New in Epsilon 6.0

We released Epsilon 6.0 in July 1992. This document shows some of the features we added in that version. You can also see the features we added in other versions. Here's how to order your update.

Main Attractions

Highlighting

Epsilon can highlight screen regions by displaying them in a different color.

Pop-up Windows

Epsilon now uses pop-up windows in several contexts; for example, when you press ? during completion, or when you bring up a list of buffers.

Multi-file Searching

You get an incredibly handy grep command that lets you search for a pattern across a set of files. You provide the search string and the file spec, then Epsilon uses its lightning-fast search facility to gather a list of lines that contain matches. You can instantly jump to any of the matches, literally at the touch of a key. This facility is totally integrated into Epsilon's powerful search system. Best of all, it's really fast--faster than many stand-alone "grep" programs.

Session Restoring

Epsilon now automatically preserves your editing session: it remembers which files you edited the last time you ran Epsilon, and the position of all windows on your screen. You can pop out of the editor, then get right back in and pick up where you left off--no need to reload the files you were working on, because Epsilon will do it for you. It remembers your window configuration and search strings too (among other things).

Bookmarks

New bookmark commands make it easy to return to a previous position. Set permanent and temporary bookmarks. Cycle through bookmarks, or jump to a bookmark by name. You can even pop up a list of the bookmarks (along with copies of the lines containing the bookmarks), then pick one right off the list.

System Enhancements

Epsilon can now use XMS memory in addition to EMS memory.
Epsilon for DOS can now put EEL functions, in addition to buffer text, in EMS or XMS memory.
Epsilon now allocates EMS and XMS memory as needed, instead of preallocating.
Epsilon can now use upper memory blocks between 640kb and 1 megabyte for buffer text.
Under DOS, Epsilon now makes keys repeat much faster than they ordinarily would. You can easily adjust this rate.
Regular expressions can use additional operators.
Epsilon now searches for regular expressions more quickly.
We increased the maximum size of a state file.

File Enhancements

Epsilon now understands read-only files, and makes sure you don't edit them by accident.
You can easily save text in a scratch buffer and retrieve it later.
New commenting commands let you easily create, reindent, move to, or delete comments in C and assembler.
You can now do a reverse-sort, sort the current region in place, and sort by column. We made sorting about six times faster.
When a tag has moved, Epsilon now searches for it automatically. Other enhancements to tags make it faster and easier to use.
During file name completion, Epsilon can ignore files with certain extensions.
Whenever Epsilon asks for a number, you can enter it in decimal, hexadecimal, octal, binary, or as a character.
The dired command now sorts its list of files.
New commands make it more convenient to switch windows or resize them, and to switch buffers.
You can now customize exactly what appears on the mode line.

Display Enhancements

Epsilon can zoom a window to full-screen temporarily, and restore the previous window configuration later.
Under DOS, Epsilon now provides new video modes with 28, 35, and 40 lines on VGA boards.
Virtual cursor mode lets you position the cursor where no text exists.

EEL Enhancements

We made spots a separate data type. They now record which buffer they refer to. You can declare spots left-inserting as before, or right-inserting.
EEL has new keywords for automatically restoring variable values after a function returns.
The EEL compiler now accepts new-style comments with //, string concatenation, and hex character constants.
New primitives let you read or write just part of a file.
Epsilon can automatically call an EEL function whenever any command tries to modify a particular buffer.
New primitives let you conveniently insert text directly into another buffer.

Here's how to order your update.

Epsilon: Put it to work for you.

Last Updated: 1 October 2009