JWPce Support Page Update History

Contents


Recent Changes to JWPce


This section contains a short overview of changes in the most recent versions of JWPce. For a full list of changes see the CHANGES.TXT file.


Relationship between JWP and JWPce
Simular but different programs

JWP and JWPce are very similar program in some ways, but very different in some other ways. It would be easy to call JWPce a new version of JWP, but this would be incorrect. JWPce is actually a different program. When creating JWPce, I started by duplicated general design of the interface used by JWP, and provided JWPce the ability to read and write compatible file formats with JWP. Internally, however, JWPce contains almost no code directly from JWP. This means that there are many small interface differences between JWP and JWPce. Additionally, features of JWP that I did not regularly use may not be identical in JWPce, because I was not as familiar with these features. Finally, as the JWPce project developed I settled on a style for the JWPce interface which is somewhat different from that of JWP, and the feel of JWPce began to drift farther away from that of JWP.

As time goes on JWPce and JWP will probably continue to develop and evolve. I would assume that JWP and JWPce will actually get farther apart as a function of time. In writing JWPce it was not my intention to replace JWP, but rather to provide a set of features that I wanted that were not in JWP.

Coexistance - Can JWP and JWPce coexist in the same machine?

YES! JWPce was constructed to be compatible with JWP. Both programs use essentially the same data files in the same format. (A few of JWPce's data files have been converted to a different format to save space and/or improve performance.) Where JWPce uses a different file format than JWP, it also uses a different file name. For example, JWP stores use kana-to-kanji conversion choices in a file named "cnvcache.sav", however JWPce uses a different file format to store this information, and calls that file "user.sel", so there will be no problems.

JWPce is more restrictive on the location for the files than JWP. In particular JWPce requires almost all the files necessary to run the program (not your text files) to be located in the same directory as the executable program (JWPce.exe). (The exception to this is the dictionary files and supplemental font files which can be located anywhere on your system.) JWP, however, allows the files to be located almost anywhere on the system (see technical information if you are interested in why). If you have all you JWP files in one directory (the default operating configuration), however, you can install JWPce in the same directory without any difficulty.

File Extensions

In Windows, files are "associated" with their applications by the file extensions that they use. JWPce and JWP use the same file, thus they want to use the same extensions. How you deal with this issue is a question of which program you use more and how you like your system configured.

By default, whenever you run JWPce it checks the state of the current installation to see if you want to install the program. Installation to JWPce means "associating" a number of file extensions with JWPce and placing JWPce in the Start Menu, and/or on the Desktop. If you want JWPce to leave some of the file extensions associated with JWP you can use the "Advanced Install" option to choose which extensions are associated with JWPce. Additionally, you can prevent JWPce from checking the installed state when it starts (located on the Install Dialog).

Note that JWP actually has a similar feature that attempts to tell if some other program is using the same file extensions as JWP, however, this feature is not working as of version 1.31, and thus JWP will not detect the fact that the extensions have changed.

Either program (JWP or JWPce) will still function correctly without the file extensions being "associated" with he program. What these "associations" do is determine what program gets started when you double-click on a data file.

The .jce File Extension

JWP and JWPce typically use the following file extensions: .jwp, .euc, .sjs, .jis, .old, amd .nec. JWP by default stores files using the extension .jwp. JWPce supports one additional file extension, .jce. This is actually JWPce's default file extensions (what it will try to save your file as).

Currently the data stored in the .jce file is identical to the data stored in the .jwp file. This means that you can load the contents of a .jce file into JWP using auto-detect. In the future the .jce file will become JWPce's native file format and this will no longer be possible. In order to move data between JWP and JWPce, you will then have to save the data as a .jwp file.

Moving Data Between JWP and JWPce

There are a number of possible ways to move data between JWP and JWPce. Since both programs can read and write the same file formats you can save data from one program and read the data into the other program. There are some small problems with this, however.

When storing information in the EUC, Shift-JIS, New JIS, Old JIS, and NEC JIS files, JWP sometimes mangles the file formatting, thus if you use these formats for transferring data the formatting may be damaged.

When importing or exporting JWP (.jwp) and JWPce (.jce) files, JWPce only imports a subset of the JWP file options. These include most of the major options, but some care should be taken when transferring files.

Finally, remember that JWP and JWPce are different programs. JWPce's formatting routines were rewritten from scratch and actually share no internal programming with those in JWP. What this means is that there will always be small formatting difference, since JWP and JWPce calculate character spacing in different ways. Generally this is not a problem.

Support Issues

I am personally supporting JWPce. If you find bugs in JWPce, have opinions of the program, want to make suggestions, please report them to me (be as specific as possible). If you have suggestions, please forward them to me. Please do not report JWPce bugs or suggestions, or questions, to Stephen Chung or the other members of the JWP support team. They will not be able to help you.

In converse, I am not actually supporting JWP, and thus can only provide information on working with the program and work-arounds for bugs. I am not generating new versions of JWP, but I will continue to post new versions to my web site as they become available.


Web page changes


page maintained by glenn rosenthal

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