Very Preliminary Documentation for VIDE

June 5, 1998

This is a VERY preliminary release of the V IDE
for GNU g++ for MS-Windows. It uses the alpha V 1.20
library which is not ready for X yet.

Even in this perliminary state, VIDE is a better way to
build programs with GNU g++ on MS-Windows. This version
has been tested with the mingw32 release, but not the
Cygwin version.

**** Working with Makefile 

This version is Makfile driven. You have to write your
Makefiles for the application. Later versions of VIDE
will automate this with a project file that lists the
files to be used, include paths, autodepency generation,
etc. But for now, you must supply the makefile.

When VIDE first comes up, it has a blank message window.
Results of your makes will show up in this window. To
make a Makefile, you first must select which Makefile to
use. Use the Sel Mk button to pick a Makefile. You can
change to different Makefiles during the same VIDE session
if you need to.

VIDE currently supports three make targets:
   blank (equivalent to just running make)
   clean (equivalent to make clean)
   <target> (allows you to specify target)

NOTE: This version of VIDE assumes your GNU make is called
'gmake'. Please create a copy of make.exe called gmake.exe
in your mingw32 bin directory. You also must be sure the
environment is correctly setup for mingw32. (And maybe
cygwin - let me know if you have luck with cygwin.)

VIDE first runs the Makefile in dry run mode. It uses
that output to then run the commands. It intercepts the
error messages for g++ and put them in the message window.
You can then right-click the error line, and VIDE will open
up the file in question, and put the cursor on the offending
line.  After you make changes, you must Save the file yourself
before running Make again. (This will be fixed in later versions...)

All in all, I find this process much easier than running from
a DOS command window.

**** VIDE Editor

This version includes a pretty decent editor based on
the V texteditor class. It supports real cut and paste to
other MS-Windows windows (this will be in the 1.20 V release!).
It has syntax highlighting for C and C++ files. It has
a few extra commands good for programming.

Things missing from the editor that WILL be included in
future versions:
    Auto indent for C and C++ code
    Selectable highlight colors
    Replace
    Macros
    Horizontal scrolling
    Permanent preferences
    Formatted source code printing
    Automatic Code formatting to the V standard


***** Future features

   Project management - specify files, auto makefile generation
   More editor features (including autosave on remake)
   Custom preferences for projects, VIDE
   Ability to launch different editors on errors
   C++ Class Browser
   V Dialog Box builder
   Debug features
     initially, output window for vDebug, and primitive 
       interface to gdb
     eventually, full integration with gdb
   Help


Currently, there are others working on the Project Manager
and the Dialog builder. I'd especially like help for building
an interface to gdb. I'd base it on xxgdb probably, so maybe
an X port should be first, but I think the MS-Windows port will
be harder. I just don't know enough about gdb to make real
intelligent comments yet. The C++ class browser is actually
done, but needs the project stuff to work right.

Help on help - I think I'd like to make help html based,
so I need to know how to launch the default browser on Windows.
This may end up being a part of the VIDE preferences file.
It would also be good to be able to access standard Windows
.hlp files.
