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News and Notes about nXhtml

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Thanks for testing!

- I want to thanks the testers, especially Hadron Quark - and Eric Lilja, for helping me by testing and pointing - out bugs and weaknesses, most related to editing of PHP. -

- It is quite a big job trying to get rid of smaller annoying bugs and bigger ones. - In my mailbox folder for nXhtml I have more than 500 old messages currently. -

The State of the Art

- I have more and more come to realize that there are two - main parts of nXhtml which are in quite different - degrees of maturity. The reason for the difference is - mainly that one of them, mumamo-mode, requires - very tight integration with Emacs in a way that - currently is not completely possible. Some things must - be changed in Emacs for this. There are also things to - discover in the interactions with other minor modes for - example. -

- That said I still think mumamo-mode is mature enough for - serious use (though it sometimes conflicts with some other modules). -

- The other part, nxhtml-mode, is more mature, - since it stands more by itself and since it builds on - the very stable nxml-mode. I would not say nxhtml-mode - is finished, but it is stable and useful. -

Magic major mode selection

- Sometimes the major mode that Emacs opens a file in is - not what you expect. This can happen with files like PHP - files. The reason might be that magic-mode-alist have - choosen a mode based on the content of the file. The way - this is done does not take files with mixes a mix of for - example XHTML and PHP into account. -

- You may try setting magic-mode-alist to nil if this is a - problem for you. -

- - This is now no longer necessary since the introduction - of magic-fallback-mode-alist in CVS Emacs on 2007-05-16. - (If you have an Emacs newer than that, of course.) - -

Long Red Underlines

- Because of a bug in Emacs 22.1 you can sometimes (at the - end of a line) get long red lines instead of just a - single underlined character. Many users (me included) - find this quite a bit disturbing. I have therefore added - a command to quickly hide/show the underlines. This is - on C-c C-w. -

- This is particular useful for example in the case where - you edit a PHP file and are bound to get a lot of XHTML - validation errors. -

Attribute values computed by PHP

- If you want to have attribute values computed by PHP - here is a way how to structure that to avoid breaking - completion and validation in the XHTML part unnessecary: -

- <img src="images/linux.png" title="<?php foo("bar");?>"/> -

- Unfortunately that still breaks XHTML validation since - < is not allowed in strings. In the long run I - believe the XML validator has to be broken up so that it - avoids parsing the string here (in PHP files). -

- For now I have implemented a workaround. - If you are using constructs like those above then turn on nxhtml-strval-mode. - This will temporarily replace the above with -

- <img src="images/linux.png" title="«?php foo("bar");?»"/> -

- However on the screen you will still see the original - string and when writing to file the correct characters - will be used. -

A note for PHP and its cousins

- The rules for a process instruction in XML, like <?php - ... ?> says that the text can contain any text except - ?>. So if you want to output that string - from PHP then break it up so it does not look as ?> in - the source file. -

- It might be good to break up the beginning part of the - process instructions too. And please note that to use - XHTML validation or completion you should avoid using - < in strings, since it is not allowed there. -

Perl Mode slow with Mumamo Mode

- Perl mode used with MuMaMo mode sometimes makes the - fontification slow for big files. I do not know the - reason, but I am trying to find a solution for this. If - you encounter this problem, just turn off mumamo-mode in - that buffer. -

Tab width

- Do you have tab-width to something different than 8 - (the default)? Then please change this to 8. I have got - reports of problem with indentation when it is not 8. -

Why the chunks are not compatible with mmm

- Some people have asked why the way to specify chunks in - mumamo-mode is not compatible with the old mmm-mode. The - answer is that I was not sure that the way used in - mmm-mode for specifying the chunks was flexible enough. -

- And I am sure that even the way used in mumamo-mode is - not good enough for all cases, but I let it be the way - it is until I have a better understanding of the - problem. Suggestions and comments are welcome! -

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nXhtml Changes

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0.89

- Corrected autostart for nXhtml when not used together with EmacsW32. -

0.90

- Improved display of XML path. -
- Discontinued xmple-mode. -
- New major modes nxhtml-part-mode/nxml-part-mode replaces - minor mode xmlpe-mode. (While moving the code to - nxhtml-part.el I also fixed a bug in Xmple minor mode that - made Emacs take 99% of the CPU.) -

0.91

- Fixed some calls to perl which prevented uploading of - a site of you did not have perl in the same location - as me. -
- Glued together things so that editing PHP files works - as I intended. (This means that Emacs switches between - php-mode and nxhtml-part-mode automatically when - moving point. And that you can use completion.) -
- Starting working on the documentation for nXhtml. - New layout to the documentation files. - Examples with images. -

0.92

- Fixes to make the switching between php and xhtml - style editing work better. -

