New in Epsilon 11

Epsilon 11 was released on January 11 2002. This page describes its new features. You can also see the features we added in older versions, or in Epsilon 12 Epsilon 13, or Epsilon 14. And here's how to order your update.

Epsilon 11 includes these operating system versions:

A 32-bit Linux executable, and another for FreeBSD Unix. Each runs as an X program under the X Windowing System, or as a curses-style program on the console or terminals.
A graphical version that runs under all 32-bit versions of Windows.
A Win32 console-mode executable that runs under all 32-bit versions of Windows. It looks much like the old DOS version of Epsilon, but provides most of the features of the Win32 GUI version.
A 16-bit graphical Windows version designed for Windows 3.1.
A 16-bit OS/2 version.

All versions share most customization files.

New Features

Some features are only available under certain operating system versions of Epsilon.

indicates a feature is available in both the 16-bit and 32-bit Windows versions of Epsilon.

indicates a feature is only available under 32-bit versions of Windows.

indicates a feature is only available under Linux or Unix.

Highlights of Epsilon 11

Epsilon now includes a mode for Visual Basic. It supports syntax highlighting as well as some smart indenting features. The mode also supports VBScript embedded in web pages.
Epsilon now includes a Python mode for programs written in the Python language.
A new hex mode makes it easier to edit binary files. Invoke hex-mode on a buffer, and see a debugger-style display of its contents. Subcommands make it easy to search the file for hex digits, position by hex offset, modify the file, and similar tasks.
Epsilon's new Pull Completion feature saves typing, especially with long identifiers. Start typing a word and press F3 (or Ctrl-<Up>). Epsilon finds the last word that starts with those letters and copies it. Press Ctrl-<Up> again to find older matches, or press Ctrl-<Down> to scan in the opposite direction. Once you find the word you want, just continue typing (no need to press any special key). Or press Ctrl-G to cancel pulling and remove any pulled word.
Epsilon can now read and write certain types of Unicode files, those encoded in the UTF-16LE format that use only Latin 1 characters. (Such files are fairly common in NT/W2K environments.) Epsilon autodetects and translates such files to 8-bit format as it reads them and translates back to UTF-16LE when writing.
By default Epsilon automatically translates only those files that start with a UTF-16LE marker (a 4-byte sequence that marks the start of most such files). Set the variable unicode-detection to 2 if you want Epsilon to translate files that appear to be in UTF-16LE even if they lack this marker. Set it to zero to disable automatic UTF-16LE detection. The new command unicode-convert-encoding may be used for manual translation.
Epsilon's HTML mode now handles more types of embedded scripting, understands XML namespaces, provides smart indenting for embedded JScript, and recognizes various new extensions as types of HTML or XML. There are many new variables to customize Epsilon's coloring of embedded scripting.
All three flavors of the diff command use a new algorithm that's smarter about finding the minimum set of differences between two files. This algorithm is much slower on very large files, so the new variable diff-precise-limit controls when Epsilon switches back to the previous algorithm.
The visual-diff command now does character-by-character highlighting for each group of changed lines. Instead of simply indicating that one group of lines was replaced by another, it shows which portions of the lines changed and which did not. New variables diff-match-characters and diff-match-characters-limit let you alter or turn off this behavior.

More Programming Enhancements in Epsilon 11

The fill-c-comment command (now renamed to fill-comment) now works in more modes, including PostScript & Python.
In Perl mode, a "here document" can now indicate that its contents should be syntax highlighted in a different language, by specifying a terminating string with an extension. At the moment the extensions .tex and .html are recognized. So for example a here document that begins with <<"end.html" will be colored as HTML.
In Epsilon the default tab size is now 8. As a result the c-tab-override variable has been set to zero by default.
In some modes, typing closing delimiters like ) or ] inside comments or strings no longer produces a warning about an unmatched delimiter.
Commands like forward-ifdef that recognize preprocessor conditionals now treat #asm and #endasm like other conditionals.
C mode includes new customization variables c-indent-after-namespace and fill-c-comment-plain.
C-mode tagging now tags enums and works better with Java files (in addition to other parsing improvements).
TeX mode coloring now recognizes the \( \) construct. The new tex-close-environment command on Alt-Shift-Z makes it easier to write LaTeX; it searches for the previous unmatched \begin directive and inserts a matching \end directive.

File Enhancements in Epsilon 11

Epsilon's dired-mode now offers a Live Link feature, in which it keeps a second window updated with the file mentioned on the current line, as you move around in the dired listing. Press L in dired to try it. Dired also handles symbolic links under Unix better.
The find-file command and others now recognize when two files are the same but with different names (due to hard or symbolic links under Unix, for instance).
Epsilon now recognizes a limited number of "file variables". These are specially-formatted lines at the top or bottom of a file that indicate the file should use a particular language mode or tab size. For example, you can put -*- mode: VBasic -*- on the first line of a file to force Epsilon to Visual Basic mode, or write -*- tab-size: 3 -*- to make Epsilon use that tab size setting.
The Ctrl-<Tab> key now switches between buffers, not windows. It operates similarly to the Alt-<Tab> function in Microsoft Windows, cycling through the buffers from most recent to least recent on each press of <Tab> as long as you hold down Ctrl. Hold down Shift as well to move in the reverse order. You can press Ctrl-G to abort and return to the original buffer. The command on Ctrl-<Tab> as of Epsilon 10, switch-windows, is still available for those who prefer that function on this key.
If you provide a directory name to the grep command, it will search all the files within. Grep now modifies mode lines while it prompts so they display the full path of each file. A new variable grep-default-directory lets you alter how Epsilon interprets relative file paths. And grep no longer stops at a prompt if an error occurs while reading a file.

