Besides the obvious bug fixes, the update version 2.6 comes with some new features. In short, de editor can be switched to dark mode, the UI of the IDE has a new look, projects can be saved to a version history and libraries have been updated.
Bug Fixes
If possible, all known bugs have been fixed. This is true for the IDE, the CHM help, as well as for the runtime GfaWin23.ocx. The CHM Help is updated with the latest new commands and functions. Fixed is the bug where the CHM Help-viewer crashed when typing in the edit-field of the Index tab.
There were three known bugs in the runtime; the Alert box didn’t use the correct colors all the time, the FileName property after using ShowFolders didn’t provide the folder’s name correctly, and the mouse pointer didn’t display correctly over the TextBox Ocx. These issues have been fixed in the updated runtime version 2.39.
The libraries gfawinx.lg32 and direct2d.lg32
The extension library gfawinx contains some new functions and commands:
- SplitPath parses a given path specification like C’s _splitpath().
- DirExist checks for the existence of a path (UNC included) and does a much better job than GetAttr.
- CharW returns a wide character string from a given address.
- The string functions FindFirstOf and FindLastOf return the first or last position of any of the characters from a given set.
- The LoadRichEdit50W function modifies the runtime to use msftedit.dll with the rich edit window class RichEdit50W (rather than the current RichEdit20A class from RichEd20.dll). See the updated CHM helpfile for more information.
- The high-resolution timer object TimerQ has been re-developed, because Windows 10 suddenly stopped supporting the older implementation.
The direct2d library version 1.13 updates only a few functions;
- D2GetRT can create a rendertarget for a memory DC. Syntax:
Set memdcRT = D2GetRT(hdc, width, height) - D2Bitmap can load an image without ignoring the alpha channel.
More advanced Direct 2D features are under development.
UI changes to the IDE
The IDE has a smoother user-interface and new (a bit larger) images for toolbar, auto-complete, and list-boxes. In addition, the editor can be switched to a dark mode for those that appreciate light-on-dark editing.
The default dark mode syntax colors are chosen from a palette of colors that display well on a dark background, for more color suggestions see Colormind - Generate dashboard template colors. The dark background isn’t pure black, but it’s RGB color value is $121212. More information on the editor’s colors can be found in The IDE's Color Dialog blog.
Save to History
The toolbar displays an additional button (see picture above) for the Save to (Version) History feature. The command adds the current program to a history zipfile with a descriptive name that allow you to summarize the changes and new features of that program. By regularly storing the program in the version history file, you can easily return to a previous version of the program. By default, the history file is named progname + “History.zip” and it is stored in the program’s directory. However, the Extra tab in the Properties dialog box allows you to provide a dedicated directory (another (network) drive perhaps) to save the history files in one place. After selecting the command you are presented with this dialog box (Prompt):
The dialog shows the filename and timestamp of the current file. The timestamp is the first element added to the descriptive name when the file is added to the zipfile. This makes sorting the zipfile easier. The second filename specifies the path and filename of the history file to which it is added. The edit line is used to provide a description of changes and new features of the file to store. The description starts with your Windows username, which could be necessary when multiple developers work on the same code. Because this information makes up the name of the file in the zipfile it can not include specific characters as \:/*?<>|”. To separate items use the ; or – characters. After saving you can open the zip file with the File Explorer.
$Compiler command
This new command adds the current compiler settings to the program, so you can use different compiler settings for your projects. Just type $Compiler on an empty line and the IDE inserts the compiler settings as a long integer value (in hex format) into the code line.
$Compiler 0x0008A734 ' Br:4 BrExe:1 Mul:3 Fp:3 ChkArr:1 Bswp:0 Num2Str:1 FpWait:0 FpCons:0 Trace:2
The line includes a comment specifying the compiler settings that are represented by the $Compiler value. The meaning of the abbreviations can be found in the helpfile.
Download: GFA-BASIC 32 for Windows: Download (gfabasic32.blogspot.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment