Today we pushed out a new beta release, and this one has a lot you can't easily see, plus some new features that you can see.
What you can't see is the new IDE parser. The parser is responsible for everything related to code completion (tooltips, dot code completion, method insight, etc.),
plus input for the Class Browser, Quick Class Browser, and parsing input for Report/Window designers and Forms Designers for Clarion#, all refactoring, bookmarks, and I'm still
probably missing a few more... in short its a key core component.
Here's an idea of the features provided by the new parser:
- Better overall speed and less memory consumption; this affects background parsing, opening of any of the Designers and the Controls tab in Dictionary Editor
- Vastly improved code completion, including the following new features:
- support for Generics
- code completion for delegates (for generated Invoke, BeginInvoke and EndInvoke methods)
- support for aliases declared in a Using directive
- resolving of equates. (Equates are now also included to the Ctrl+Space completion list)
- support of names defined with a PRE attribute, and code completion after the ':' to show accessible members
- special code completion while writing member (i.e. not global) procedure definition. It shows all procedures with missing definitions.
- Alt+RightArrow word completion contains the data from Ctrl+Space completion list plus all reserved language keywords
In addition to that;
- Class Browser now shows all data; including local variables, local classes, Routines and local Procedures
- Class Browser has been reorganized for Clarion 7 projects. All objects are now grouped by the file name they are located within.
- 'Show in Class Browser' command now works for all user defined objects
- Quick Class Browser shows nested and local classes
- Ctrl+Enter in the editor takes you directly to the declaration of the class object under the cursor
- Ctrl+Shift+Enter in the editor to go directly to the definition of the method under the cursor
- resolving and code completion for .Net attributes is implemented
- new support for documentation comments to allow them to be shown in tooltips
- inclusion of all Code Snippets to the Ctrl+Space code completion list (+option to enable/disable this feature)
- resolving and code completion for Implicit variables
- Show in Class Browser command for objects from their references (Clarion# only)
- support for variables defined with LIKE
- tooltips for the generic parameters after the '<' (Clarion# only)
Even with all that, the performance improvements and the reduction in memory usage are tremendous.
Outside of all that we introduced some very nice refinements in the Dictionary Editor, these are usability features based on your feedback, and we also
added the new 'Reports View' drill-down into the Dictionary metadata module to the Data Diagrammer (I posted a blog on this here)
And of course we squashed a large number of bugs.
Overall this release (build 3276) is a big one. The development team worked very hard to get these features implemented and we all hope you enjoy it!
The Data Dictionary holds a wealth of metadata, and its this metadata combined with the Templates that drives the code generation for most Clarion applications. The Data Dictionary is the starting point for development and it stores the Database Schema; your core Business Logic including constraints and validation rules, default User Interface controls, and a host of other information. Getting a good overview of the complex relationships between tables can be a daunting task in any Dictionary and especially in large Dictionaries -- that's why we developed the Data Diagrammer. The Diagrammer provides a very nice graphical representation of the entities defined in your Dictionary. But drilling down into the finer details can still be time consuming, and yet it can be critical to the development and maintenance of your application. Enter the new 'Reports View' module.
The new Reports View module provides an instant "drill-down view" of some of the most interesting details of your Dictionary metabase. There are views for Fields, Keys, Tables, Relations and Triggers. Each of the different views provide for multi-column sorting, so that you can sort to any order desired to quickly identify characteristics of your Dictionary.
Here are some images of the new views, they should give you a good idea on what you'll be able to do. We are looking for input from the community on anything else you'd like to see added. After you've had time to provide further requirements we'll refine the new views and then add the functionality for printed Reports.
This is a quick note on the development status of the Application Generator (AppGen). The Application Generator is now well along in the internal test cycle. Converting an existing .App into C7 is as easy as pointing to an existing C6 app and choosing to open it. In the conversion process both the .App and its associated .DCT are converted to the new C7 formats -- while creating a backup of the old files. At this point a good percentage of App files convert as smoothly as clicking Open File, and have you up and running in Clarion 7 in under a minute (as it should be). But at present some converted .App files have problems for the reasons that I mention below, and that's why we haven't yet released the Application Generator into the beta program. But be assured that the Application Generator is steadily edging closer to public release status.
