RegexBuddy 3 released

[OGroeger]

This week JGSoft released version 3 of Regexbuddy

Though Regexbuddy is not free (29.95 EUR) i thought somebody might be interested about this, because Regexbuddy has been mentioned in several threads.

The complete release notes are below, the most obvious changes are

• several layouts available, e.g. a dual monitor layout.
• "debug from here"
• "list all with full details"
• Open url for getting test data
• Integrated forum software

New features:

    * COM interface: Debug method to show the debugger output at a particular byte position in the test data.
    * COM interface: InitAction and FinishAction can now pass a list of actions to populate and retrieve the whole History list. The caption of the History panel will change to "List for appname" when InitAction is used this way.
    * COM interface: New variant structure with FreeSpacing and Flavor fields.
    * COM interface: ability to specify test data or the path to a test file to be loaded into the Test tab.
    * COM interface: function to disable certain options; e.g. EditPad Pro and PowerGREP force the JGsoft regex flavor with "^$ match at line breaks" turned off.
    * COM interface: support for additional programming languages when passing regular expressions as strings.
    * Command line interface: -testclipboard parameter to paste the contents of the clipboard into the Test tab.
    * Command line interface: -testfile parameter to load a file into the Test tab.
    * Command line interface: Additional parameters for passing regexes as strings in various programming languages.
    * Copy/paste C# strings, which uses verbatim strings when appropriate.
    * Copy/paste: Support for all the string styles used by the programming languages newly supported on the Use tab.
    * Create: Indicate features used in the regular expression that are available in some flavors, but not in the selected flavor. Double-clicking such an error replaces it with the equivalent syntax (if any) in the selected flavor.
    * Debug Everywhere: Runs the debugger at each position in the test subject, rather than only at the current position of the text cursor.
    * Debug Till End: Runs the debugger from the current position of the cursor until the end of the test subject.
    * Flavors: RegexBuddy now has the unique ability to emulate the limitations of all the regular expression flavors that it supports. Simply select the flavor you're working with on the main toolbar.
    * Forum: Discuss and share regular expressions with other RegexBuddy users.
    * Fully modular interface: the tabs in RegexBuddy 2 are now panels that can be arranged in tabs, side by side or made to float independently. The layout is automatically remembered between RegexBuddy sessions.
    * GREP: Button to open the file in EditPad or another editor instead of the Test pane.
    * GREP: Keyboard shortcuts for preview, execute and quick execute like in PowerGREP.
    * History: List of regular expressions to easily compare different regular expressions in a single RegexBuddy session.
    * Insert Token: Unicode blocks.
    * Insert Token: Unicode properties.
    * Insert Token: Unicode properties, scripts and blocks can now be added directly when adding or editing character classes.
    * Insert Token: Unicode scripts.
    * Library: Export without test data and comments but with a unique ID for each regex, so the library can be used as a data file for applications as an alternative to hard-coding regular expressions.
    * Library: Store test data with each regular expression.
    * Preferences, Editor: Option to toggle word wrap in the "test" editors.
    * Preferences: Option to configure whether code snippets on the Use tab use spaces or tabs, and how many, for indentation.
    * Preferences: Option to remember the GREP settings.
    * Preferences: Option to remember the test data between RegexBuddy sessions.
    * Preferences: Regex tree font on the Create page.
    * Regex: (?n) explicit capture modifier, as supported by the .NET framework.
    * Regex: Ability to select a regex flavor to make RegexBuddy mimic the syntax and limitations of the selected flavor.
    * Regex: Character class subtraction, as supported by XML schema and the .NET framework.
    * Regex: Dummy support for PCRE callouts (?C1) through (?C255) when the flavor is set to "PCRE".
    * Regex: Free-spacing option and (?x) free-spacing mode modifier.
    * Regex: POSIX character classes.
    * Regex: \Q..\E escape sequence for escaping a string of metacharacters.
    * Regex: \cA through \cZ ASCII control characters Ctrl+A through Ctrl+Z; equivalent of \x01 through \x1A; can be used inside and outside character classes.
    * Regex: \p{Arabic} through \p{Yi} tokens for matching any character in a particular Unicode script; \p{IsArabic} syntax also supported.
    * Regex: \p{InBasicLatin} through \p{InSpecials} tokens for matching any character in a particular Unicode block; \p{IsBasicLatin} and \p{BasicLatin} alternatives also supported; BasicLatin can also be written as Basic_Latin, Basic-Latin and Basic Latin.
    * Regex: \p{IsL} and \P{IsL} alternative syntax to \p{L} and \P{L}; using the \p{IsL} syntax is not recommended, as \p{L} has much wider support; RegexBuddy supports it for compatibility with Perl and Java which support both \p{L} and \p{IsL}.
    * Regex: \p{^...} syntax as an alternative syntax to \P{...}; using the \p{^...} syntax is not recommended, as only Perl supports it; Perl also supports \P{...}; RegexBuddy only supports it for Perl compatibility.
    * Regex: \x{FFFF} alternative to \uFFFF. This syntax is used by Perl. While \uFFFF must always specify 4 hex digits, the \x{FFFF} syntax allows leading zeros to be omitted.
    * Replace: Support for $&, $`, $', $_ and $+ and corresponding backslash versions.
    * Test: Hexadecimal mode.
    * Test: List All option to show all capturing groups in columns.
    * Test: List All option to show match details folded under each match.
    * Test: List All subitem to list lines or pages without matches when processing the subject line by line or page by page.
    * Test: Open a URL to test a regex on the HTML source of a web page.
    * Test: Option to process the test subject line by line. This makes RegexBuddy behave like traditional grep, and also makes it easier to test a regex against multiple subjects, one on each line.
    * Test: Option to process the test subject page by page, so page breaks can be used to delimit multiple subject strings.
    * Test: Save test data into a text file.
    * Test: The Replace button now has an option to produce a list of replacements, without the unmatched text.
    * Undo and redo buttons that undo changes made to the regular expression and replacement text, either directly or via the Insert Token command.
    * Use: Customizable templates to create and edit code snippets for programming languages that use one of the regex flavors supported by RegexBuddy.
    * Use: If the regex flavor selected in the main toolbar does not correspond with the regex flavor needed by the programming language selected on the Use tab, RegexBuddy will automatically convert it to the needed flavor, or show an error if it can't.
    * Use: MySQL.
    * Use: Oracle.
    * Use: PostgreSQL.
    * Use: String literal with RegexBuddy's regex tree.
    * Use: Tcl.
    * Use: XML Schema.

