NEWS ARCHIVE

1.6.1 is out. This is a bugfix release. The main bugs that have been fixed are:

• MGT crashed if one launched it without any config file
• MGT crashed at startup doing:
  > multi-gnome-terminal --wclass foo
  where foo is a non-existing window class

MGT will crash if launched without a config file. This will be fixed in 1.6.1, and is also fixed in CVS. Please download the CVS version if you don't already have a config file. For those who need one, a suitable config file is available here (download and copy to ~/.gnome/MultiTerminal).

Enhancements:

• Font handling improvements including support for pseudo-graphics characters (like xterm), and some support for proportional fonts.
• There are two Classes now: Window Class and Tab Class. Each Tab can have its own preferences for many things such as fonts,backgrounds, etc.
• Preference options now for utmp, wtmp, and lastlog logging.
• URL Handling now works with raw IP addresses.

Bugs fixed:

• Silencing bell did not silence bell ;-)
• Using ESC sequences to create Tabs, etc could crash MGT.

and various others (see ChangeLog for more details). The package is available from the download page.

Enhancements:

• Font handling improvements including support for pseudo-graphics characters (like xterm), and some support for proportional fonts.
• There are two Classes now: Window Class and Tab Class. Each Tab can have its own preferences for many things such as fonts,backgrounds, etc.
• Preference options now for utmp, wtmp, and lastlog logging.
• URL Handling now works with raw IP addresses.

Bugs fixed:

• Silencing bell did not silence bell ;-)
• Using ESC sequences to create Tabs, etc could crash MGT.
• Fix several possible crashes related to new Class handling.

and various others (see ChangeLog for more details). The package is available from the download page.

Several bugs have been fixed in this release and new features have been added, of course:

• Contrast and gamma correction adjustments for background pixmaps, so now it's even possible to brighten a background image.
• The default 'Hardset' items at the top of the 'New Term' menu can be hidden (e.g. root shell)
• Bold text color can be set separately from normal, foreground color. See Preferences.
• A different font can now be set for bold text (as well as color).
• mgt-helper improvements, i.e. -x option helps with running compound commands from Edit Commands (e.g. ps | less works).
• Many short name versions of command line options: -T, or --add-tab for instance.
• New command line option: '--add-window-wt', which opens a new window with startup Tabs for that class.

See NEWS file and ChangeLog for everything else!

Several bugs have been fixed in this release and new features have been added:

• Now one can set contrast and gamma correction of background pixmaps, and it's even possible to illuminate a background image
• Hardset items of 'New Term' menu can be hidden
• A different font can be now chosen for bold text

There are significant configuration improvements in this release candidate for the next version, along with the usual minor improvements and fixes.

• There are now separate Window and Tab Classes, with separate configuration options. This means that individual Tabs can have their own, unique configuration (ie backgrounds, fonts, colors, etc).
• Configuration options for utmp, wtmp, and lastlog logging.
• URL Handling handles IP addresses.

Please see the Notes to Upgraders section in the User Guide for what the new Class scheme is and how it works, and associated unavoidable configuration problems.

The first release candidate of MGT 1.5.2 (1.5.2rc1) is available for download.

The main enhancements in MGT 1.5.2rc1 are:

• the ability to set a color for bold text that is different from the foreground one,
• a new command line option '--add-window-wt' that opens a new window with startup Tabs for that class,
• short names for many command line options (multi-gnome-terminal --help to list them).
• In this release the mgt-helper script has been improved a lot: ssh and su wrappers have been added so that you can also use mgt-helper to handle URLs in root and ssh terminals, and FILE_HANDLER stuff has been improved.

Several bugs have been fixed as well:

• dots could be left around a terminal with text shadowing enabled,
• text selected in MGT couldn't be pasted in gnome-terminal,
• and many others (see ChangeLog for more details).

MGT 1.5.1 is out with several enhancements and a lot of bugs fixed (available from download page). I recommend all 1.5.0 and 1.4.x users to get this release. Now bundled with MGT there is a shell script called mgt-helper, which is intended to facilitate Multi Gnome Terminal's interaction with the shell environment. It essentially adds some functionality that would be difficult to accomplish from within Multi Gnome Terminal alone, so that you can easiliy:

• have separate bash history file for different Tabs.
• use MGT with GNOME URL handlers, i.e. you can configure GNOME to launch a text based app in its own Tab for http, ftp, mailto, and file type URLs.

