thinBasic 1.4.0.1 released as preview version

[ErosOlmi]

Here we are again with a new development line: thinBasic preview version 1.4.0.1

We started this preview with a new module: VBRegExp. This module is a wrapper of Visual Basic Scripting Regular Expression COM interface. To use it you need Visual Basic Scripting 5.5 or above installed into your machine (default if you have Win2K or above). As you may know, we had some licence violation problems using native Power Basic regular expression functionalities. Power Basic for Windows is the compiler we use to build almost 95% of thinBasic. We didn't had the authorization to use native Power Basic RegEx functions. We think VBRegExp can be a good option for thinBasic users. We are in any case open to any suggestion on this matter.
Also find some example scripts on how to use module in \thinBasic\SampleScripts\VBRegExp\ directory

Another nice addition is the F2 key in thinAir. F2 key will open thinAir new source browser window. You will see list of currently open files with the possibility to browse functions and subs. This window is just a start of a more complex tasks it will be possible to perform.

----

As usual, list of changes can be found in thinBasic help online at:
http://www.thinbasic.com/public/products/thinBasic/help/html/version_underdevelopment.htm

Download at:
http://www.thinbasic.com/index.php?name=CmodsDownload&file=index&req=viewsdownload&sid=34&orderby=dateD

Have fun
thinBasic Team

[Michael Hartlef]

Thanks Eros and Roberto!

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi guys,

thanks for both 1.4.0.0 and 1.4.0.1 ;)
I like new features a lot and [F2] thinAir box is really cute !

Bye,
Petr

[kryton9]

Thanks guys!! F2 window is going to be great. Already good for window switching.

The vbscript examples I went through and they look very interesting. I am sure will be very useful when the need to use them arises.

[ErosOlmi]

Version updated.

List of changes at: http://www.thinbasic.com/public/products/thinBasic/help/html/version_1_4_0_1.htm
Download from: http://www.thinbasic.com/index.php?name=CmodsDownload&file=index&req=viewsdownload&sid=34&orderby=dateD


XML module has been removed from distribution. We were able to create an include file (TB_XML60.INC) plus a personalized dll (TB_XML60.dll) that incorporates MSXML (Microsoft XML Core Services). No documentation will be produced but a lot of examples. We have already created some you can find into \thinBasic\SampleScripts\XML\ directory. More examples will come on this aspects. A big thanks to José Roca for this. It would not be possible to use MSXML without the fantastic job José is doing with his wrappers. You can find more info at José forum here: http://www.jose.it-berater.org/smfforum/index.php?board=46.0
Some new nice functions on executable files have been developed by Roberto and his new EXE module
Some more speed is not bad, isn't it? You should get about 5% to 10% speed all over the engine. In particular external function calling has been improved.
... and last a big TBGL surprise.
I will just tell you that there are two new include files in \thinBasic\Inc\ directory: thinbasic_WGL.inc and a massive thinBasic_GLEXT.inc.
Petr will give you more info with examples that will talk by themself ;)


Ciao
Eros

[kryton9]

WOw, this is a HUGE release and on a Sunday night, well for me here at least.
I am very excited thanks guys. Those new additions had to be lots and lots of work, much appreciated I can tell you!!!!
Thanks again, now back to going through the sample folders to see what I can find!!!

[kryton9]

I just went through the new include files. Poor Petr, that is so much work, thanks so much. Having to support both ATI, nVidia in all those routines. YIKES!!!

The new XML looks really good too. I looked at the xml database the new examples use and the data is very readable. If it is as easy to parse as the ini files are, then that would be something to really think about. Well back to more happy exploring the new code.

Thanks again guys, great release!!

[Michael Hartlef]

Fine... that's it!!! I quit. I go to work just to find out that there is a new release. ;)

Just kiddin guys, thanks a lot for this new release. Sounds great and for sure I will give it a good ride. :)

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi,

speed improvement on my PC is up to 15%, so very good.
In TopDown instant I got 30FPS up, that's great!

XML sounds very powerful now, thanks for examples.
EXE functions will be handy.

To check out new OpenGL fun go here (http://community.thinbasic.com/index.php?topic=1043.msg6927).


Bye,
Petr

[ErosOlmi]

Version updated.

List of changes at: http://www.thinbasic.com/public/products/thinBasic/help/html/version_1_4_0_1.htm
Download from: http://www.thinbasic.com/index.php?name=CmodsDownload&file=index&req=viewsdownload&sid=34&orderby=dateD

Not big changes but a collection of latest bug fixed and some internal tuning.


