Zeal Versions Save

Offline documentation browser inspired by Dash

v0.1.0

9 years ago

A lot of changes have been made since the last release, so this change log cannot be considered complete, but merely an attempt to list most noticeable updates.

This is the first release that follows a new versioning scheme based on Semantic Versioning. Please note, that now Zeal is considered in permanent beta status until a major version 1.0.0 is released. We will try to maintain minimal backward compatibility, but there are a lot of problems in the current code base, as well as ideas on how to make Zeal better. Our workflow is following:

  • bug fixes go into patch releases (e.g. 0.1.1 for 0.1.0);
  • new features go into minor releases (0.2.0, 0.3.0).

Another important change is that the new Zeal relies on its own server for obtaining docset list and update information. For docset update to work properly you need to download all docsets again. From now docset icons are not embedded in Zeal, but come from the server as well. That means old docsets would lack icons until docsets are redownloaded.

New features:

  • Follow a new versioning scheme. (#203)
  • Added support for Dash protocols dash: and dash-plugin: on Linux and Windows. (#247)
  • Revamped settings dialogue with more intuitive options.
  • Added a build option for portable mode (qmake CONFIG+=portable). In this case settings are stored in zeal.ini next to the Zeal executable, and docset storage path defaults to docsets subdirectory. Changing docset storage path via the settings dialogue has only temporary effect, and it is not saved on application exit. It is still possible to set a permanent custom path by manually editing zeal.ini.
  • Zeal now relies on its own server for obtaining docset list, rather than parsing Dash website.
  • Now the docset list is cached for 24 hours, but can be manually reloaded. (#287)
  • Implemented version check function (Help -> Check for Update...). (#282)
  • Improved display of docset download/unpack progress. (#252)
  • Now the main window of the running Zeal instance is brought up on attempt to start the app again. (#187)
  • Provided MSI installer for Windows users. (#279)
  • Removed Qt 4 support. Qt 5.2.0 or later is required.
  • --query CLI parameter is deprecated. Search query should be passed directly as an argument.

Fixed issues:

  • Fixed missing index pages for some of the official Dash docsets. (#283)
  • Improved docset icon discovery. (#251, #264)
  • Fixed wrong version number in the about dialogue. (#246)
  • Fixed tons of other unmentioned bugs.

Known problems:

  • Manually added Dash feeds lack auto-update feature. (#289)
  • Index search performance problems. Will be addressed in the new threaded full text search implementation. (#265, #280, #288)
  • There is an issue in Qt WebKit JavaScript engine that leads to significant slowdown and UI freezes on Windows 8 (mostly noticeable in Android and .NET docsets). (#265).

Binary builds

Binary builds for Windows are available in our Bintray repository. For the complete list of download options see our Download page.