Top 200 Programs/Top 200 Programs.iso/Bob8/THOMPSON/LIBERTY/PRODUCT/LB14W.EXE/NEW14.TXT

Text File | 1997-03-25 | 11KB | 306 lines

Changes to Liberty BASIC v1.4 (stuff added since v1.3)
------------------------------------------------------------------------

First, the new stuff in summary!

* Added communications support!
* Added user preferences dialog!
* Added support for block IF/THEN/ELSE/ENDIF structures!
* Added command lines switches so you can use the editor of
  your choice!
* Added font support to most controls!
* Added auto-backup of your work when running/debugging!
* Added a compile progress bar!

...and more!


Here are the new features and bug fixes in more detail!

1) FIXED! Wrong line highlighted when unfinished string compile
   error occurs.

2) FIXED! Floating point values lose their fractional part when
   reading from a random access file.

3) Added a TITLEBAR statement to change the label of a program's
   main window.

    titlebar "A new title!"

4) Added the AUTORESIZE command to textedit and graphicbox
   controls so that they can automatically resize themselves when
   their parent window resizes.  When a control is sent this
   command, each edge of a control will maintain the same distance
   from its parent window's respective edge.

5) The random number generator now automatically reseeds when
   Liberty BASIC starts.

6) FIXED!  An 'index out of range' error to occur when using the
   MID$() function in certain unusual circumstances
   has been fixed.  This also improves performance of the function.

7) Sometimes when enlarging a window with graphics drawn in it,
   Liberty BASIC would fail to completely refill then entire window
   with a chosen fill color.  This has been fixed.

8) Added the ability to define a default pushbutton for a dialog
   type window.  By specifying a button with a handle extension of
   .default, that button will become the default pushbutton for
   the dialog box in which it resides.  NOTE: The default
   pushbutton cannot be placed inside of a groupbox.

   'example of setting up a default pushbutton
   button #main.default, "OK", [accept], UL, 10, 10, 50, 25

9) Added a Preferences dialog to the Setup menu containing:

   - option to confirm on exit of Liberty BASIC
   - option to display execution complete notice
   - option to add Kill BASIC Programs to system menu of all windows
   - option to start Liberty BASIC as full screen
   - option to show a compile progress dialog

10) Now when making a *.TKN file a file dialog will open and let you
    change the default destination filename.

11) Now you can change the text label of a button by printing to it:

      button #1.bttn, "Click me", [ok], UL, 10, 10, 150, 25
      open "test" for window as #1
      input r$

  [ok]
      count = count + 1
      print #1.bttn, "Clicked "; count; " times."
      input r$

12) Block IF/THEN support added.  IF/THEN blocks can be nested, and
two formats are supported:

    a = 5
    if a = 5 then
        print "variable"
        print "a is 5"
    else
        print "these lines"
        print "will not execute"
    end if

alternatively:

    a = 5
    if a = 5 then
        print "variable"
        print "a is 5"
    end if

Nested blocks are permitted:

    a = 5
    if a = 5 then
        confirm "Display whether a is 5?"; answer$
        if answer$ = "yes" then
            print "variable"
            print "a is 5"
        end if
    else
        print "these lines"
        print "will not execute"
    end if

13) FIXED! If a delsegment command fails, a proper error message is
   now presented.

14) Communications support has been added...

15) The INPUT$() function has been revamped and is now much faster.

16) The !contents commands for text windows and texteditor controls
   now has a new form that requires less code when reading a file
   straight into the control.

   'previous form (still works)
   open "filename.txt" for input as #1
   h$ = input$(#1, lof(#1))
   print #win.te, "!contents h$";
   close #1

   'new form (less code and much faster)
   open "filename.txt" for input as #1
   'see how we specify the file handle instead of a string variable
   print #win.te, "!contents #1";
   close #1

17) Setting up a FOR/NEXT loop that counts backwards and would never
   reach its limit would simply skip over the loop when running in
   the development environment, but when running a *.TKN file it
   would bomb (even using the runtime engine).  This has been fixed.
   Here is an example of a loop that would bomb in v1.3:

    for x = 1 to 0
      {some code}
    next x

18) Added the ability to set the label for a prompter dialog using
   the same method as for a notice dialog like so:

   prompt "This is the title" + chr$(13) + "Enter something"; a$

19) Fixed a bug that would sometimes produce an error:

   'syncControlEvent: not understood by BasicGraphPane'

20) Added a CommandLine$ variable that contains the parameter
   contents of the command line.

