The main component of the jEditLauncher package is a client application entitled jedit.exe. It may be executed either from either Windows Explorer, a shortcut icon or the command line. It uses the jEditLauncher COM component to open files in jEdit that are listed as command line parameters. It supports Windows and UNC file specifications as well as wild cards. If called without parameters, it will launch jEdit. If jEdit is already running, it will simply open a new, empty buffer.
jedit.exe supports five command-line options. Except for the /1 option, if any of these options are invoked correctly, the application will not load files or execute jEdit.
The option /h causes a window to be displayed with a brief description of the application and its various options.
The option /p will activate a dialog window displaying the command-line parameters to be used when calling jEdit. This option can also be triggered by selecting Set jEdit Parameters from the jEdit section of the Windows Programs menu, or by running the utility program jedinit.exe
Using the dialog, you can change parameters specifying the executable for the Java application loader (either java.exe or javaw.exe), the location of the jEdit archive file, jedit.jar, and command line options for both.
The input fields for Java options and jEdit options are separate. If you insert an option in the wrong place it will not be properly executed.
If the -jar option is not used with the Java application loader the principal jEdit class of org.gjt.sp.jedit.jEdit is set as fixed data.
The working directory for the Java interpreter's process can also be specified.
A read-only window at the bottom of the dialog displays the full command line that jEditLauncher will invoke.
Before committing changes to the command line parameters, jedit.exe validates the paths for the Java and jEdit targets as well as the working directory. It will complain if the paths are invalid. It will not validate command line options, but it will warn you if it finds the -noserver option used for jEdit, since this will deactivate the edit server and make it impossible for jEditLauncher to open files.
Note that due to the design of jEditLauncher, platform-independent command line options handled by jEdit itself (such as -background and -norestore) must be entered in the "Set jEdit Parameters" dialog box, and cannot be specified on the jedit.exe command line directly. For information about platform-independent command line options, see the section called "Command Line Usage".
The option /1 is intended for use in circumstances where a single file name is passed to jEdit for opening, and quotation marks cannot be used to delimit file names containing whitespace. The launcher reads the entire command line following the /1 options as a single file path, regardless of the presence of whitespace, and passes the resulting string as a single file name parameter to jEdit.
This option allows jEdit to be used with version 5 or greater of Internet Explorer as an alternate text editor or as the target of the View Source command. Included with the jEditLauncher distribution is a file named jEdit_IE.reg.txt containing an example of a Window registry file that you can use to register jEdit as a HTML editor with Internet Explorer. Instructions for the file's use are included in the text.
The use of the /1 option with multiple file names or other parameters will lead to program errors or unpredictable results.
The option /i is not mentioned in the help window for jedit.exe. It is intended primarily to be used in conjunction with jEdit's Java installer, but it can also be used to install or reinstall jEditLauncher manually. When accompanied by a second parameter specifying the directory where your preferred Java interpreter is located, jEditLauncher will install itself and set a reasonable initial set of command line parameters for executing jEdit. You can change these parameters later by running jedinit.exe or jedit.exe with the/p option.
The option /u will cause jEditLauncher to be uninstalled by removing its registry entries. This option does not delete any jEditLauncher or jEdit files.