0.93

- Better error handling when switching to editing - embedded JavaScript and CSS. -
- Removed PHP spec from embedded switching since they - interfered with the automatic switching between php - and xhtml. -
- Gives an error message if web host is not defined in - site when trying to use View Uploaded File and - cousins. -
- Gives a ready message when finished uploading a single - file. -
- When using Mode Switching at <? ... ?> mode - switching could occur in wrong buffer. Fixed together - with some other buffer problems. -

0.94

- Add http://www.w3.org/ to the help sites for CSS. -
- Included a CSS mode. -
- Added a menu entry for bug reporting. -
- Renamed menu bar entry from XHTML to nXhtml for clarity. - (But nXml menu bar entry is still called XML.) -
- Added work around for globalized minor modes in the - cases of MLinks, XML Path and mode switching at <? ... ?>. -

0.95

- Added workaround for the problem with the first - keyboard key after automatically switching of mode at - <? ... ?>. -

0.96

- Added support for multiple major modes with mumamo.el. -
- More conventient handling of links. They can now be - opened in the same window, 'other window' or in a new - frame. -

0.97

- Schema was not setup after starting new page so - completion did not work. Fixed. -
- Added http://xhtml.com/ to help sites for XHTML. -
- Added the concept of XML validation headers. - These are just text parsed by the nXml validation - parser to get a start state before starting parsing a - buffer. This allows the use of the nXml completion in - buffers where there are no XML header. Such a header - is often lacking for example in PHP code since the - XHTML header is often generated dynamically. -
- Because of the change above nxhtml-part-mode - is no longer needed and is therefore declared - obsolete. -
- Corrected a bug in mlinks.el that prevented opening an - HTML link in a other window or a new frame. -
- Added support for JSP, eRuby and some support for perl - in mumamo.el. -

0.98

- Mumamo was not found when nXhtml was installed with - just the zip file. Corrected. (nXhtml is also - installed when you install EmacsW32.) -
- Enhancement to mumamo error handling when a bad mode - specifier for an embedded mode is found. -
- Introduced a bug for empty XHTML documents in - 0.97. Corrected. -
- Corrected a bug for chunks 1 character long. -
- There is what I consider is a bug in Emacs 22.1 in the - handling of global minor mode that are not distributed - with Emacs. If they are turned on by customization, - but loaded after Emacs have loaded the customizations - (usually in .emacs) then they are not turned on - correctly. Added work-around for this. -
- Extra XHTML Validation Header: -
- - Extra XHTML Validation Header state was not saved when moving between chunks. Fixed. -
- - Tried to make the concept of Extra XHTML Validation Header - more clear. Added this visually to the buffer. -
- - Extra XHTML Validation Headers can now be turned on - automatically based on file name. -
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- nXhtml menu: -
- - Reorganized the nXhtml menu. -
- - Added customization groups for help libraries to nXhtml. -
- - Added an entry for customization of nXhtml to the menus. -
- - Added Tidy to the menus again. -
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- Corrected bug in XML Path (nxml-where) for single tags. - Other small fixes to nxhtml-where. -
- Documentation enhancements. - Added The Quick Guide. -

0.99

- Fixed a serious bug in the cooperation between nxhtml-mode and mumamo-mode. -
- Turn on mumamo-mode by file name (mumamo-global-mode). -
- Extra XHTML Validation Header: -
- - The Extra XHTML Validation Header state were not saved when changing major mode in MuMaMo. Corrected. -
- - Added more alternatives to the Extra XHTML Validation Header list. - This should make it easier to use completion with for example PHP. -
- - Added default value for the Extra XHTML Validation Header. -
- - Tried to make the use of Extra XHTML Validation Header more automatic and therefore useful. - Also tried to make it play better with setting schema file. - (There is no need normally to set schema file by hand.) -
- - To turn this on by default customize nxhtml-global-validation-header-mode. -
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- Possible to hide validation warnings without turning - on validation (which would make completion in the - XHTML part impossible). -
- Some fixes to php-mode: -
- Using the character # for comments now works for most cases.
- Now uses the fontification faces in a more standard way which calms down the look.
- Initialization bug fixes.
- Renamed php-mode-user-hook to php-mode-hook to follow standard.
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- Indentation fixes: -
- - Various corrections to indentation in mumamo. -
- - Added the possibility to use TAB to indent regions - (indent-region-mode). -
- - Warn about bad indentation in mixed PHP/HTML code - when using php-mode only. -
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- Fontification now fontifies all text first in main - major mode and thereafter applies submodes. (This - avoids some problems with around a submode chunk.) -
- Reorganized the nXhtml menu: -
- - There is now a minor mode for the nXhtml - menu. This makes it possible to easier use common - features when in buffers not in nxhtml-mode. -
- - The nXhtml menu does not disappear when moving - into a chunk where the major mode is not - nxhtml-mode. The changes also makes it easy to - access uploading functions functions etc from - other modes than nxhtml-mode since the - nXhtml may also be shown in them. -
- - The nXhtml menu can be turned on globally by default. - Customize nxhtml-menu-mode for that. -
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1.00

