ReadMe.txt

=================================
== TextAnalysisTool.NET ReadMe ==
=================================


------------------
-- Requirements --
------------------

Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8 (or later versions)


-------------------------------
-- Installation Instructions --
-------------------------------
1) Copy TextAnalysisTool.NET.exe and TextAnalysisTool.NET.exe.config to a
   local folder
2) Run TextAnalysisTool.NET.exe


---------------
-- File List --
---------------
TextAnalysisTool.NET.exe - Application
TextAnalysisTool.NET.exe.config - Application configuration file
TextAnalysisTool.NET.txt - Documentation file
ReadMe.txt - Requirements, Installation Instructions, File List, Known Issues,
  Notes, History


------------------
-- Known Issues --
------------------
* GDI+ occasionally throws a System.Runtime.InteropServices.ExternalException
  with the message "A generic error occurred in GDI+.". This exceptional
  condition causes TextAnalysisTool.NET to exit after notifying the user.
  One cause of this was rendering very long lines. To avoid this the app now
  takes a safe substring of the original line based on the width of the rendered
  characters. The message "[TextAnalysisTool.NET could not display the whole line.
  Filtering, copying, and searching are unaffected.]" is included at the end of the
  line to indicate truncation. Filtering, searching, and copying are all still
  performed on the complete text of the line.
* Checkboxes don't always repaint properly due to a .NET Framework bug.
* There is extra flicker when resizing the window. This is due to a workaround
  for an even worse .NET Framework repainting bug.
* ListBox limitations on 16-bit OSes (Windows 95/98/Me) prevent files with
  more than 32,767 lines from displaying properly.
* The font size selected in the preferences dialog will sometimes be overridden
  by a slightly larger or smaller size. This is the expected behavior as .Net
  and GDI work together to pick a size that will render properly. See also
  https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3544926/font-size-discrepancy-in-net-gdi


-----------
-- Notes --
-----------
One of TextAnalysisTool.NET's core principles is that data should be read one
time as soon as it is available and kept in memory after that. This principle
allows the source data to be amended, changed, or even become unavailable
without affecting the user. Though this principle is an optional convenience
when the data source is a file, it is a strict requirement for data sources
that offer only one chance to read their data (such as the clipboard and plug-
ins). Accordingly, TextAnalysisTool.NET keeps the entire data set in memory at
all times which means that particularly large data sets can tax systems with
comparatively few available resources. The prototypical example is loading a
file that is larger than the amount of memory in the system: performance
suffers. TextAnalysisTool.NET strives to be as responsive as possible under
all circumstances, but is ultimately bound by the resources available to it.


-------------
-- History --
-------------

2025-11-21 by Vince Curley and Anton Polinger
----------
* Fixed a bug that preemptively displayed the color dialog when editing a filter.
* Fixed a bug that prevented focus from returning to the application when closing
  the filter or find dialogs.
* Fixed keyboard shortcuts in the new and edit filter dialogs.

2025-08-29 by Vince Curley
----------
* Support horizontal scrolling using Shift + Mouse Scroll Wheel.
* Fix bug that prevented custom color selection.

2025-06-17 by Anton Polinger and Vince Curley
----------
* Added custom filter highlighting for selected filters, which allows the user to see
  the background and foreground colors of the selected filter.
* Added high DPI support and scaling on multiple monitors with different DPI
  and scale settings.
* Added filter list font zoom that follows the zoom of the main text area.
* Added a multi-filter editing behavior that allows the user to edit properties
  of multiple selected filters simultaneously.
* Worked around an existing WinForms mouse drag-select quirk and fixed checkbox 
  selection behavior when multiple filters are selected.
* Added a paste confirmation dialog that verifies that the user wishes to 
  overwrite text in the tool with text from the clipboard.
* Fixed a bug that caused a crash when scrolling through a file with a large 
  number of lines.

2023-04-25 by Anton Polinger and Vince Curley
----------
* Fixed taskbar flicker and mouse click fall through during long filter
  searches.
* Fixed several edge case asserts/crashes.