Conversion of the metadata within an APP file into the new format used in version 7 has a medium-level of complexity, partially because there are dependent conversions of Dictionary data, local data and Windows/Reports, and as of today conversions of .APP files still present a few bugs. We have a team focused on debugging code generation problems, and tracking down the root cause of code generation related errors. The teams' assignment is to isolate the problems and determine if the issues are;
- problem in the template and code generation engine
- problem caused by an incorrect App conversion
- problem with incorrect information in the converted DCT (such as incorrect column or key attributes and so on)
- or some combination of the above
Integrated support for the specialized behaviors required from the Window and Report designers for Appgen are also in test phase, as well as the Embed editor mode of the Source Editor. There are other supporting components (for AppGen) being integrated at the same time and the process of integration and bug fixing are progressing.
And what's happening outside of of AppGen? We are close to completing specialized components like the File Schema pad, and its integration into the Designers. You may be wondering what this File Schema pad is? In Clarion 6, when you open the Procedure Properties dialog and press the 'Tables' button a new dialog was presented with a title caption of 'Table Schematic Definition', that dialog is now transformed into the new 'File Schema' pad. Other components like the Dictionary Synchronizer and the Dictionary Editor are essentially code complete, and we are just working down the list of open bugs. Other areas in the IDE are either code complete and essentially debugged, or cannot be fully tested until either the Dictionary related issues are wrapped up, or until the final pieces of AppGen are completely integrated. I won't put a date on when we'll release AppGen into the Beta cycle, other then to say that it will be as soon as we think its reached the level of stability and reliability that we (and you) expect.
Clarion now has an official technology evangelist; Stu Andrews. Many of you are familiar with Stu's blog site at www.pimpmyclarion.com. He'll be helping to spread the word about Clarion to the development community and providing contact and communication back to the Clarion community. Stu will be promoting the use of Clarion through articles, blogging, user demonstrations, and anything else he comes up with.
Stu has an inside pipeline to us along with access to the latest and greatest, and his role is to let people know how our software can make their jobs easier, and to help convince potential new developers to change from older methods to better ones.
Thanks Stu!
2007 has been a big year for Clarion! We released Beta versions of Clarion 7 and Clarion.Net, and the new Clarion# By Example course, as well as maintaining and keeping Clarion 6 up-to-date. We are steadily moving toward the release of the new Application Generator, which we know is what you really want to get your hands on.
Will we take a breather in 2008? No way! There's more good stuff coming...keep an eye on the blog site and your inbox.
Thanks again for buying and recommending Clarion products, for helping to make them better, and for all your support!
We wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!
The latest release of Clarion 6.3 is now shipping.
You can view the list of changes here
We released 9058 to Third-party vendors on 12/10 so any required updates to your add-ons should be ready. If you haven't already received the email with download instructions please check your spam filter or contact sales.
This message is to just let you know that we have a lot of updates staged for release next week. Clarion 6.3 9058 will be released to 3rd party vendors. Clarion 7 and Clarion.Net beta refreshes will go out, with lots of great new features and fixes. We also have updates and new lessons for the Clarion# by Example Course. We are excited at what we see and we hope that you will too. Thanks again for your patience.
We had many calls and emails asking us to extend the Charter Subscription promotion on Clarion.Net. And we realize that with the Thanksgiving holiday upon us, and many people traveling that the cutoff date was presenting a problem for many. Add to that the fact that we are closing down today, and won't resume full operations until Monday the 26th. So we've decided to extend the Clarion.Net Charter Subscription promotion until December 15th.
There's a lot of buzz about Clarion.Net, as the
developers who already have it start to see just what they can accomplish now. So now you have a little extra time to join them and take advantage of this special offer.
For those here in the U.S., have a great Thanksgiving holiday!
On behalf of the entire SoftVelocity staff, it is my privilege to wish all of you a safe and happy Thanksgiving Holiday weekend from our families to yours. We have a lot to be thankful for this year. At the top of the list is our family and health, but also up there to be thankful for is the faithful and dedicated customers like all of you. We are also very happy about the release of the Clarion.NET Charter Subscription program, and everyone in the office here is working hard to support you. We have a lot of good things coming up next week. In the mean time, we hope that all of you have a safe and happy holiday weekend.
