Release Notes

Version 4.0 build 16
October-07-2005

Rainbow is a Windows application developed by ENLASO Corporation. It offers a palette of utilities aiming to help you during the process of localizing documentation, on-line help and software-related material.

Installation

Rainbow runs on any version of Windows that can run the Microsoft .NET Framework: Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0 (all versions—Service Pack 6a required), Windows 2000 (all versions—no Service Packs required), Windows XP Professional, and Windows XP Home Edition.

To install Rainbow:

If you do not have Microsoft .NET Framework runtime files installed, the installation will be interrupted and you will be prompted to install the framework if you do not have it, or have an version older than the one required (currently: v1.1 or newer). Once the framework is installed you can re-run Rainbow's installer.

It is also recommended to have Internet Explorer up-to-date. Rainbow does not use IE, but some part of the Windows system sometimes gets updated through IE's latest version.

If you have a previous version of Rainbow (3.x) already installed -- as long as you do not overwrite the previous files, both versions can co-exist and even run at the same time. You do not need to un-install Rainbow 3.x to install Rainbow 4. Some functionalities available in version 3.x are not available in version 4.x (and vice-versa).

If you have a previous build of Rainbow 4 installed -- you must un-install it first.

Un-Installation

To un-install Rainbow 4: go to the Control Panel and select Add/Remove Programs, select the entry for Rainbow, and click Remove.

In some cases you can also directly re-run the installer: if the application is already installed and if the version is similar, it will ask you if you want to remove it or repair it. Simply select the remove option.

Beta Components

While Rainbow itself is now on a normal release mode (not Beta any more), some components of Rainbow may still be Beta. You should be careful when using those modules.

Please, send any feedback and bug reports to ysavourel@translate.com or post them on the ENLASO Tools user group list. All comments, suggestions, remarks, typo and grammar corrections, etc. are very welcome.

Overview

Rainbow is a Windows application that offers a palette of utilities aiming to help you during the process of localizing documentation, on-line help and software-related material. Rainbow is freely available.

The following utilities are included:

  • Text Extraction
  • Merging
  • Other Translation Utilities
    • Text Update
    • Text Alignment
    • Text Rewriting
  • Encoding Conversion
  • Line-breaks Conversion
  • URL-Encoding Conversion
  • Graphics Conversion
  • Search And Replace
  • Byte-Order-Mark Removal
  • Files Renaming Or Moving
  • RTF Utilities
    • Conversion To Text
    • TM Creation
    • WinHelp RTF Verification
  • Trados Utilities
    • Batch Analysis
    • Counts Conversion
  • XML Utilities
    • XML Verification
    • XML Validation

The following filters are included:

  • ColdFusion Filter (for CFM files)
  • HTML Filter (for HTML and some server-side files)
  • Properties Filter (for Java and other properties files)
  • Script Filter (for any file format that can use filtering based on regular-expressions)
  • Windows RC Filter (for Win32 RC files)
  • XML Filter (for XML documents)

Changes Between Updates

Changes Between Version 4.0 build 15 and Version 4.0 build 16

Rainbow Shell:

  • The online help has been updated.
  • Changed the thread model of the managed C++ code in Rainbow to match with Rainbow's MFC AfxOleInit() call.

Filter Pack:

  • The online help has been updated.
  • Script Filter:
    • Fixed the bug of the default action not being processed correctly.

FAQ

Here are some of the answers to some of the questions most frequently asked:

1. Can the version 3.x of Rainbow and this version be installed side by side?

Yes. There is no common files between the two projects. Both versions can even run at the same time.

2. Will there be additional filters and utilities in the next builds?

Yes. The goal is to implement most if not all that was supported in Rainbow 3.x and then add many more functionalities.

3. Why using the .NET Framework?

The dependency on the .NET Framework forces you to install the 50+ Mb runtime on your machine in order to be able to run Rainbow. It also limits the systems on which you can run Rainbow to the ones that supports the .NET Framework. So why using it?

Developing a .NET application instead of a more classic Windows application brings many advantages, among them:

  • The Framework comes with many built-in libraries: encodings schemes, databases engine, interoperability mechanisms, XML engine, graphics libraries, and much more. This makes the development of the utilities much easier.
  • While Rainbow itself is still written in C++, the filters and the utilities are developed in C#, which is a .NET programming language very similar to Java which improve the development time and decreases the number of bugs in the application.
  • In the future .NET may be ported to other system than Windows. It's an ECMA standard and some projects have been started to port the framework on Linux for example.

It was not easy to decide to make Rainbow a .NET application, but in the long run it should be better than leaving it a classic Win32 application.

4. Is there a command-line mode for Rainbow?

Yes. Start Rainbow from a command-line with a /? parameter to see more information.