21) Added some startup options to LIBERTY.EXE including:

 -R Run a BAS file on startup
 -D Debug a BAS file on startup
--------the following three are in the registered version only--------
 -T Make a TKN file from a BAS file on startup
 -A Automatically Exit LB on completion of BAS file
 -M Minimize the Liberty BASIC editor on startup

 Examples:

  LIBERTY -R -M PROG.BAS     'run PROG.BAS with editor minimized
  LIBERTY -T -A PROG.BAS     'create a TKN file from PROG.BAS then exit
  LIBERTY -D PROG.BAS        'run the debugger on PROG.BAS

22) FIXED!  LB would report the following error if the developer tried
   to build a window with a groupbox that contains one or more
   graphicbox controls:

   "y" not understood by UndefinedObject

   Additionally, the bug would also cause the following error to be
   reported when the user exits Liberty BASIC (or LB would stop
   responding to user input altogether):

   "assignByName:toBe:" not understood by UndefinedObject

23) Made some changes to the way the unsaved changes and quit
   confirmation dialogs work and the way they are presented when
   quitting Liberty BASIC.

24) FIXED! The common file dialogs would be improperly initialized on
   startup with incorrect default pathname info.  This caused a few
   subtle problems.

25) Changed the way that strings are passed into API calls.  By
   default, Liberty BASIC copies a string and adds a terminating
   ASCII zero to the copy.  Most Windows API calls expect this kind
   of zero terminated string.  The problem was though that since only
   a copy of the original string was passed to the API function, if
   the function then modifies that string directly (as in the kernel
   API function GetProfileString and a few others), then the Liberty
   BASIC application calling the function could not access the modified
   string because only the copy is modified.

   The way to fix this now is to write code that adds the ASCII zero
   onto the end of the string before making the call.  Liberty BASIC
   then checks for the ASCII zero, and if it finds it, passes the
   original string and does not make a copy.  This is only necessary if
   your application passes a string, expecting to get it back modified
   by the API or DLL function called.

   Here is a quick snippet to get printer info using the
   GetProfileString API call:


    'getpstr.bas - Get information using the GetProfileString API call

    open "kernel.dll" for dll as #kernel

    appName$ = "windows"
    keyName$ = "device"
    default$ = ""

    'add an ASCII zero so Liberty BASIC will not pass a copy of result$
    'into the API call, but the actual contents of result$
    result$ = space$(49)+chr$(0)
    size = 50

    calldll #kernel, "GetProfileString",_
        appName$ as ptr,_
        keyName$ as ptr,_
        default$ as ptr,_
        result$ as ptr,_
        size as short,_
        result as short

    close #kernel

    'display the retrieved information up to but not including the
    'terminating ASCII zero
    print left$(result$, instr(result$, chr$(0)) - 1)

    input r$

26) FIXED! When using random access files, using PUT to save one or
   more records and then using GET without first closing the file and
   reopening it could cause some loss of data.  Liberty BASIC now
   properly flushes file buffers correctly before permitting GET to be
   used after PUT.

27) FIXED! A bug was fixed that caused all texteditor panes in the
   same window to adopt the font specified by the font command.

28) Font control was added to the following controls: TEXTBOX, BUTTON,
   STATICTEXT, CHECKBOX, RADIOBUTTON.

29) The runtime engine will now run a TKN file matching the name of the
   runtime engine.  If you rename your runtime engine ULTIPROG.EXE and
   name your TKN file ULTIPROG.TKN, then the runtime engine will
   execute ULTIPROG.TKN on startup.  NOTICE:  To retain compatibility
   with LB v1.3 the runtime engine will first look for and run
   STARTUP.TKN if it is there.

30) Added a Setup option to backup your source code to a *.bak file.
   This comes in handy when calling Windows API functions or when using
   third party DLLs.  When you run (or debug) with this option checked,
   Liberty BASIC will save your code in its current state in a *.bak
   file.  Then if Liberty BASIC crashes, your code will be saved to a
   *.bak file from which you can recover your work.

31) Added INP() for reading a byte from a I/O port, and OUT for sending
   a byte to an I/O port.  These use the same syntax as those in
   Microsoft BASICs.  NOTICE: It is considered somewhat reckless to use
   these inside of Windows because there is no way to control who is
   reading or writing to an I/O port.

32) Added a SPACE$() function.  This function returns the specified
   number of ASCII 32 characters in a string.  For example:

    for x = 1 to 10
        print space$(x); "*"
    next x

33) FIXED! Bolstered syntax checking in assignment statements.  For
   example, compiling the following would halt without highlighting
   the errant line, and it would produce a cryptic error "attempt to
   access an absent element".  Now it properly highlights the line and
   produces a syntax error notification.

    for x = 1 to 10
        print space$(x)); "*"
    next x

34) Added a HEXDEC function that converts a hexadecimal number
   expressed in a string into a decimal numeric value.  This can be
   very useful when converting #defines in header files from C or some
   other language for use in Liberty BASIC.

   Here's a hypothetical example:

    REDRAW.SPECIAL = hexdec("0A")
    PAL.AUTO       = hexdec("01")
    stylebits = REDRAW.SPECIAL or PAL.AUTO