Improvements:

    * Copy/paste: All the different string styles are now listed in submenus, with the string styles corresponding to the selected regex flavor and/or programming language listed directly in the Copy and Paste menus.
    * Create: Eliminate duplicates from "match a character in the list" for character classes, to make it clearer that a character class matches characters instead of words.
    * Debug: If the only output is backtrack; match attempt failed, explain that the match was only attempted at the current cursor location.
    * GREP: .rbg files now use an XML-based format that can be easily created and read in other applications. RegexBuddy 3 can read binary .rbg files saved by RegexBuddy 2, but can only write the new XML-based format.
    * GREP: Show the number of matches per file and the clickable file header on one line. This halves the number of lines needed when not showing match details (e.g. after a "quick execute"), and leaves the total visible when collapsing file nodes.
    * Insert Token, Anchors: Label the menu items for ^ and $ as "beginning/end of line" and make them turn on the "^ and $ match at line breaks" option.
    * Insert Token: ASCII character map now allows you to select the code page to be displayed.
    * Insert Token: Unicode character map now indicates code point numbers in a tooltip.
    * Library: .rbl files now use an XML-based format that can be easily read in other applications. RegexBuddy 3 can read binary .rbl files saved by RegexBuddy 1 and 2, but can only write the new XML-based format.
    * Library: Using a regular expression from the library now keeps the previous regex in the history list, making it easy to revert to it.
    * Test: Highlight backreferences in the match details. When double-clicking a backreference, highlight that backreference in the results.
    * Use: C# code snippets should use verbatim strings when the regex contains backslashes or free-spacing line breaks.
    * Use: Comments with RegexBuddy tree should indicate matching options.
    * Use: PHP preg operators now add the /u modifier if your regular expression uses a Unicode token.

