README for the eric3 IDE Installation Installing eric3 is a simple process. Just execute the install.py script (type python install.py -h for some help). Please note that the installation has to be performed using the administrators account (i.e. root on linux). This installs a wrapper script in the standard executable directory (default: /usr/local/bin on linux) called eric3. If you want to uninstall the package just execute the uninstall script. This gets rid of all installed files. In this case please send an email to the below mentioned address and tell me your reason. This might give me hint on how to improve eric3. If the required packages (Qt, QScintilla, sip and PyQt) are not installed, please get them and install them in the following order (order is important). 1. Install Qt 2. Build and install QScintilla 3. Build and install sip 4. Build and install PyQt (watch for a message telling, that it is including the qtext module) 5. Install eric3 If you want to use the interfaces to other supported software packages, you may install them in any order and at any time. Installation of translations Translations of the eric3 IDE are available as separate downloads. There are two ways to install them. The first possibility is to install them together with eric3. In order to do that, simply extract the downloaded archives into the same place as the eric3 archive and follow the installation instructions above. The second possibility is to install them separately. Extract the downloaded archives and execute the install-i18n.py script (type python install-i18n.py -h for some help). This way you can make the translations available to everybody or just to the user executing the installation command (if using the -p switch). Running Just call up eric3, which will start the IDE. Use the "what is"-help (arrow with ?) to get some help. Sorry, there is no documentation yet. To start the unit test module in a standalone variant simply call up qtunittest. This will show the same dialog (though with a little bit less functionality) as if started from within eric3. The helpviewer can be started as a standalone program by executing the helpviewer script. Autocompletion/Calltips eric3 provides an interface to the QScintilla auto-completion and calltips functionality. In order to use this feature you have to generate api files. To make this task a little bit easier I have provided two scripts on the contributions page of the eric3 web site. The gen_pyqt_api.py script generates api files for PyQt (should work with PyKDE as well but this is untested). Just call "python gen_pyqt_api.py /path/to/sipfiles /path/to/apifiles" This will generate an api file for every *mod.sip file found. In order to generate an api file for Python itself simply call "python gen_python_api.py /path/to/apifiles" This will generate a file called python.api. This second script is a modified version of the one available via the SciTE site. Please read the docstring at the start of this script for further instructions. After that start eric3 and configure this function in the "Preferences Dialog -> Editor Tab -> APIs" and "Preferences Dialog -> Editor Tab -> Autocompletion/Calltips" Remote Debugger In order to enable the remote debugger start eric3, open the preferences dialog and configure the settings on the debugger tab. The remote login must be possible without any further interaction (i.e. no password prompt). I the remote setup differs from the local one you must configure the Python interpreter and the Debug Client to be used in the Preferences dialog (s. Debugger tab). Eric3 includes three different versions of the debug client. DebugClient.py is the traditional debugger, DebugClientNoQt.py is a version, that doesn't need PyQt installed, and DebugClientThreads is a multithreading variant of the non Qt debug client. Please copy all needed files to a place accessible through the Python path of the remote machine and set the entries of the a.m. configuration tab accordingly. Passive Debugging Passive debugging mode allows the startup of the debugger from outside of the IDE. The IDE waits for a connection attempt. For further details see the file README-passive-debugging.txt Interfaces to additional software packages At the moment eric3 provides interfaces to the following software packages. Qt-Designer -- This is part of the Qt distribution and is used to generate user interfaces. Qt-Linguist -- This is part of the Qt distribution and is used to generate translations. Qt-Assistant -- This is part of the Qt distribution and may be used to display help files. CVS -- This is a version control system available from . Subversion -- This is another version control system available from . It is meant to be the successor of CVS. Bicycle Repair Man -- This is a Python refactoring tool available from . The interface will be made available, if Python version 2.2 or better is detected (that is a BRM requirement). A copy of BRM is included in the eric3 distribution. This functionality is available via the "Refactoring" menu. coverage.py -- This is a tool to check Python code coverage. A slightly modified version is part of the eric3 distribution. tabnanny -- This is a tool to check Python code for whitespace related problems. It is part of the standard Python installation. profile -- This is part of the standard Python distribution and is used to profile Python source code. cyclops -- This is a tool to detect variable cycles which can cause the garbage collector being unable to do his job. Internationalization eric3, qtunittest and helpviewer are prepared to show the UI in different languages which can be configured via the preferences dialog. The Qt and QScintilla translations are searched in $QTDIR/translations first, then in the eric3 installation directory and finally in the current directory. Please ensure, that the translations (.qm files) are somewhere in this path. Most Qt installations don't install them by default. If this is the case, some part of the MMI might show English texts even if you have selected something else. If you are missing eric3 translations for your language and are willing to volunteer for this work please send me an email naming the country code and I will send you the respective Qt-Linguist file. Window Layout eric 3 provides different window layouts. In these layouts, the shell window and the file browser may be embedded or be separat windows. The first layout uses splitters to separate the different areas. The second uses dock windows and the last one provides independant windows. NOTE: It has been observed that with certain styles on some distributions the application tends to crash when a dock window gets redocked. This is not an eric3 problem. It is caused by the Qt library. Scripting For scripting related information please see the file README.scripting. Source code documentation eric3 has a built in source code documentation generator, which is usable via the commandline as well. For further details please see the file README-eric3-doc.txt License eric3 (and the others) is released under the conditions of the GPL. See separate license file for more details. Third party software included in eric3 is released under their respective license and contained in the eric3 distribution for convenience. Note for Windows: Windows users are allowed to use eric3 with the commercial version of Qt and PyQt. However, further redistribution or building a package for Windows is not allowed due to the commercial license conditions. eric3 may be freely distributed under the conditions of the GPL for Windows, if it is meant to be installed or is packaged with the GPL port of Qt and PyQt for windows. Bugs and other reports Please send bug reports, feature requests or contributions to eric bugs address. After the IDE is installed you can use the "Report Bug..." entry of the Help menu. This will send a message to