Sudbury, Mass. (August 31, 1999) -- Sophist Solutions has shipped Led 2.3, an update to their critically acclaimed class library. Led 2.3 is a C++-based class library designed to support the construction of text editors, word processors, HTML editors, and other text intensive applications. The Led text engine is lightning fast, even when working with very large files. It supports style runs, rulers, per-paragraph layout information, tabstops, word wrapping, object embedding (including OLE(tm), Pictures, URLs), and much more. Led takes full advantage of the modern user interface features of Windows 95/98/2000, and the Macintosh. It supports such features as Drag and Drop, OLE Automation, UNICODE, and Internet support.
This new Led release contains many new features, such as per-paragraph tabstops, margins, and first-indents (rulers). These are very helpful in building full word-processing capability with the Led class library.
A high degree of UNICODE support was added as well (see Led FAQ#024 for details). This UNICODE support works even on Win95, where there are few UNICODE capable editors available. As a result, Led-based widgets will allow your applications to include UNICODE edit text controls (even in Win95).
The class library has extended its simple but powerful suite of classes, adding many new concepts, such as templated MarkerCovers, and sharable, replaceable, Partition objects. The class library now makes much heavier use of C++ templates, allowing for more modularity and flexibility in including just the pieces of Led you want. The Led class library provides a framework in which lots of commonly used functionality can be provided, but without burdening those who don't want or need it. Also in this release, the Led class library now makes extensive use of STL (the C++ Standard Template Library), making it more easily interoperable with many standard C++ programs.
And now perhaps the fastest editor class library has become even faster. This release of Led sports a rewritten SimpleTextImager class which uses far less memory, and runs roughly twice as fast as the previous release. Led can be used to comfortably edit files well in excess of 20 MB. And reading and writing of Microsoft Rich Text Format (RTF) files has been dramatically improved. It is now, even faster than Microsoft Word at reading Microsoft Rich Text Format (RTF) files!
Very important to any programmer tool is the quality of the code, and the quality of the documentation. Everyone who has looked at Led is impressed with the quality of the code. And the documentation has been even further improved for this release.
Sophist Solutions has also released an update of their suite of shareware applications. The LedIt! word processor, and LedLineIt! - a programmer's text editor - were upgraded to take advantage of new enhancements to Led.
A vastly improved ActiveLedIt! - an ActiveX control, Led-based word processor - was released.
Application developers will find it extremely easy to use Led. It has a robust, advanced object design. Led's abstract-class/mixin design scales from simple applications to complex applications without requiring the developer to use more features than are needed. Additionally, Led is provided with easy-to-use wrappers for the most popular Windows (MFC) and Macintosh (PowerPlant) application frameworks.
"Led was the ideal text engine on which to base the ActivPad student notebook accompanying our line of higher ed titles. We needed speed and large text capability - Led delivered it. We needed cross-platform files - Led enabled it. We needed the ability to embed pictures, diagrams, and Internet bookmarks - Led made all of that easy," said Doug Stein, technology manager of Addison Wesley Interactive, a new publisher of multimedia products for college courses. "We evaluated all the alternatives; Led was the only one that met our requirements for speed, robustness, features and platform independence. The price was extremely attractive as well."
"We (Wordwork) had some pretty unusual requirements and actually not even Led met those." said Per Gustafson of Wordwork, AG, Sweden, developers of Skribent, a Swedish writing tool. "Wordwork chose Led because it gave us access to the complete source code for what we bought, and while far from perfect for our needs it was a decent base to build on.". "[Sophist Solutions] usually replied promptly to my bug reports and was service minded about my comments/requests for features."
"One of the best things is the customizable behavior of the editor" said Remo Eichenberger of DATOS Computer AG, the Swiss developers of WinNC, a powerful syntax-coloring, editor for the machine-industry. " It was very important to my company that Sophist Solutions provided such good support for using the Led Class Library. The library is complex but VERY powerful. The coding style is very pretty, and the code is very stable... I can only say: DON'T WAIT, BUY IT !!"
A royalty-free license to use Led costs US$1000 per developer seat per platform for the first license. Each additional license is discounted 25%. This entitles the developer to source code for all purchased Led platforms (Mac and/or Windows). The purchase price includes three months of free support. Additional support may be purchased separately. Contact Sophist Solutions for information on site licenses.
The Led class library comes with full source code for the Led class library, and for the shareware applications above.
Sophist Solutions is a software consulting company specializing in the design and implementation of object-oriented systems, graphical user interfaces (Macintosh, Windows, X-Windows), distributed applications, and Internet technologies (e.g. Java, TCP/IP, ActiveX, ATL, HTTP, HTML, etc). Sophist Solutions may be reached on the World Wide Web at http://www.sophists.com/
Information about Led and LedIt! can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.sophists.com/Led/, by sending email to info-led@sophists.com, or by writing to:
Sophist Solutions P.O. Box 747 Sudbury, MA 01776-0747Or by phone:
Phone: (978) 443-4442 Fax: (419) 735-0707
ActivPad is a trademark of Addison Wesley Longman. All other trademarks are the property of their respective trademark holders.