Alt-Underscore, etc… you also need to go to Tools|Options|Environment|Keyboard and assign the keypress to ViEmu.KeypressCtrlShiftAltUnderscore for VS to route it.
• End-of-trial-period and license-related messages hopefully fixed

Now we’re off to doing the settings window, the docs, and finishing the remaining little glitches, to try and get to RC1 quickly. After that, the first official release. And after that, we’ll concentrate on all issues when interacting with other popular third-party add-ons, for a new release afterwards.

Please keep the feedback coming.

This version addresses the main issues in Beta 4, mainly the “massive-undo” bug that could cause ‘u’ to undo a long chain of edits. It should be much closer to release quality (pending docs, settings dialog and a few more features):

http://www.viemu.com/ViEmuVS2010-Beta5.vsix

Change log:

• Undo/Redo grouping fixed. ViEmu would undo a lot actions some times, now it won’t.
• Ctrl-] (Go To Definition) working.
• Ctrl+Left/Right now work as expected in insert mode.
• Shift+CursorKey now works as expected, moving cursor and extending VS selection. Pending to make it work in command mode (ViEmu-VS selection integration).
• Fixed caret shape not reflecting ViEmu mode when switching views.
• ‘Ctrl-R + char’ now works in input mode (paste from clipboards).
• Fixed the exception thrown when trying to copy text from VS2008 to VS2010 through viemu y/p commands. Text can now be copied normally.
• HLSearch now updates correctly when scrolling or changing views.
• Added ‘Enter License Key’ to ViEmu menu.

We want to get out of beta and release properly as soon as possible, hopefully in very few weeks. “Official release” means not having serious bugs, but we might delay some still-important features to a later release, such as better keyinding management or even folding/regions support. Work on these will start without delay right after the release, but it’s important for us to get to “official” release and finalize all important pieces.

All feedback is welcome.

PS: In case you’re curious, the “massive-undo” is caused by the internal ViEmu undo-grouping mechanism failing to close in some cases, and thus becoming inactive and grouping too many actions together. We now close the undo group on the editor’s lose/gain focus, as we did in ViEmu “Classic”, and this fixes the problem.

Here is Beta 4:

http://www.viemu.com/ViEmuVS2010-Beta4.vsix

Changes:

• Fixes accumulative slowdown  in insert mode
• Fixes operation of undo/redo in some cases (not sure it’s all of them though)
• Initial rough version of hlsearch support

This version is a bit rough, especially hlsearch, but I wanted to release a version without the slowdown, and see if our different handling of undo/redo would fix the difficult-to-reproduce undo problem. So it wouldn’t be worse than Beta3 in any case.
Thanks for your feedback!