2023-03-24 by Vince Curley and Anton Polinger
----------
* Added support for character encodings beyond the system default and UTF-8.
* Added ability to jump to previous or next line that matches the currently
  selected filter. Right click on a filter, choose Previous or Next from the
  filter menu, or use Shift+F8 (previous)/F8 (next).
* Added a right click context menu to toggle markers (also works with the
  context menu key and Shift+F10).
* Improve readability when the filter text color is similar to the selected
  line background color. When a line is selected use the Highlight and
  Highlight Text colors specified in the Preferences dialog rather than colors
  defined by filters.
* Added /clipboard command line argument to load initial text from the
  clipboard.
* Fixed a bug that prevented custom tab size from being saved across sessions.
* Minor optimization: Setting Tab Size in Preferences to 1 will reduce file
  load time ~10%.
* Fix horizontal scrollbar issue on Windows 11.
* Added the "Remember Filter Column Widths" setting to control whether or not
  the order and widths of the columns in the filters view are preserved across
  sessions. The default is the legacy behavior; this can be changed in the
  Preferences dialog.
* An Exclude filter will now remember the colors set when it was an Include
  filter.
* Added the ability to copy and paste of filters between TextAnalysisTool.NET
  windows.
* Added settings to control how the file name is displayed in the title bar.
* Use window background and text colors specified in Preferences for the line
  and filter panes. Not full dark-mode, but most of the window can be
  controlled.
* Target .NET Framework 4.8 (because version 4.0 is no longer supported).

2020-12-17 by Vince Curley
----------
* Fixed a bug that would truncate lines prematurely.
* Fixed a bug that would cause a crash when reloading a changed file.
* Fixed the scrollbar so dragging the thumb will correctly update the view of
  the file.

2018-11-20 by Vince Curley and Jenny Leung
----------
* Add new function in ITextAnalysisToolPlugin to support configurable plug-ins
  via popup dialog.
* Add new item to Edit menu to list configurable plug-ins.
* Support custom foreground and background colors for filters.

2018-01-03 by David Anson
----------
* Fixed an intermittent bug preventing the window from showing on the taskbar.

2017-12-18 by David Anson
----------
* Added a separate build without plugin support for environments that forbid
  DLL loading.

2017-12-14 by Vince Curley
----------
* Fixed a bug that could cause a crash when changing files with active filters.
* Added the "Show Filter Tool Tip" setting to control whether or not to display
  a tool tip with the matching filters for each line.

2017-01-24 by Vince Curley
----------
* Fixed a bug that would prevent settings from being saved when FontFamily or
  ZoomPercent had default values but no key in the registry.

2016-12-09 by Vince Curley
----------
* Added the "Mark Filters Changed" setting to control when the filter list is
  considered changed. This gives the flexibility to enable, disable, or move
  filters without "dirtying" the list and causing a prompt to save on exit.

2016-10-29 by Vince Curley
----------
* Added font name and size to the preferences dialog. The displayed font size
  is controlled by the base font size and the zoom level.
* Added /Line command line argument to jump to that line when a file is opened
* Fix a bug where the '&' character in lines was displayed incorrectly
* Updated menu and command line options in documentation

2016-06-16 by David Anson
----------
* Updated the link to the .NET Framework Regular Expressions documentation

2016-04-22 by Vince Curley
----------
* Added ability to dock the filter list to any side of the main window
* Added a tool tip to show what filters each line matches
* Prompt to save the filter list before overwriting it when filters are
  loaded from a file and before exiting the app. Prompting only happens if
  there is a backing filter file (that is, if filters were loaded from a
  file or saved to a file) so we don't prompt to save ad-hoc, temporary
  filters.
* Include the filter file name (if any) and a "filters changed" indicator
  in the main window title bar.
* Fixed a bug that would cause a crash when displaying lines with several
  thousand characters. Such lines will now be truncated when displayed,
  with a message indicating so. Filtering, searching, and copying
  will still work on the complete text of the line.