-RegexBuddy Homepage

[Darwin]

I upgraded and it's a real sea-change compared to version 2 in terms of the interface. The GUI has been extensively tweaked and I'm finding it a bit confusing. Of course, I haven't really played with it much.

There are some indications on the jgsoft site that both EditPad Pro and PowerGrep are due for new versions soon as well, which is a bit ominious! AFAICT, if you buy v.X of a jgsoft app today and v.Y is released next week, you have to pay the upgrade (and I just bought EditPad Pro...). Of course, there is a line in the policy about reserving the right to waive the upgrade fee, so this might be done when the upgrade form is generated. However, the webpage for Regexgbuddy says that if you bought v.2 on June 12, 2007 you get the upgrade free, otherwise you have to pay (I bought v.2 over a year ago).

[OGroeger]

I was surprised about the bought-on-June-12 rule on the webpage, because i ordered RegexBuddy 2 at 2007-05-27 and they offered me an update to v3 for free.  Thanks Jan, Ji-haa

[Darwin]

I was surprised about the bought-on-June-12 rule on the webpage, because i ordered RegexBuddy 2 at 2007-05-27 and they offered me an update to v3 for free.  Thanks Jan, Ji-haa

-OGroeger (June 17, 2007, 03:49 AM)

This is more or less what I expected to happen! Excellent news 

[allen]

As a rule, jgsoft is really good about keeping customers in mind. Upgrade policy is a bit ominous but the actions are typically much better.  acetext 2 was free for all owners of v1 for example.

The new version is great.  A bit confusing, unless you are a powergrep user but more intuitive in the long run I think. Definitely more keyboard friendly.

I'm really glad to see a product forum. While it would be nice to have the option to read it outside the product, his reasons for embeding it as outlined in his blog are sound.

But the addition that will have the biggest impact on Just Great Software as a business are the new RegexBuddy user forums. A lot of people have been asking for forums for all our products for quite some time. It hadn’t happened so far, because I didn’t want to just slap some open source forum package onto the JGsoft web site and then see it only get used for spam.

I’ve seen too many forums on small publishers’ web sites where all that happens is the developer fielding support questions. If the support questions are few, the whole forum just gives me a spooky abandoned feeling.

Personally, I am most excited about seeing embedded forums in the JGSoft products I use the most frquently--AceText and EditPad Pro.

[mitzevo]

JGSoft ftw Some very handy tools. <3 acetext

[Darwin]

ftw = ? Sorry, I can't figure it out 

[mitzevo]

fat tubby whale

[allen]

"for the win"
Victor!

[JoTo]

Hi DCs,

i purchased RegExBuddy 2 two or three months ago. And i was offered a free upgrade to V3. JG told me that he has extended my free upgrade permission to all future 3.x versions. Not only the first one now. If i understand his email correct i only have to pay again when V4 comes out.

I can live with that upgrade policy if the author is so fair to his customers like JG is. And by the way...RegExBuddy is a lifesaver for RegexLovers and worth every penny.

CU
JoTo

[Darwin]

Thanks JoTo - further evidence that all is well in jgsoft land! Having bought 3 licences from Jan, one would hope that I already knew this  ; I just got a bit freaked out about the June 12/June 13 break and it got me thinking about my recent purchase of EditPad Pro. Sounds like a new version being released tomorrow isn't going to put a dent in my bank account (if a new version came out in the fall it probably would, but I can live with that).