Clarion developers have been patiently, and some not so patiently, awaiting the Clarion.Net release. We have received so many requests for early access that we have put together a special Clarion.Net Charter Subscription, available just for early adopters.
But the Charter Subscription program we've put together is a lot more then just delivering early access to Clarion.Net. This subscription is a complete package of training, mentoring, and support. Our commitment is to provide the tools, hands-on training, and expert support to take a core group of developers and turn them into Clarion.Net experts.
Those who join the program now will receive the Beta release of Clarion.Net (the exact same version that we use to develop the new Clarion IDE). And with it you'll immediately be producing .Net programs using your favorite language. But just delivering early access to the software is not what this program is about.
We want to see you succeed with developing for .NET, and succeed quickly. And we have a plan to make that a reality. With the early adopters Charter Subscription you'll get two vital components for success; thorough .Net training, and twelve months support from experts in Clarion.Net.
Our new Clarion# by Example training course is an in-depth, hands-on training solution which teaches you everything that you must know to succeed with developing for .NET. The course will show you how to take advantage of the new extensions to the Clarion# language, how to develop applications for the Desktop using WinForms, applications for the Web using ASP.Net, and applications for Mobile Devices using Compact Forms. The course goes deep inside the .Net Framework teaching you the techniques to unleash the power of the Framework library.
The training course is comprised of a combination of videos and tightly focused, highly-commented example apps, accompanied by documentation that pinpoints the essential knowledge you need. The movie content is presented by our developers and educators, and each movie will explain in detail the corresponding example application. Each application teaches you essential knowledge for understanding and succeeding with Clarion.Net and the .Net Framework.
On Monday you'll be able to go to the updated web site and see all the topics packed into this course, and you'll see just how valuable this course is for your success with .NET. Charter subscribers will receive it for free. We made the training course part of this Charter subscription because our goal is to see you succeed. And this course will deliver just what you need to do that.
But the course by itself, as comprehensive as it is, isn't enough for what we have in mind. We can't be sure that you're getting the knowledge you need, if we're not there to support you. So we've created something unique so that we can be right there with you. As part of the early adopters program you'll also receive exclusive access to our new .NET Mentor Community Forums.
These new support forums are staffed by our .NET developers and support staff. There are three dedicated discussion forums, one each for the 3 platforms supported by Clarion.Net; WinForms, Web Forms, and Compact Forms. The .NET Mentor Community Forums are a place where you can ask any question about .NET; from further explanation of a course topic, clarification on advanced .NET concepts, to requests for code snippets, and general How-To's, and you'll get an answer from a member of our .NET team.
In other words, you'll be able to tap into the minds of experienced .NET developers who use the same language and development tool as you do.
Developers who join the Charter Subscription will get these advantages:
- Extended Subscription
Your subscription is automatically restarted when Clarion.Net goes Gold. That means you can join the program now, and reap all the benefits of Early Adoption, and when Clarion.Net Gold is released we'll restart your subscription, and you'll receive an additional 12 months of updates.
- The "Clarion# By Example" training course
- The .Net Mentor Community Groups
- And most importantly you'll get early access to Clarion.Net
Everyone of our developers, educators and support staff will work hard to make sure that
you become a successful .NET developer. We are all dedicated to your success, and we'll be doing this together.
So for those who want to get a headstart on developing in Clarion.NET, and who want to leverage their Clarion experience and learn how take full advantage of .NET, and have the benefit of free in-depth training and support, along with the ability to tap into the minds of experienced Clarion.Net developers, then this is the program for you. We are committed to building a core group of Clarion developers into Clarion.Net experts.
The initial Clarion.Net Beta release will ship with a .NET Template Wizard designed to teach you essential .Net concepts, and it generates a complete and fully-featured Browse-Form-Report Application, using either the .Net DataGridView, or our new Clarion.Net List control (or both so you can compare the functionality). Initially you'll be using the Application Generator in Clarion6 to generate that code. The first release won't ship with a Template for Web or Compact Forms, those will be released later. But don't be put off by that, if you ever intend to step into the .NET world, then this program is the best thing you could find to immediately get up-to-speed and start developing in .NET.