2016-01-08 by Vince Curley
----------
* Added a setting to control whether or not line numbers are displayed
* Added a setting to control whether or not line numbers are included when
  copying text to the clipboard
* Added a setting to control whether or not a warning is displayed when
  replacing text being analyzed with content from the clipboard or
  drag-and-drop.
* Fixed a bug that prevented consistent zooming with the mouse scroll wheel
* Fixed a bug where the hit count didn't update when a new file was opened

2015-10-14 by David Anson
----------
* Fixed a bug with window position not being saved/restored consistently

2015-08-17 by Aleksey Kabanov
----------
* Added filter descriptions

2015-06-23 by Uriel Cohen
----------
* Fixed some bugs caused by the introduction of the new menus look & feel

2015-05-18 by Uriel Cohen
----------
* Gave a more modern look to all menus
* Improved behavior of the "More..." button in Options dialog

2015-05-07 by Mike Morante
----------
* Fixed a bug where the context menu for filters would remain enabled even if
  no filter was selected

2015-04-14 by Mike Morante
----------
* Fixed a bug that would cause loading filters from the command line to fail

2015-03-27 by Mike Morante
----------
* Added columns to the filters list, use only the matching pattern for
  previewing the filter
* Added drag&drop support for the filters list
* Double-click or press Enter on a filter to edit it
* Double-click a line to create a new filter from it
* Added menu item to enable all filters at once
* Renamed "Filter" menu to "Filters"

2015-02-26 by Uriel Cohen
----------
* Added support for loading a configuration file from the command line
* Added support for multiple filter files on the command line

2015-02-24 by Uriel Cohen
----------
* Fixed a bug with handling of some defaults through registry settings

2015-01-28 by Uriel Cohen
----------
* Added support for setting configuration parameters from a preferences dialog
* Added the capability to Export and Import configuration files

2015-01-07 by Uriel Cohen
----------
* Added a tooltip to the loaded file indicator in the status bar
* Fixed a bug where setting a marker used in an active filter causes the
  current selection of lines to be changed

2015-01-07 by David Anson
----------
* Improve HTML representation of clipboard text when copying for more
  consistent paste behavior

2015-01-01 by Uriel Cohen
----------
* Fixed a bug where TAB characters are omitted in the display
* Fixed a bug where lines saved to file include an extra white space at the
  start

2014-12-21 by Uriel Cohen
----------
* Changed compilation to target .NET Framework 4.0

2014-12-11 by Uriel Cohen
----------
* Redesigned the status bar indications to be consistent with Visual Studio and
  added the number of currently selected lines

2014-12-04 by Uriel Cohen
----------
* Added the ability to append an existing filters file to the current filters
  list

2014-12-01 by Uriel Cohen
----------
* Added recent file/filter menus for easy access to commonly-used files
* Added a new settings registry key to set the
  maximum number of recent files or filter files allowed in the
  corresponding file menus
* Fixed bug where pressing SPACE with no matching lines from filters
  crashed the application
* Fixed a bug where copy-pasting lines from the application to Lync
  resulted in one long line without carriage returns

2014-11-11 by Uriel Cohen
----------
* Added support for selection of background color in the filters
  (different selection of colors than the foreground colors)
* The background color can be saved and loaded with the filters
* Filters from previous versions that lack a background color will have the
  default background color
* Saving foreground color field in filters to 'foreColor' attribute.
  Old 'color' attribute is still being loaded for backward compatibility
  purposes.
* Changed control alignment in Find dialog and Filter dialog

2014-10-21 by Mike Morante
----------
* Fix localization issue with the build string generation

2014-04-22 by Mike Morante
----------
* Line metadata is now visually separate from line text contents
* Markers can be shown always/never/when in use to have more room for line text
  and the chosen setting persists across sessions
* Added statusbar panel funnel icon to reflect the current status of the Show
  Only Filtered Lines setting

2014-02-27 by Mike Morante
----------
* Added zoom controls to quickly increase/decrease the font size
* Zoom level persists across sessions
* Added status bar panel to show current zoom level

2013-05-07
----------
* Compiled using the .NET 2.0 "Any CPU" configuration to enable access to more
  memory when run on 64-bit operating systems
* Superficial string changes for copyright date, etc.

