WinEd 3.27 is released

Following its debut at the 2024 Wakefield Show, I’m pleased to announce the release of WinEd 3.27.

This update formalises a number of changes which have languished in a test build on my website for the past few years, including:

• A new “Save templates sorted” option in Choices, to store the windows in alphabetical order in the file.
• Following the regular backwards-compatibility issues with user choices in recent updates, these are now saved in textual format to improve the chances making future changes and additions to the available options without causing problems.
• As a consequence of this work, a “Default” button has been added to the Choices dialogue to reset the options to their defaults without having to delete the file by hand.
• The Round icon coordinates option has returned to Choices, and is no longer paired with Display templates sorted.
• The documentation has been overhauled, including a replacement of the text version of the manual with one matching the HTML documentation and the addition of the recent version history.
• Website links have been updated to current download page, to avoid issues with RISC OS.info being offline.

In addition, the following bugs have been addressed:

• Improvements to the template sorting algorithm used in Display templates sorted.
• Improvements to the template identifier sanity checks when loading files.
• Improvements to the sanity checks on the reserved fields in file headers, so that invalid files from older third-party editors can be loaded with user agreement.
• The filetypes of possible application sprite files (those found by proximity to the templates file) are now checked before loading them, to avoid bad sprite file errors.
• Improvements to the way that Choices$Path and Choices$Write are used.
• Icon dimensions in the Monitor are updated when an icon is resized using an Adjust-double-click.

Thanks are due to all of those who have suggested improvements, tested development builds and helped to identify the unwanted features. Bug reports and suggestions for improvements remain welcome.

For those who haven’t encountered it before, WinEd is a template editor whose founding aim was “to do everything which TemplEd could do, only better!” It was originally written by Tony Houghton, who developed it until 2003; his work was continued by Adam Richardson, who maintained and improved WinEd until 2009.

WinEd’s most attractive features include the fact that its main editing interfaces use dialogue boxes. Icons can be dragged between windows, including a customisable ‘Picker’ window containing the most commonly used icons, and multiple template files can be loaded by one instantiation of WinEd. Optional tool panes and keyboard short cuts enhance convenience.

It contains powerful features for positioning icons relative to each other, and rounding of coordinates in high resolution modes to ensure low resolution compatibility. Conventions are based on ROOL’s Style Guide. Statistics are available on the size and content of template files, to assist with loading them into simple applications.

WinEd is licenced under the GPLv2, and copies of 3.27 can be found in the PlingStore, in ROOL’s ThirdParty PackMan repository¹, and at http://www.stevefryatt.org.uk/risc-os/wined

The source code has moved from Subversion into the RISC OS dot Info project on GitHub, and can now be found at https://github.com/riscos-dot-info/wined

¹ Depending on when you read this, the PackMan copy may take a day or two to make its way out into the wild.