LineSort for Mac OS X

Copyright ©2002, 2003, 2004 by Craig H. Maynard.


SUMMARY

LineSort is a plug-in tool that adds advanced sorting capabilities to
BBEdit, the Macintosh text editor from Bare Bones Software. LineSort for
Mac OS X is freely available with no features disabled and no product
registration required.

LineSort can't sort multi-byte encoded text. If your document uses one
of the Unicode encodings such as UTF-8 or UTF-16, or if you're using
BBEdit 8, LineSort disables the sort button and doesn't respond to the
'sort' event.

TERMS

LineSort is free software; you may redistribute and/or modify this
program under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published
by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
your option) any later version.

LineSort is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
for more details.


BACKGROUND

Versions 1-3

LineSort started out in 1994 as a traditional BBEdit extension (or
plug-in), with a modal-dialog interface and a basic set of features.
LineSort 3.1 was the last release in this series, and is still freely
available in binary form for both the 68K and PPC platforms. This
version was implemented in C using Metrowerks CodeWarrior.

Version 4

Around 1998, LineSort evolved into a BBEdit palette tool with a floating
window UI, improved duplicate-handling, grep-based sorting, and an
OSA-compliant scripting interface. This version was implemented in C++
using Metrowerks CodeWarrior and the PowerPlant framework. LineSort 4.9
is the current (and final) release in this series.

LineSort 4.x was distributed as shareware. Users could pay a small
registration fee ($15) to gain access to all the features. It worked
with BBEdit 3.5.2 or later and BBEdit Lite 6.0 or later, running in Mac
OS 8 or 9.

Version 5

In September 2002, LineSort became a free software project, with the
initial goal of adapting LineSort to run in Mac OS X. The first release
includes most of the version 4 features, script recordability, and a new
Aqua appearance.


BUILD REQUIREMENTS

The LineSort project makes use of proprietary Metrowerks technology,
including its C++ compiler/linker, runtime sources, and the PowerPlant
framework. As a result, anyone who wants to build LineSort will need a
copy of Metrowerks CodeWarrior 8.0 or later. The less-expensive
academic version of CodeWarrior may be sufficient.

Note: a long-range goal of the project is to reduce or eliminate this
dependency on CodeWarrior.


JOIN THE PROJECT!

The project home page is

        http://sourceforge.net/projects/linesort/

Here you can view project information, download the latest software
release, submit a bug report, or request support.

You're also invited to take an active role in the project. We need help
with all phases of development. To get involved, please contact the
project admin.