January Update v 2.52

This update – version 2.52 - fixes many small bugs from version 2.5 (December 2018) and introduces several improvements, especially with auto-complete. First of all, auto-complete isn’t as intrusive as it was in 2.5. To select a word from the list you now need to enter the listbox explicitly using <arrow down>. This prevents accidently inserting words you don’t want. Where possible auto-complete is extended with statement completion: the popup listbox shows suggestions determined by the context. Please give it try and if you don’t like it you can disable it in the Properties dialog’s Extra tab, where you can customize more new features.

One of the goals of this update is to bring the GFA-BASIC 32 user interface to current standards, unfortunately the IDE wasn’t built for this. So, within the given limitations a first attempt was made to introduce new features. For instance, auto-complete relies on the status of internal databases of procs and variables, but these databases are updated only when the code is compiled (Shift+F5 or Ctrl+F5). This is especially true for user-defined types and the declaration of a variable of a UDT. To have auto-complete present the UDT-members the Type definitions must be compiled first. (Tip: define UDTs in a library, the $Library command loads pre-compiled UDTs.) In addition, to initialize the entire auto-complete feature the program is best compiled (test) just after loading. Normally, this isn’t a problem unless your program contains errors, that’s where the compiler stops and leaves auto-complete uninitialized.

Although the auto-complete feature is the most obvious addition, many more improvements have been made. I will discuss them briefly, but you can find more information in the readme25.rtf file.

Fixed: destruction of local arrays
The most important improvement of 2.5 and later is the fix of the destruction of local arrays and hashes. Until now it was difficult to use a local array or hash because the compiler didn’t add destruction code to the procedure. For a local array to be destructed you needed to introduce some another dynamic variable – mostly a string – as a workaround. A hash table wasn’t destructed at all, and required an explicit destruction in the code (Hash Erase). Although workarounds existed the problem remained that GB’s standard exception handlers didn’t destruct these data types. An exception (error) in the procedure caused a memory leak because the array and hash weren’t deleted (unless you used Try/Catch and followed the workaround rules). This problem now belongs to the passed, the destruction code is inserted for a normal flow of execution and for exceptions. Now this is fixed, GFA-BASIC 32 shouldn’t cause memory leaks anymore.

Groups in the Proc-tab
For large programs with a lot of procedures there is now a way to group the procedures in the Proc-tab of the sidebar. The following screenshot from the gfawin32.gll project illustrates the result of adding collapsible groups:

The $Group command is placed directly in the front of a procedure that is to be the first in the group. Each $Group command defines a new group of sequential procedures. By default, non-active groups are folded. The grouping feature allows very fast navigating through large programs. To remove a group type $GroupOff on the group line and after the group is removed you can simply delete the line.

New toolbar buttons
The screenshot shows a few more toolbar buttons.

• The arrow-left and –right allow you to navigate through your edit-history. Since version 2.52 adds more actions to the navigation-history, this increases the chance that you can properly return to the line you previously edited.
• A Procs button allows for fast access to commonly used procedure related actions like Set to Top, Print, Disassemble, and many more.
• The validate (V) button is a shortcut for Shift+F5.
• The window-wipe button performs a cleanup when a window or form remains on the screen after an abnormal exit.
• The Launch Exe button (here dimmed because the current GLL project cannot be launched) helps in saving, compiling, and running your project in one simple step.
• Finally, there is a button to quickly toggle the debug output window.

Quick Help
The quick help feature has been completely revised. Now when you hoover over a (key)word a popup with a short help description appears. Although most help topics were available, many (more than 2000) were mapped incorrectly to their help-ids. You should try it out and be surprised by new information never showed before.
Quick help is also available for procs, variables, and Types. For procs and types the quick help can be scrolled to show you the entire proc or type in the quick help window.

Keyboard shortcuts
There are now some really helpful keyboard shortcuts. For instance, App+P inserts the name of the current procedure into the text: an easy way to add a name to a message string.
Shift+Enter inserts the line-continuation character before invoking the Return key.
There are also many shortcuts for procedure related actions, for instance Alt+F12 to show the procedure’s disassembly and Ctrl+F11 to align the current procedure to the top of the editor which helps to focus on the current procedure.

But there is more. Known from Visual Studio is Incremental Search; press Shift+Ctrl+I and start typing letters, while typing the location of your search string is immediately shown. Press the arrow keys to reverse the search direction.

This post doesn’t cover all the new features. That’s why a Tip of the day (only once a day) presents a short note on a new feature. However, for more information please refer to the readme25.rtf file available from the Start Menu.

Bugs, questions and other remarks can be posted at gfabasic32@gmail.com.