Internet-related Enhancements in Epsilon 11

The new command view-web-site on Shift-F8 searches for the next URL in the buffer and launches an external browser to view it.
Writing very large files via ftp is now much faster.
Epsilon's FTP function is compatible with more systems. The ftp-passive-transfers variable has a new option to work with more types of firewalls.
Epsilon's HTTP function provides more progress information as it connects and treats connection errors more conveniently. The new http-user-agent variable lets Epsilon identify itself to web sites as a different program (for web sites that care about this).
Epsilon's telnet command now works better on sites that operate in noecho mode.

Concurrent Process Enhancements in Epsilon 11

Press <Tab> at a prompt in the process buffer, and Epsilon will complete the filename or command name you're typing.
Epsilon now recognizes password prompts in the process buffer as it does in telnet buffers. It arranges things so you can type the password without it echoing, appearing in the process buffer, or being recorded for show-last-keys. You can set the recognize-password-prompt variable to disable this feature, or use the send-invisible command to manually enter a hidden password in this fashion.
In the process buffer, the find-linked-file command on Ctrl-X Ctrl-L now goes to the error message on the current line.
The new command process-backward-kill-word makes it harder to accidentally delete a prompt, while process-yank asks for confirmation before yanking multiline regions if they would be interpreted as a series of commands.
You can use Alt-n and Alt-p in the process buffer to recall individual previous commands you've typed. Now a numeric prefix argument like Ctrl-u before these commands displays a list of all your previous commands.
When you try to delete a process buffer, Epsilon tries to make it exit first using the exit-process command.

Unix-specific Enhancements in Epsilon 11

Epsilon for Unix now works with the -add flag (to add files to an existing Epsilon session). The -dde flag, now renamed -server, now also works under Unix to set the server name Epsilon uses. The Unix version also recognizes a -wait flag. It works like -add, but also tells the sending Epsilon process to wait until the user issues the resume-client command. This is useful if you want to set an external editor for a program, and have the request go to an existing Epsilon session.
The EEL compiler is now more integrated under Unix. As a result, commands like eval and execute-eel now work, and you can compile and load EEL source files without saving them to disk first.
Epsilon for FreeBSD now understands Alt keys when running on the console keyboard with a suitable keymap. A new variable national-keys-not-alt lets you control whether Epsilon recognizes Alt keys or national language characters in those Unix environments where only of these at a time may be used (such as the FreeBSD console).

Windows-specific Enhancements in Epsilon 11

Epsilon for Windows can now link to help files in the HtmlHelp format (.chm files) in the same way it links to .hlp files.
Epsilon's helper program sendeps.exe no longer uses the DDE protocol to communicate with Epsilon. As a result it continues to work even if a window in the system fails to run its message loop (which can block Windows DDE messages). Epsilon's -add flag also uses the new protocol. Sendeps now has additional customization options. The Open With Epsilon context menu item in Explorer is now compatible with the Office Toolbar.
The print-color-scheme variable, used to set a different color scheme for printing, now works properly if the color choices for the headings set the background color. The new variable print-doublespaced lets you make Epsilon doublespace its output. And Epsilon should no longer get confused sometimes about which printer is the default one.
Epsilon's support for Cygwin-style file names now understands the /cygdrive syntax and the use of ~.
The new screen-decoration color class lets you set the color used for screen decorations created via the draw-focus-rectangle or draw-column-markers variables.
Cursor shape variables like normal-gui-cursor now provide additional options for positioning the cursor within the character cell and setting its height. As a result, it's now possible to use an underline-style cursor, among other shapes.

More New Features in Epsilon 11

Epsilon now keeps a history of prior messages displayed in the echo area in the buffer #messages#. Set the message-history-size variable to change how it's truncated.
The new command fill-indented-paragraph on Alt-Shift-Q can fill paragraphs while preserving their indentation.
The copy-to-scratch command now works with rectangular regions.
Epsilon now uses less CPU time for its idle-time processing. Under X Epsilon's screen refreshing is faster.
Syntax highlighting is now faster in buffers with very long lines.
By default, Alt-Numpad keys are now interpreted as entering a character by its Ascii code in OS/2, not as individual keys. In Windows, the former behavior is still the default, but it's now possible to use the program-keys command to set Epsilon so these characters are interpreted as individual keys.
Most command line flags like -s that require an argument of some sort now permit a space to appear before the argument.
Epsilon's Info mode has been revised, providing faster and more relevant index functions.
Searching by words now permits multiple words. If you perform a word search for "word search", Epsilon will find those two words with any combinations of whitespace (spaces, tabs, newlines) between them.
The new reset-mode command forces Epsilon to set the buffer's mode based on the current file name and buffer contents, just as it does when you first read a file.
The Ctrl-C key is now a prefix key, like Ctrl-X. The stop-process command to stop a concurrent process, formerly on Ctrl-C, has been moved to Ctrl-C Ctrl-C.

Epsilon 11 also includes new customization options, improvements for extending Epsilon using its EEL language, and a variety of new and changed EEL functions. There are also many other minor improvements throughout the editor. Place your update order now.

Last Updated: 20 October 2020