Visual Café

This version is a beta version and neither Future Publishing nor Symantec are in any way responsible for any problems it may cause on your machine. While it has been found to be stable, this is no guarantee of its performance on your PC.

This month we continue our Java series in the magazine and much of the code is linked with this program. The code for the tutorial can be found with the Hands On files.

There is now an update file for patching this version to 1.0c. You can do this yourself. There are instructions at the end of this page in the Update section.

Copyright (c) 1996 by Symantec Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Table of Contents:

I. Welcome

II. Installation Notes

III. Known Problems

IV. Reporting Problems

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I. WELCOME

Welcome to the Symantec Visual Cafe 1.0 Preview 2, for Windows 95 and Windows NT. Please take a few minutes to read this file.

What's New

In this version:- A new version of our JIT that is significantly faster -- we think you'll be pleased with the speed improvement.- A revamped source editor design- Data tips in the debugger and improved expression evaluation - Member rename -- we intelligently rename references in the source code when you change the name of a variable.- Much easier to use environment options dialog- More components- The ability to add your own classes to the environment- Many bug fixes and feature suggestions from users...

If you would like to check out what is to come in Live Editing, rename jb.dll to jblender.dll and watch your forms come alive during design time. However, you might want to wait until next week when we will be releasing even more components, and an much improved version of live editing. Additional information and Documentation

Please be aware that the component APIs are subject to change.

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JDK Version

Symantec Visual Cafe 1.0 supports version 1.0.2 of the Java Development Kit from Sun Microsystems.

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II. INSTALLATION NOTES

Run setup.exe. The installation should be smooth and intuitive.

* Like any other Beta software, please install Visual Cafe to a clean directory.

* Note that we do not recommend installing into a directory name containing spaces, especially under NT.

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III. Known Problems

* If you encounter an error upon starting Visual Cafe try deleting the following files from \visualcafe\bin:*.rps*.reg*.vws

Note: Some of the errors are: "No starter templates could be found" "Cannot open local repository" "Cannot open registry"

* When installing Visual Cafe we recommend you use the default group. If you install into an existing group predefined shortcuts will be deleted.

* When using parse all imports, we recommend you allow the parser to complete before editing or changing a file. To view the status of the parse select Messages from the Visual Cafe Window menu.

* When adding controls directly within the source editor it is recommended you adhere to the same coding form as generated by Visual Cafe.

* At this time, you are unable to delete objects you have added to the Object Library.

* When using the GridLayout you must specify a row and column value other than zero (our default value). If you do not, the applet will not initialize.

* The x and y dimension properties in the Property Inspector are not applicable for root level objects. No effect is achieved if you change these settings.

* If you add a new applet to a project that already has an applet in the project, the applet tags in the HTML file will be overwritten to run the newly added applet. To run both applets, add a second set of applet tags to your HTML file.

* At this time you must have read and write rights to modify projects (*.prj or *.vpj).

* An invalid file (x x.java) is added to the project when a Frame has been deleted and added again. Rename the visual object for Frame and the file will be renamed correctly.

* When importing a cafe project, the options are not automatically read and imported, what this means is the following:

* If the Cafe project is an applet, then you must be sure that the html, to run the project, is physically added to the prj in Cafe and not just set in the option. If you do not do this, Visual Cafe will not be able to run the imported project.

* Any options that you had set in the Cafe project that are different than the default set will have to be reset within the Visual Cafe project. This means anything you had in the classpath settings, etc., in the Cafe project will have to be reset by hand.

* Due to bugs in the Windows implementation of the AWT:

* Setting the foreground color for buttons, checkboxes and labels does not work

* Some events do not work, such as gotFocus() for TextFields

* * * * *IV. Reporting Problems

Please send comments and bug reports, via internet email, to:

support_javawin@symantec.com

To ensure all beta issues are addressed you must contain "Visual Cafe" within the subject line.

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Sincerely,

The Symantec Internet Tools Team