On Monday the website will be updated and the emails will go out, and this Charter subscription program will be available for two weeks.
There was a new feature requested by one of the 3rd party vendors and added into 9057 so that the ABC Class reader would ignore code within an OMIT section provided the OMIT statement didn't have a second parameter. Unfortunately it exposed a problem in some 3rd party templates that had unterminated OMITs. The unterminated OMITs caused the parser to skip code and cause base ABC classes to not be resolved, in turn causing assertions during code generation.
We apologize for any problems this caused. The problem should have been found during the pre-release testing phase for 3rd party vendors, but unfortunately it wasn't.
So if you have run into this problem you have two choices:
- rollback to 9056
- get an update for affected 3rd party templates
The IceTips Previewer is one product (there are probably others) that have an unterminated OMIT and expose this problem.
There is a third option which some users have employed with success; use a Grep tool to search the .\Libsrc directory for OMIT's that have just 1 parameter, like OMIT('*****'), and change those to have a comma after the first parameter. That resolves the problem and the next Clarion release will overwrite any changes to files in LIBSRC that we ship.
Meanwhile 9058 is imminent, and it addresses this issue (as well as others)
The latest release of Clarion 6.3 is now shipping.
You can view the list of changes here
If you haven't already received the email with download instructions check your spam filter or contact sales.
We'll be sending out an update for the IMDD ad DFD drivers later today.
Why should you be thinking about developing in .NET? Well there are many compelling reasons, but I'm starting from the point of view of accepting that .NET is clearly part of the future for Windows developers. And no, that doesn't mean Clarion native code is going away. We're planning to continue to develop our Clarion compiler and tools for native code, we know that our customers want us to, and there are many good reasons to have both native and managed code tools available.
But if the MS marketing machine hasn't already convinced you of the value of .NET, then let me point out some very good reasons for embracing Clarion.Net.
Language Compatibility
Using Clarion.Net and the Clarion# language the learning curve for moving to .Net is just a small bump in the road. Clarion# is the language that you know and love, extended to take full advantage of the .Net Framework. Yes, under the hood a .NET assembly (DLL or EXE) is all objects, but Clarion# lets you program using whatever style you prefer. Do you prefer to code using friendly and familiar Procedures and Routines? No problem, they are fully supported. Do you like the familiar FILE structures, the TopSpeed driver, Queues, Report structures, Groups, the Entry Control, the List control, etc.? No problem, you have all of those too.
As just one example of language compatibility, you can literally take FILE processing code you wrote for Clarion for DOS, and copy it right into your Clarion .NET program, and it runs just as expected. And thats true for Queues, Reports, and just about any other Clarion code that doesn't do direct memory access.
Data Compatibility
You can run your Clarion.Net application side-by-side with your C7, C6, C5, C4, C2 and C1 apps, sharing the same data file. If you use Clarion .dat files then you can include CPD 2.110 running on DOS to the list. Imagine that! An unbroken data pedigree running back to the DOS days.
Multi-Platform
With Clarion.Net you can build Desktop applications for any OS that supports .Net 2.0 or higher,
build Web applications using ASP.Net and run them under IIS or Apache, and build applications for any Windows Mobile powered device, such as the PDA's from Palm, HP, Dell and many others, and on phones from Samsung, Motorola, HTEC and many more.
Platform Potential
All .NET compilers produce Intermediate Language (IL), and IL is generic, it is not tied to a particular CPU or hardware platform. IL is specifically built with other platforms in mind. For example on Linux, there is the Mono project and in the future, other platforms will likely implement IL execution as well.
Mono, if you weren't already aware is an implementation of the .NET Framework for Linux that allows managed .NET code to execute on Linux. Mono is exciting because it demonstrates that .NET itself is available on other operating systems. Mono already supports ASP.Net quite nicely, and has come a long way towards completing WinForm support.
64bit Platforms
With .NET, its possible to move into the 64 bit world and take advantage of the faster processing power without recompiling, redesigning, or even redistributing your software.
Unified API
Let's face it, the Windows API is a not very well organized collection of subsystems that evolved over 15 or more years, put together by different teams whose goal was to make it work without too much emphasis on consistency.