There are several new Actions available for Keybindings. A new option was added that lets you hide the thin border around the GtkNotebook widget, and also if you have two MGT windows opened and you logout, you'll get both windows with the same tabs, paths and commands when you login again. Also fixed the following bugs:

• MGT windows whose class is removed didn't always switch to the default class
• 'Disable All Keybindings' option was sometimes wrongly set
• MGT had several memory leaks
• Transparent background wasn't updated sometime (especially in Enlightment)
• Background image height was always equal to its width.

For more details see ChangeLog files.

The first 1.5.1 release candidate is out, and is available on the download page.

You can now download CVS snapshots of MGT from the download page.
Take a look to see if a bug that is tormenting you has already been fixed in CVS.

1.5.0 is now the stable release. To obtain it, please visit the download page.

10/10 for Multi-Gnome-Terminal in Linux Orbit review

Release candidate 3 has a severe bug that causes frequent crashes, so please do not use it. Instead you can download multi-gnome-terminal-1.5.0_rc4.tar.gz

In this release candidate I have fixed some bugs, but the main feature is that I have implemented a highly optimised way of handling pixmaps. In fact now each MGT window allocates only one pixmap, reducing memory consumption significantly.

MGT 1.5.0rc2 is the 1.5.0 release candidate in which I have fixed some bugs that could cause MGT to crash.

MGT 1.5.0Beta9:

• fixed some terminal emulator (TE) bugs; also fixed a bug related to word selection (selecting a word by double clicking and then extending the selection loses the selected word)
• implemented all mouse tracking features of xterm (vim for example uses xterm mouse tracking)

MGT 1.5.0Beta7 is the candidate 1.5.0 release.

There is now an MGT channel on the irc.gnome.org server. Use any IRC client, such as xchat, to connect to the server and then join the channel #mgt (this is also in the channels list). I'm there...

Apart from bugs, this release has what you'll find in the official 1.5.0 so please get it and test it.

MGT 1.5.0 is almost completed apart from minor things.

I have added 'views', i.e. now you can create a term which is a view of another one. To do that you have to select the
'New Term->View->horizontal of...'
item, or
'New Term->View->vertical of...'
from the menu, and then select a terminal to view by clicking with the left mouse button. Get MGT 1.5.0 tarball.

New MGT 1.5.0 alpha release with horizontal and vertical splitting and also with commad line options to open new terminals. For example, by typing inside a MGT shell:
multi-gnome-terminal --add-window --tname=NewWin --add-tab --hsplit
you get a new window with two tabs, and inside the second split tab there are two terminals (multi-gnome-terminal --help for more details)

Sources of multi-gnome-terminal ver 1.4.1: Two minor bugs have been fixed in this release

• if 'titled tabs' option was used one got wrong numeric prefix in tabs
• keybindings didn't work if BlocNum was on

multi-gnome-terminal-1.4.1.tar.gz (726096 bytes)
MD5sum = b44d072f7e89bcdd594468ca07374a54
multi-gnome-terminal-1.4.1.tar.bz2 (558379 bytes)
MD5sum = 0a0ca1858274a220a8237734837812d6

This a major new release, and it has many enhancements such as keybindings, startup tabs, new configuration scheme, text shadowing, and much more. For a complete description and information on usage, please see the man page, user guide, and README written by Hal Burgiss (thanks again Hal!) on the Documents page. The major changes are:

• User can add his own startup shell commands, including setting the PATH through.
• multi-gnome-terminal now supports font shadowing (like Eterm), which is a technique for outlining fonts with a thin shadow effect.
  This helps with contrast and readability on transparent or pixmapped backgrounds.
• Keybindings used by multi-gnome-terminal may be customized by selecting "Key Bindings" from the Settings menu in the menubar. Various tasks, such as opening a new terminal or switching between active terminals, can be assigned to keyboard combinations of the user's choosing.
• New configuration scheme: using a Preferences window you may now change, and apply, the settings of a chosen class.
  For switching classes you can now either use the popup menu (right mouse button) or the main menu under Settings. Changes are applied to all open windows.
• The terminal scrollback buffer can be searched from the 'Edit' option on the menubar.
• MGT now has multi-byte support.
• MGT now fully emulates a VT52/VT100/VT220/xterm terminal, indeed it is fully compliant with 'vttest', a program commonly used for the rigorous testing of terminal emulators.
  MGT now does what xterm does!

and last, but not least, I fixed a lot of bugs, including:

• resize problem with xeno gtk themes.
• cut&paste with other applications.
• transparent background wasn't updated when desktop image changed

and I made many other minor changes.