2006-12-04
----------
* Copy to clipboard includes HTML formatting that preserves the font/ coloring
  of the copied text when pasting (user request)
* Enhanced New Filter and Find dialogs to pre-populate with the text of the
  currently selected line (user request)
* Added saving/loading of Show Only Filtered Lines setting in .TAT filter
  files (user request)
* Added "[x / y]" to enabled filter descriptions to show how many lines are
  currently matching each filter
* Added support for legacy keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+Insert (copy) and Shift+
  Insert (paste) (user request)
* Added black and white to list of filter color options (user request)
* Disabled glyph-mapping to work around a GDI+ bug that causes abrupt
  application termination
* Fixed bug where Help | Documentation didn't clear the Show Only Filtered
  Lines setting

2006-01-11
----------
* Significantly improved performance with large files (load time reduced by
  ~40%, memory use reduced by ~25%, filter time reduced by ~10%)
* Fixed potential null dereference in LineCollectionDisplay.OnDrawItem that is
  extremely rare on all operating systems before Windows Vista (user report)
* Fixed filter display coloration bug when running under .NET 2.0 by working
  around the problem so that the correct behavior is present under both .NET
  1.1 and .NET 2.0 (user report)
* Fixed bug where Ctrl-Alt-[A-Z] didn't work if filtered lines were hidden and
  no lines were displayed
* Fixed bug where the body of the '_' character couldn't be seen with some
  font sizes (including the default)
* Fixed bug where copying text containing '\0' to the clipboard truncated that
  text prematurely
* Fixed premature line truncation bug due to use of default encoding when
  reading files
* Fixed premature line truncation when drawing lines containing '\u0084'
* Improved performance of toggling markers on high line numbers
* Improved performance of drawing extremely long lines
* Set IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE flag in PE header to enable access to a
  larger virtual memory area when it is available (ex: on 64-bit machines or
  on machines with the /3GB boot option set)
* Added formatting to the XML content of *.tat filter files for improved human
  readability and better revision control (user request)
* Added support for applying Shift modifier key to Ctrl+F to begin a reverse
  find (this shortcut overrides the shortcut for toggling filter f)
* Added display of plug-in file version to "Installed plug-ins" dialog
* Add About dialog note about protection under United States patent 6,963,878

2003-09-02
----------
* Fixed bug whereby refreshing 0-line file caused an unhandled exception
* Added short version of file name to window title, makes it easier to switch
  among different windows in the taskbar (user request)
* Last directory used for successful file and filter access (via a dialog) is
  remembered, makes it easier to keep files and filters in different locations
  (user request)
* Addressed minor focus issues related to filter display

2003-07-24
----------
* Switched to building on top of .NET Framework 1.1
* Switched to using Windows XP visual styles for dialog controls
* Improved performance during startup, reduced memory requirements
* Fixed horizontal scroll bar bug for long lines with embedded tabs
* Added keyboard shortcuts for toggling and cycling filters (user request)

2003-04-07
----------
* Added support for plug-ins that extend TextAnalysisTool.NET by allowing it
  to read custom file types! (see the "Plug-ins" section of the documentation
  for more details)

2003-03-24
----------
* Added support for coloring lines according to the filter(s) they match (see
  documentation for details) (user request)
* Right-clicking "Regular expression" checkbox opens MSDN online documentation
  for regular expression syntax (user request)
* Require confirmation when Help | Documentation is chosen to avoid
  inadvertently discarding the current lines and filters (user request)
* File sharing modes tweaked for maximum versatility (specifically, to allow
  opening a file that's actively being written to)
* File | Reload tries to preserve the selected line and current view of the
  file
* File open/save dialog boxes remember the last file type they were used with
* Focus rectangle now drawn in line display
* Other minor user interface fixes/improvements

2003-02-28
----------
Initial release of TextAnalysisTool.NET!
Highlights:
* Status bar with file name and filtered/unfiltered line count! (user request)
* Support for copying multi-line selections! (user request)
* Line display colors can be customized! (user request)
* Multiple lines can be marked at the same time! (via multi-line selections)
* Support for drag-and-drop to import text!
* Support for reading UTF-8, Unicode, and Unicode big endian files!
* User efficiency improvements to the Add Filter dialog box!
* Real-time validation for Add Filter/Find input! (great for reg-ex's)
* Filter pane is usable without a mouse!
* Checkboxes in filter pane show which filters are active!

2003-02-21, 2003-02-11, 2003-02-06
----------------------------------
Preview releases to a handful of volunteers


------------
-- People --
------------

Project owner
-------------
* David Anson - https://dlaa.me/

Contributors
------------
* Mike Morante - https://github.com/mike-mo
* Uriel Cohen - https://github.com/cohen-uriel
* Aleksey Kabanov
* Vince Curley
* Jenny Leung
* Anton Polinger