One of the best things Microsoft did with the .NET Framework is to insulate the programmer from the Windows API (as for example in WinForms), and to wrap subsystems with objects that have easy to use interfaces. Clarion of course has already insulated programmers from the API that deals with developing GUI applications, and the .NET Framework just takes it to the next level.
.NET boosts developer efficiency, as developers program to just one common API.
Now, as the OS API changes and develops it's Microsofts headache to maintain the Framework library, and we leverage this and get all the benefits of their work.
The Framework Library
Don't underestimate the importance of the .NET Framework library: we finally have a single library in Windows available for all .NET languages. A Library with over 28,000 types! No more reinventing the wheel, unless you want to. Whatever you want your application to do, there is a very good chance that lots of the hard work has already been done for you. The Clarion# language makes all of the Framework library functionality available to you.
.NET Language Neutrality
You may have heard it said that .NET is language neutral. But .NET is more than just language neutral. .NET brings all .NET languages together through the CLR (Common Language Runtime) and the CTS (Common Type System). The CLR and CTS allow all the .NET languages to use assemblies (DLLs or EXEs) produced by other languages as if they were produced by the same language.
We no longer have to deal with the translation of parameter types, calling conventions, or naming conventions. Now, C# users can use modules produced by Clarion# developers, Visual Basic users can use modules produced by Clarion# developers, and vice versa, Clarion# developers can use any module from any other .NET language. Now that the object model is the same for all languages, it's trivial to combine modules written in Clarion#, C#, C++, VB.Net, COBOL.Net, and many other .NET languages.
Minimal .NET Education
.NET does require some re-education and changes to developer techniques. But the same conceptual changes existed when developers moved from DOS to Windows. Working with Clarion# you will learn the .NET framework, largely from just reading the code the Templates generate.
Some time must be allowed for learning about Winforms, Web Forms and Compact Forms, but the time invested will quickly pay off. And these new techniques are best of breed practices that applications will benefit from anyways.
Sizzle
Not all of .NET is about eye-candy, but we all know that eye-candy helps to sell our applications. With Clarion.Net you have a whole world of fancy and functional controls at your fingertips, both free and commercial, and you can even design and create your own controls.
Migration
Do you have to redesign your application from the ground up? No, you don't. But you should look at some key areas and consider altering them to operate under the new paradigms so that they will run properly, and efficiently.
Final Word
.NET will be in your future, and it brings a lot to the table - so the sooner you make the first step into the Clarion.Net IDE and Clarion# language, the better. You can leverage your Clarion knowledge plus Microsoft's own .NET "momentum" to widen your market presence and boost your platform of choice.
Learning to build Clarion.Net applications makes you a part of the future not just for the Windows desktop platform, but for Web and Mobile platforms too, and Clarion makes it possible to do it without re-inventing yourself. If you begin working with Clarion.Net now, you can plan for a smooth integration with your Win32 applications or a migration, and you will reap many benefits.
Clarion is now tied firmly into the future of mainstream language development, running in parallel with all other major languages. With Clarion.Net, we now offer the easiest and most efficient path from Win32 to .NET.
When we started development on the Clarion for .Net product, internally we called it Clarion#.
As we added new language features, we looked always at the C# specification. C# being the programming language that most directly reflects the underlying Common Language Infrastructure (CLI).
Somewhere along the way the marketing folks started talking and writing about "Clarion.Net", and that name took on a life of its own, and it wasn't long before we all began using it.
Fast-forward to the present. There is a fair amount of confusion about Clarion.Net versus ClarioNet (the thin client technology), it's easy to see why with the spellings so similar, and it seems that confusion is here to stay.
Clarion# is a First Class .Net language, as easy to write, read, and maintain as Clarion has always been, but with the power and flexibility of C#. So as of today our Clarion.Net language name is offically changed to Clarion# (clarion sharp). The name change properly links our product and language; Clarion# to .Net, removes the aforementioned confusion, and its a pretty cool name.
Look for an announcement about Clarion# availability next week.
Hi everyone!
Clarion C6.3 build 9057 is now available to 3rd party vendors for compatibility testing.
Also released to the vendors are the 9057 versions of the In-Memory Database Driver and the Dynamic File Driver. We expect a public release of all of these items in just a few days.
Have a great week!
SoftVelocity Inc.