Patch Release - Performance and Stability Improvement

Maintenance release addressing file modification tracking issues and improving application stability.
This release is a culmination of multiple commits related to performance, stability and overall app experience after getting feedback.

Fixed

• Critical: File modification indicator (asterisk) now correctly reflects document state after save operations
• Critical: Spurious textChanged signals during file load no longer trigger false modification state
• Critical: Document modification state properly synchronized between Qt's internal tracking and application UI
• File save operations no longer cause immediate re-marking of files as modified
• New file creation no longer incorrectly marks files as modified before any edits
• Editor tab titles now accurately reflect saved/unsaved state without manual intervention

Added

Documentation:

• TROUBLESHOOTING.md with Wine compatibility guidance and common issue resolution
• Wine/Linux limitations documented with source installation instructions
• README.md updated with platform compatibility warnings

Changed

• Problems table now read-only to prevent accidental edits while preserving copy functionality
• All program types now execute in external terminal windows for consistent I/O behavior
• File modification tracking migrated to Qt's QTextDocument.isModified() for reliable state management
• Signal-based architecture for modification state changes using custom pyqtSignal

Performance Improvements

• Trie-based syntax highlighting for O(n) keyword matching instead of O(n*m) regex operations
• LRU cache on toolchain detection for faster repeated lookups
• Debounced syntax highlighting with 200ms delay to reduce CPU usage during rapid typing
• Precompiled regex patterns for string and comment matching
• Optimized highlightBlock() implementation reducing editor lag on large files

Technical Improvements

• Implemented proper signal blocking during file load operations to prevent false positives
• Added _loading flag to distinguish between programmatic and user-initiated text changes
• Modified save_file() to explicitly set document modification state via setModified(False)
• Refactored _on_text_changed() to check document.isModified() as source of truth
• Disconnection and reconnection of textChanged signal during file loading for clean state initialization
• FastSyntaxHighlighter class with TrieNode data structure for efficient keyword lookup

Known Issues

• Windows-only distribution (Wine compatibility not supported for PyInstaller builds)
• Large size of the app folder

CppLabEngine v1.0.0 - Initial Release

CppLabEngine v1.0.0

AND IT'S OUT NOW!!!! This is the first stable release of CppLabEngine, a lightweight offline C/C++ IDE for Windows intended for day-to-day use in college labs and on personal machines, with everything bundled in a single download.

Highlights

• Fully offline toolchain

  • Bundled 32-bit and 64-bit MinGW toolchains; no separate compiler install needed.
  • 32-bit toolchain is preconfigured for legacy graphics.h / BGI programs.
  • 64-bit toolchain is used for modern console and OpenMP projects.

• Two workflows

  • Project mode: Console, Graphics, and Console+OpenMP project templates.
  • Single-file mode: open a .c / .cpp, select toolchain and standard, and Compile & Run.

• Build and diagnostics

  • Asynchronous builds so the UI remains responsive.
  • Incremental builds when outputs are up to date.
  • GCC output parsed into a Problems table (file, line, column, message).
  • Double-click a problem to jump to the exact line; error lines are highlighted in the editor.
  • Status bar summary such as Compilation failed in 1386 ms (2 errors, 1 warning).

• UI and settings

  • Simple light UI with an optional light + sky-blue theme.
  • Settings dialog for theme, build-output font, and build timing options.
  • Bottom panel with tabbed Build / Problems view, similar to Dev-C++.

Changes since v0.1.0

• Real Settings dialog with persisted options.
• Problems view fully wired (error/warning parsing, navigation, highlighting).
• Build moves to a background worker to avoid freezes.
• Incremental build support and capped build log to reduce unnecessary work and memory use.
• Packaging cleaned up for end-user use; earlier release is now marked as a pre-release.

Download and install

1. Download CppLabEngine-1.0.0-windows-x64.zip from this release.
2. Extract it to a directory such as C:\CppLabEngine\.
3. Run CppLabEngine.exe.

No additional compiler setup is required; all toolchains are included in the compilers directory.