Readme for Alpha and the AlphaTcl library, version 9.2.3.
| Alpha |
| Version: | 9.2.3 - "Suhail" |
| Last update: | 2021-05-21 14:43:29 |
Introduction
Alpha is a powerful, multi-modal, highly configurable, and programmable
text editor. For basic editing, you can probably rely on your experience
from other text editors or word processors, but in order to take advantage
of the power-user features you will sooner or later want to dive into
Alpha's vast documentation.
This Readme briefly surveys Alpha's documentation and help
system, and points to other resources. Please see the Release Notes for a list of the major recent changes.
Since version 9.0, all versions of Alpha are named after a
star. Traditionally, the main stars of a constellation are designated by a
greek letter and the brightest one is usually called alpha.
The latest version of Alpha (9.2.3) is
Suhail, which is λ Velorum, the
λ star of the Vela
constellation.
General Help files
Most of Alpha's help files can be accessed from the Help Menu, right-most
in the menu bar. To get an idea of some of Alpha's capabilities, peruse the
Examples Help file. For general help, there is a
detailed Alpha Manual, and a rather shorter Quick Start document. The other help files are more
specialized. Most help files are available in html format. Html
formatted files can be read with Alpha's Help Viewer or with any navigator
(see the Help Preferences panel).
Mode-specific Help
Alpha automatically enters a mode specific to the sort of document being
edited, and many features are mode-dependent. For example, in HTML mode there
are special menus with all sorts of fancy tools for editing html documents,
and the text is automatically colored according to the html syntax to make it
easier to read.
Alpha determines the mode from the file name extension (e.g. .html) or by inspecting the presence of magic lines in the file; you
can change mode manually by selecting the menu command Alpha ↣ Mode Setup ↣ Change Mode, or
through the Modes pop-up located in the toolbar of document
windows. For help on mode-specific issues, select Alpha ↣ Mode Setup ↣ Mode Help.
Selecting the Alpha ↣ Mode Setup ↣ Describe Mode command provides more
technical information regarding the mode.
Many modes allow you to customize their behavior by setting Mode
Preferences, which can be accessed via the Alpha ↣ Mode Setup ↣ Mode Preferences… command. These dialogs
generally include a Help button or tooltip information that
describes the individual preferences. See the Mode Preferences panel.
Package-specific Help
Much of Alpha's functionality is implemented as packages, which can be
turned on and off in the Alpha ↣ Global Setup ↣ Menus|Features dialogs.
See the Menus Preferences dialog and Features Preferences dialog.
The Help ↣ Basic Help menu
contains commands Describe a Package and Read Help for a
Package. Selecting either of these will open a dialog allowing you to
select the package for which you want more information. See the Installed Packages file for a list of pre-installed packages, with
hyperlinks to their documentation.
In general, it is not necessary to install additional packages to
use Alpha as a powerful text editor.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Alpha is very rich in keyboard shortcuts (aka key bindings): some
of them are displayed in the menus, but there are many others. It is also
easy to define your own keyboard shortcuts for any menu item, or for any
action or script. The help file Keyboard Shortcuts
describes Alpha's preset shortcuts, and contains more information on how to
define your own.
The preset keyboard shortcuts adjust to the current keyboard layout; select
Alpha ↣ Preferences ↣ System Preferences ↣ International to let Alpha know
which layout you are using. See the International Preferences panel.
You can select Alpha ↣ Global Setup ↣ Keyboard Shortcuts ↣ Menu Shortcuts to change most
of Alpha's default menu keyboard shortcuts.
See the Menu-Shortcuts Preferences panel.
Alpha Preferences
Alpha is highly configurable. There are many different preferences that one
can set, and individual menus/features can be turned on and off.
See the Preferences Dashboard.
The default settings have been designed to get you up and running quickly;
once you have become accustomed to how the program works, you can customize
your editing environment at any time.
Internet Resources
For the most recent, up-to-date, information about Alpha, and further
resources, see https://alphacocoa.sourceforge.io and Alpha Wiki.
Alpha is privileged by an active and helpful user community whose
main communication channels are mailing lists you are invited to
subscribe to, for users and developers.
Go to Alpha's Mailing Lists to sign up or to search the archives.
The Alpha-Developers List is for discussing technical
issues, while the Alpha-Users List is for all sorts of
questions and hints --- it is read also by the developers. Questions are
usually answered within a day, and often they lead to improvements in
subsequent versions of Alpha and its documentation. You can also use the
Help ↣ Bug Reports ↣ Search E-mail Archives menu item to see if a particular
issue has been discussed.
Bug Reporting
As in any software, there are still a number of bugs which have not yet
been discovered. Bug reports are very welcome.
Alpha has a sophisticated bug reporting and tracking system called
Alpha's Bug Tracker.
It allows developers to keep track of all information related to a
bug, workarounds, dependence, and solutions. The preferred method for
submitting a new bug to this system is via the
Help ↣ Bug Reports ↣ Create New Ticket
menu item.
PLEASE read the help file Bug Reporting for
information regarding how to make your bug report sufficiently informative
to allow the developers to identify and fix the bug. Additionally, the Debugging Help file contains some tips and tricks for
tracking down the specific problem you might be experiencing.
License
You may freely copy and distribute Alpha.
See the file license terms for information on usage and redistribution of
this software, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES.
The Author(s) of this product are in no way liable for any direct or indirect
damage caused by the product.
This document has been placed in the public domain.