- Reached version number 1.00 - which you maybe believe - means the bugs should be gone? Sorry, it is just that - I ran out of version numbers ;-) However it looks like - much fewer bugs at least. -
- Fixed problems mostly related to global turn on of different features in nXhtml. -
- Small fixes to indentation. -
- - nxhtml-mode could get confused by php tags. -
- - nxhtml-mode did not indent <!DOCTYPE in a sensible way. -
- - Electric keys now works in embedded php when using mumamo-mode. -
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- Tidy was very misbehaving since the output buffer was - not erased between different files. But I have got no - bug reports on this ;-) -
- Fixed a bug in validation that should up when using muamo-mode. -
- Fixed bug in <script ...> and <style ...> chunk dividing. -
- Added support for OpenLaszlo. -
- Corrections to mlinks-mode (visible mostly as links in - XHTML buffers): -
- - Links disappeared when a new file was - opened. Corrected. -
- - Links were not correctly updated at changes in the - buffer when mumamo-mode was used. Fixed. -
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- The welcome message for nXhtml could be shown too - early sometimes when loading, before nXhtml actually - knew if it should be shown or not. Tried to fix it. -

1.01

- Reported wrong version number for nXhtml in the menus. Fixed. -
- If you use the zip file to install nXhtml please - notice that it has now a top level nxml. Sorry for not - having zipped it like that before! -
- The url links in Welcome to nXhtml was a bit - incorrect and did not work on all OS:es. Fixed. -
- Added customization of popup completion to the 'nxhtml - customization group so they are easier to find. -
- MuMaMo -
- - Struggled a bit with the load sequences of the elisp - libraries used by nXhtml when using MuMaMo. -
- - Tried to get the global turn on of mumam-mode to work - in all cases. -
- - The screen was blinking when changing overlays after - changes in the buffer. Tried to fix this. -
- - Minor fixes do syntax highlighting, like taking care of single ':s. -
- - Fixes to the support for JSP and eRuby. -
- - Made the support for perl here documents a bit better. - Large perl documents are however still quite slow when - using mumamo-mode. I do not know the reason yet. -
- - Refontification could miss some parts when buffer - changes caused chunk division changes. Complex, - tried to fix it, but I am a bit unsure that it - always works. -
- - Cleaned up mumamo.el a bit. -
- - Rewrote mumamo-test.el and functions called from it in - mumamo.el a bit to make tracebacks from errors more - useful. Changed keybindings in mumamo-test.el from - global to a minor mode mumamo-test-mode. - Renamed mumamo-notest.el to mumamo-test.el. Added it - to the zipped distribution of nXhtml. -
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- Fixed a bug related to links and buffer changes. -

1.02

- Fixed a refontification bug that occured after changes. -

1.03

- Added the possibility to call GIMP. -
- Reworked the messages for fontification errors to try - to catch an error that shows up sometimes. Tried to - avoid disturbing normal use in spite of that error. -
- Reverted to using a short delay before switching major - mode when moving between buffers. -

1.04

- Completion in empty buffers with a completion header - did not work. Fixed. -
- Multiple major modes: -
- - Better error tracing for some functions. -
- - Position was garbled when a ;-char was inserted in php-mode chunk. Fixed. -
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- Extra XHTML Validation Header: -
- - View File did not work correctly when an extra - XHTML validation header was used. Corrected. -
- - Extra XHTML validation headers are no longer - turned on by default in any buffers. -
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- Tried to fix a problem when using newline-and-indent. - When this was in a mode derived from C the indentation - sometimes became 0. -
- Added a workaround for Attribute values computed - by PHP -
- Ruby -
- - Multiple major mode turned on by default for .rhtml files when this mode is global. -
- - Multiple major mode is no longer turned on when rub-mode is turned on. -
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- Added .nosearch to subdirectories with no elisp files. -
- Added support for Firefox add-on It's All Text. -
- Added the possibility to easily view the output of scripts on the server (if they require no parameters). - You can now do that from the nXhtml menu. - Previously only html files on the server could be viewed that way. - Image files can also be viewed this way. -
- Upgraded htmlize.el to version 1.34 -
- Added functions for unfilling. -
- Added keybindings and menu entries for longlines-mode, fill-paragraph and unfill-paragraph. -
- Added image-mode to those that are encompassed by - nxhtml-global-minor-mode so that images can be - uploaded more easily. -
- Added edit with GIMP and upload to the popup menu for links. - This avoids the need to load the linked files in Emacs first. -
- Fixed incorrect checks for mlinks-mode in menu building. -