jEdit 5.0 delivers keymapping, localisation and stability

jEdit 5.0 running on Mac OS X (using Adobe's open source Source Pro and Source fonts)

jEdit 5.0.0 is now available, bringing a number of new features to the Java-based text editor for programmers. Keymaps – named collections of shortcuts – are now implemented in the editor and examples supplied include mappings for Emacs, Mac OS, German keyboards, Intellij and classic jEdit; users can create their own keymaps too.

New edit options include the ability to disable or use simplified automatic indenting, and the user's response to how jEdit handles large files can now be remembered by the editor. There are also updated HTML/CSS editing modes which now have HTML5/CSS3 keywords, along with a dozen new modes and several updated ones.

The editor has also seen many fixes to its scrolling: related to soft wrap, multi-line delete/cut, undo and folding. The bugs caused the text area of the editor to be confused about where it was in the text and the fixes are said to be a major improvement to the stability of the editor.

It is also now possible to switch jEdit between the default locale, French, German, Russian, Czech and Japanese with its newly improved localisation, which also allows users to create their own translation files and, potentially, contribute them to the jEdit core. Full details of all the changes are available in the release notes.

The jEdit developers invite possible contributors to help with future development. jEdit 5.0.0 is available as a Java-based installer, native Windows installer, packages for Mac OS X, Debian and Slackware, and as source code from the project's download page. jEdit is licensed under the GPLv2.

(djwm)