README

README for the eric6 IDE
    
    Installation
    
        Installing eric6 is a simple process. Just execute the install.py
        script (type python install.py -h for some help). Please note that the
        installation has to be performed using the administrators account
        (i.e. root on linux). This installs a wrapper script called eric6 in
        the standard executable directory.
        
        If you want to uninstall the package just execute the uninstall.py
        script. This gets rid of all installed files. In this case please send
        an email to the below mentioned address and tell me your reason. This
        might give me a hint on how to improve eric6.
        
        eric6 may be used with any combination of Python 3 or 2, Qt5 or Qt4 and
        PyQt5 or PyQt4. If the required packages (Qt5/4, QScintilla2, sip and
        PyQt5/4) are not installed, please get them and install them in the
        following order (order is important).
        
            1. Install Qt5 (or Qt4) (from The Qt Company)
            
            2. Build and install QScintilla2 (from Riverbank Computing)
            
            3. Build and install sip (from Riverbank Computing)
            
            4. Build and install PyQt5 (or PyQt4) (from Riverbank Computing)
            
            5. Build and install QScintilla2 Python bindings
               (part of the QScintilla2 package)
            
            6. Install eric6
        
        If you want to use the interfaces to other supported software packages,
        you may install them in any order and at any time.
        
        Please note, that the QScintilla2 Python bindings have to be rebuild,
        if the PyQt5 package gets updated. If this step is omitted, a bunch of
        strange errors will occur.
    
    Installation of translations
    
        Translations of the eric6 IDE are available as separate downloads.
        There are two ways to install them.
        
        The first possibility is to install them together with eric6. In order
        to do that, simply extract the downloaded archives into the same place
        as the eric6 archive and follow the installation instructions above.
        
        The second possibility is to install them separately. Extract the
        downloaded archives and execute the install-i18n.py script (type
        python install-i18n.py -h for some help). This way you can make the
        translations available to everybody or just to the user executing the
        installation command (if using the -p switch).
    
    Running
    
        Just call up eric6, which will start the IDE. Use the "what is"-help
        (arrow with ?) to get some help. The eric web site provides some
        documents describing certain aspects of eric. To start the unit test
        module in a standalone variant simply call up eric6-unittest. This
        will show the same dialog (though with a little bit less functionality)
        as if started from within eric6. The web browser can be started as a
        standalone program by executing the eric6-webbrowser script.
        
        Please note, the first time you start eric6 it will recognize, that it
        hasn't been configured yet and will show the configuration dialog.
        Please take your time and go through all the configuration items.
        However, every configuration option has a meaningful default value.
    
    Running from the sources
    
        If you want to run eric6 from within the source tree you have to
        execute the compileUiFiles.py script once after a fresh checkout from
        the source repository or when new dialogs have been added. Thereafter
        just execute the eric6.py script.
    
    Tray starter
    
        eric6 comes with a little utility called "eric6-tray". This embeds an
        icon in the system tray, which contains a context menu to start eric6
        and all it's utilities. Double clicking this icon starts the eric6 IDE.
    
    Autocompletion/Calltips
    
        eric6 provides an interface to the QScintilla auto-completion and
        calltips functionality. QScintilla2 comes with API files for Python
        and itself. PyQt4 and PyQt5 contain API files as well. These are
        installed by default, if the correct installation order (see above) is
        followed. An API file for eric6 is installed in the same place.
        
        In order to use autocompletion and calltips in eric6 please configure
        these functions in the "Preferences Dialog" on the "Editor -> APIs", 
        "Editor -> Autocompletion" and "Editor -> Calltips" pages.
    
    Remote Debugger
    
        In order to enable the remote debugger start eric6, open the
        preferences dialog and configure the settings on the debugger pages.
        
        The remote login must be possible without any further interaction (i.e.
        no password prompt). If the remote setup differs from the local one you
        must configure the Python interpreter and the Debug Client to be used
        in the Preferences dialog. eric6 includes two different versions of the
        debug client. DebugClient.py is the traditional debugger and
        DebugClientThreads.py is a multithreading variant of the debug client.
        Please copy all needed files to a place accessible through the Python
        path of the remote machine and set the entries of the a.m.
        configuration tab accordingly. 
    
    Passive Debugging
    
        Passive debugging mode allows the startup of the debugger from outside
        of the IDE. The IDE waits for a connection attempt. For further details
        see the file README-passive-debugging.txt
    
    Plug-in System
    
        eric6 contains a plug-in system, that is used to extend eric6's 
        functionality. Some plug-ins are part of eric6. Additional plug-ins
        are available via the Internet. Please use the built-in plug-in
        repository dialog to get a list of available (official) plug-ins
        and to download them. For more details about the plug-in system
        please see the documentation area.
    
    Interfaces to additional software packages
    
        At the moment eric6 provides interfaces to the following software
        packages.
        
            Qt-Designer 
                This is part of the Qt distribution and is used to generate
                user interfaces.
            
            Qt-Linguist 
                This is part of the Qt distribution and is used to generate
                translations.
            
            Qt-Assistant 
                This is part of the Qt distribution and may be used to display
                help files.
            
            Mercurial
                This is a distributed version control system available from
                <mercurial.selenic.com>. It is the one used by eric6 itself.
            
            Subversion 
                This is a version control system available from
                <http://subversion.apache.org>. eric6 supports two different
                Subversion interfaces. One is using the svn command line tool,
                the other is using the PySvn Python interface
                <http://pysvn.tigris.org>. The selection is done automatically
                depending on the installed software. The PySvn interface is
                prefered. This automatism can be overridden an a per project
                basis using the "User Properties" dialog.
            
            coverage.py 
                This is a tool to check Python code coverage. A slightly
                modified version is part of the eric6 distribution. The
                original version is available from
                <http://www.nedbatchelder.com/code/modules/coverage.html>
            
            tabnanny 
                This is a tool to check Python code for white-space related
                problems. It is part of the standard Python installation.
            
            profile 
                This is part of the standard Python distribution and is used
                to profile Python source code.
    
    Internationalization
    
        eric6 and its tools are prepared to show the UI in different languages,
        which can be configured via the preferences dialog. The Qt and
        QScintilla translations are searched in the translations directory
        given in the preferences dialog (Qt page). If the translations cannot
        be found, some part of the MMI might show English texts even if you
        have selected something else. If you are missing eric6 translations
        for your language and are willing to volunteer for this work please
        send me an email naming the country code and I will send you the
        respective Qt-Linguist file.
    
    Window Layout
    
        eric6 provides different window layouts. In these layouts, the shell
        window and the file browser may be embedded or be separat windows.
    
    Source code documentation
    
        eric6 has a built in source code documentation generator, which is
        usable via the commandline as well. For further details please see
        the file README-eric6-doc.txt
    
    License
    
        eric6 (and the others) is released under the conditions of the GPL.
        See separate license file for more details. Third party software
        included in eric6 is released under their respective license and
        contained in the eric6 distribution for convenience. 
    
    Bugs and other reports
    
        Please send bug reports, feature requests or contributions to eric
        bugs address. After the IDE is installed you can use the
        "Report Bug..." entry of the Help menu, which will send an email to
        <eric-bugs@eric-ide.python-projects.org. To request a new feature use
        the "Request Feature..." entry of the Help menu, which will send an
        email to <eric-featurerequest@eric-ide.python-projects.org.