Major features enhancement:

• now you can group commands: 'Shells/bash' as tab name in edit_commands window means: create a submenu Shells and inside put a command named 'bash'
• Pressing CTRL-'Left Mouse' or CTRL-'Middle Mouse' you can open a popup commands menu

Minor Bugs Fix:

• 'configure' fixed because there were compilation problems on Solaris
• '--login' option now works
• applying tinting or shading to a transparent background didn't work
• '.' didn't work in vim
• --use-factory didn't work

Major Bug Fixed:

• MGT crashed yet with gnome-libs 1.4.1.4
• 'Remove Terminal' in toolbar and menubar didn't work

Minor Feature Enhacement:

• now you can use '--title' command line option to set MGT window title

Major Bugs Fixed:

• hide/show menu entries fixed
• notebook arrows now work
• resizing problems fixed
• MGT crashed with gnome-libs 1.4.1.4
• color-picker widget size was not set properly

Minor Bugs Fixed:

• cursor blinking problem fixed
• CTRL-q has been changed (again) to CTRL-F1 and CTRL-F1 (change title shortcut) to CTRL-F2
  Sometime terminal didn't get focused though main window did

Enhancement:

• now one can also hide tabs via Preferences window

Major Bug Fixed:

• If buttonbar wasn't visible MGT crashed when one pressed apply/ok from edit_commands window.

Minor Bugs Fixed:

• 'CTRL-l', which conflicted with several applications, was changed to 'CTRL-q'.
• 'CTRL-l p' was changed to 'CTRL-q n'.
• tab position changes are not applied properly from Preferences window

Minor Bugs Fixed:

• Patches for Red Hat distributions applied: now if you type export CFLAGS=-DREDHAT_TERM before running ./configure you'll get an MGT working fine in a Red Hat. RPM binaries for Red Hat are now also available!
• Found a workaround for making numeric keypad work in all (hope ;-) editors, including vim

Major Bug Fixed:

• MGT crashed if one used toolbar
• Focus problem with terminals created by popup menu

Several minor bugs fixed:

• hiding/showing menus/toolbar/buttonbar caused terminal size to change
• Window Manager terminal class is now set correctly

Several bugs fixed (all geometry bug were fixed!):

• session saving was buggy so logging out from GNOME MGT could crash
• geometry setting of new terminals was wrong
• starting geometry was wrong

Minor Bugs Fixed:

• Keybindings now work hopefully on every platform.
• omf files now installed in a separate directory.
• Changing gnome theme, tabs style didn't change if you didn't restart MGT.

Enhancements:

• You can now change tab text simply clicking middle button (or CTRL-Left button) on tab.
• tab text in dialog window is already selected so that you can quickly delete it.

Major Bug Fixed:

• Shortcuts for switching between terminals didn't work for some machines.
• Paste shortcut (CTRL-V) didn't work.

Major Bug Fixed:

• MGT crashed if one had not rcstyle entry for label widget

Bugs Fixed:

• Rendering of background pixmap was too slow.
• Opening and closing an application added a space to the window title.
• Tab label now uses the rc style not the default one.

Bugs Fixed:

• Closing the window the shell didn't store history file
• All user defined commands don't depend now upon class, but they're common for all classes.

Enhancements:

• Now the background pixmap can be tinted and shaded as Eterm does!
• Background image can be scaled or tiled.
• Now you can remove classes, you don't need any more, clicking a button in 'Settings->Preferences->General'
• Each terminal can set its window title (by escape sequences for example) and switching terminal, window title switches too, besides you can put titles in tabs if you want, and you can even choose the maximum lenght of tab text!

NOW AVAILABLE RPM PACKAGE FOR ALL DISTRIBUTIONS!

Bugs Fixed:

• wrong environment settings in new terminals

Enhancements:

• One can now reorder tabs (moving the current one to right or to left) using buttonbar or toolbar
• Tabs can be placed now also on bottom, on right or on left

Bugs Fixed:

• if one terminal, which is not the current one, dies, mgt kills that one and the current one
• terminals,but first one, had a border of two pixels

Enhancements:

• Terminal state is notified using colors.
• User can choose his preferred colors for terminal states (Settings->Preferences->colors).

Bugs fixed:

• if one started a terminal with'--start-factory-server' and then another one with '--use-factory', mgt crashed
• if one opened a second terminal window and then closed it without confirmation mgt crashed

Enhancements:

• Added Change button in edit_commands window

Minor bug fixes related to terminal state notification on tabs.

Now each terminal notifies its state, i.e. whether the screen is changing, putting squared brackets around its name or it is changed, putting two '# ' around its name.
Moreover now one can close a window without giving any confirmation.

There are some bug fixes, and I added shortcuts for user defined commands. Get it!