Tag: Free Software

PostgreSQL 7.3 – it works

I’ve installed the new release of my favourite database, PostgreSQL today and I can happily announce that the upgrade from 7.2.3 went without any problems (a strange thing to announce when having my luk with software in mind ;-).

I’ve not yet had the time to check out all the wonderful new features (Schemas, Domains, a very extended ALTER TABLE and much more), but I will try it somewhere this week.

What I’ve noticed during the update: The current Webmin-Module (1.030) for administering Postgres’ users does not work with the current format of pg_hba.conf but editing the file by hand is quite straightforward – more so because of the very extensive comments in the file.

Why I like jEdit

jEdit is a texteditor written in Java. Actually it’s not just a texteditor – it’s the texteditor. It combines the usage-guidelines known of other programs running under Windows or windows-like environements with the functionality (as an editor, not as a newsreader webbrowser filemanager «insert whatever else emacs can do) of Emacs.

When you download the current release (you can easily take the current 4.1pre-Release – even the CVS-Snapshot is stable enough for production use [at least for me]) and install it via the provided installer, you will get quite a simple looking UI. So the first thing to to is to load the PlugIn-Manager and to download and install whatever you need. Then restart the program and begin with the configuration-session…

On the screenshot, you can see many of the features I like about jEdit:

  • The cool look&feel (install the L&F-Plugin and chose the Metouia-Look to get mine).
  • The File-Browser always open on the left side. You have to select it under Global Options/Docking to get it sticking at the left side.
  • The search-bar which even supports regular expressions
  • The split-view. I am currently looking at the same file, but chaning this is a matter of selecting another tab (install the BufferTabs-Plugin to get those) in one of the views.
  • The color-scheme of the editfield. I really like having bright text on a dark background. It’s so much easier to read.
  • The yellow triangle marks in the gutter of the editfield are for folding the sourcecode. Click them and the associated block will be folded.

Please give jEdit a chance even though it’s written in Java: The thing is extremly feature-loaden and really fast. Trust me!