Release notes: Sprint 12

Our main goals in Sprint 12 were to prepare for migration to the new CEF3-based native app shell; prepare for distributing a native installer/DMG; and build on the HTML code hinting functionality that debuted last sprint. We also merged several features contributed by the Brackets community, and made several small improvements to Brackets' extensibility APIs. Read on for details!

What's New in Sprint 12

• Code Hinting
  • Code Completion for HTML Attributes: Basic code hinting for HTML attribute names. Appears when you type Space within a tag (or press Ctrl+Space). This is just an early step; see the feature backlog for future plans.
  • Code hinting now supports basic extensibility -- see below.
• Native Shell
  • Live Development in CEF 3 Shell: Get existing HTML live editing functionality working in the future new app shell.
  • CEF 3 Shell Bug Fixes: Fix more bugs in the new app shell. Developer Tools (for debugging Brackets or extension code) are launched in Chrome instead of in the Brackets process, to avoid CEF deadlock problems.
  • Research Native Installer/Packaging: Finalize plans for creating a nicely packaged DMG/.app on Mac and a native installer on Windows.
  • Research HiDPI (Retina) Support: Change to vector icons to support HiDPI, and audit UI for other issues (one layout bug found). Note: Brackets only renders in HiDPI when using the new CEF 3 app shell.
• Other Enhancements
  • Move Line(s) Up/Down command
  • Save All command

UI Changes

no major changes to existing UI

API Changes

no major changes to existing APIs

New/Improved Extensibility APIs

Code Hinting - Extensions can add new code hint providers via CodeHintManager.registerHintProvider(). However, only one extension's hints are shown at a time (first provider wins) -- similar to current limitations with inline editor providers.

LiveDevelopment - New API functions: LiveDevelopment.enableAgent(name) and disableAgent(name).

Live Development has a number of more "experimental" agents (feature modules) that are disabled by default. This API allows extensions (like jdiehl/brackets-debugger) to enable these features. The new agents take effect the next time a live development session starts. Current live development sessions are not affected.

Async utilities - New Async.doSequentiallyInBackground() API for slicing up a synchronous task into chunks that run in the background, automatically ensuring some idle time occurs periodically.

Menus - addMenuItem() gives better feedback on console if you pass it bad arguments.

Dialogs -- Dialog boxes can now contain editable text fields (input or textarea).

Known Issues

• #1283: Text selection highlight jitters when horizontally resizing window -- will be fixed in the next sprint's CodeMirror upstream merge.
• #1267: Text selection highlight doesn't extend further to the right if you scroll the editor horizontally -- will be fixed in the next sprint's CodeMirror upstream merge.

Community contributions to Brackets

• Add doSequentiallyInBackground() utility API by Josh Hatwich
• Move Line(s) Up/Down command by Bruno Filippone
• Save All command by srinarasi
• Fix bug #1243: Input fields don't work in dialogs by Sebastian Rodriguez
• Live Development API to enable additional agents (see details above) assisted by Jonathan Diehl

Bugs fixed in Sprint 12

For details on the bugs addressed, please refer to closed sprint 12 bugs. A few other bugs might have been fixed that weren't tagged.