\thinBasic\Inc\thinBasic_ODE.inc new include file from Petr. This file will bring ODE power into thinBasic arsenal. See specific forum for discussion.
important memory leak fixed. Thanks Abraxas for reporting that.
a little general speed-up in numeric and string expressions. Now thinBasic, the first time it encounters an expression, try to understand if it is a simple or complex one. Simple expressions are the one that do not involve any operations (like +-*/ or &) but do just assignment or parameter passing. If expression is simple, parser will not go through the full parsing chain but will just get the atomic token value.
We have changed the way ALIAS keyword works. Before, ALIAS was just a standard keyword executed during run.time when encountered. Now it is executed during the pre-parsing phase. It means it is executed before any script run-time takes place. This allows to add ALIASes to any thinBasic key, even the more inner to the language like data types names (INTEGER, LONG, SINGLE, ...) or even to those functionalities used during pre-parsing like function and subs discovering.
Mutex are now a snap to be created and checked. They are useful for syncronization. See Microsoft documentation at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms686927.aspx to get more info on mutex objects


Ciao
Eros

[Michael Hartlef]

Thank Eros. When does your offtiem from TB starts? ;)

[ErosOlmi]

http://community.thinbasic.com/index.php?topic=1119.0
;D

[Petr Schreiber]

Thanks Eros,

I am always hungry for new tB releases and introduced features are very nice !


Petr

[ErosOlmi]

Sorry to who has already downloaded it but I've updated again thinBasic preview version 1.4.0.1.
I forgot to add ToolBar script example in UI sample script directory.

[sandyrepope]

Don't worry! It's not a problem. Thank you for going ahead and putting it up.

Thanks
Sandy

[kryton9]

Oh wow, nice surprise... thanks Eros. I like how you say August is vacation time and here you put out a release update. You are great thanks!!

[ErosOlmi]

Version updated.

List of changes at: http://www.thinbasic.com/public/products/thinBasic/help/html/version_1_4_0_1.htm
Download from: http://www.thinbasic.com/index.php?name=CmodsDownload&file=index&req=viewsdownload&sid=34&orderby=dateD

This update contains all recent speed improvements (you should get an overall 10% to 20% execution speed improve) plus few important fixes.

Ciao
Eros

[kryton9]

Thanks Eros! Am I remembering wrong or is the update list now in new colors. I like the look either way. Very neat to see the types of changes!

[ErosOlmi]

Well, I didn't change any template for it.
What colors are you meaning?

[kryton9]

The What column, it must be my memory, it just looked new today for some reason to me :)

[ErosOlmi]

You do not read manual, Ken :D
You do not read manual, Ken :D

Just joking.

What column is there since the beginning. Maybe you just didn't noticed it.

Ciao
Eros

[ErosOlmi]

As promised, version updated.

Download link has changed due to new web site structure.
New one is: http://www.thinbasic.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=19&Itemid=66

This update contains all recent changes especially in TBGL and TBDI modules plus a few minor internal fix.
See list of changes at: http://www.thinbasic.com/public/products/thinBasic/help/html/version_1_4_0_1.htm

Now work will be concentrated on thinBundle (preview version have broken exe creation) and new stable version.

Ciao
Eros

[kryton9]

Thanks for the update, I always get worried I forgot to install something, so nice to have it all in one like this. Thanks again guys!

[Petr Schreiber]

Eros,

thanks a lot for new update!


Petr

[ErosOlmi]

I'm sorry to announce that I found an important bug in latest thinBasic preview version 1.4.0.1.
_________________________________________________
Bug is already fixed on my system but I've not released yet, just to let you know.

What is it about?
if you have a string element inside and UDT and you read it's value more than once in a loop, the first time value is OK. From the second time value reports the full UDT content. This is due to an optimization I have introduced recently. Optimization store some UDT element info in order to have them ready next time the element is used. But I made a mistake referencing the element position inside the UDT structure, only for string elements, numeric are OK.

Pseudo code example:

TYPE MyUDT
MyLong AS LONG
MyString AS STRING * 10
END TYPE
'...
DIM MyVar AS MyUDT
'...
FOR Counter = 1 to WhatEver
CONSOLE_WRITELINE MyVar.MyString '<<<< Error.
'---The first time it will report correct data.
'---From the second time this will report the full content of MyVar (14 bytes)
NEXT

If someone experience some strange results in a situation like the above, please use the attached thinCore.dll substituting the one present in \thinBasic\ directory.
Official fix will be present in next release in a few days.

Sorry about that.
Eros


ADDED: fix present in current online preview version

[ErosOlmi]

New thinBasic preview version 1.4.0.1 updated.

This update contains two new modules, LAN and WMI, plus a few new features and internal fixes. Also reintriduction of XPrint module. See list of changes at: http://www.thinbasic.com/public/products/thinBasic/help/html/version_1_4_0_1.htm
(some help instructions still to be added. We are working on them.)
Download from: http://www.thinbasic.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=19&Itemid=66

Things we will concentrate next:

thinBundle (preview version have broken exe creation)
new stable version release (ready before the end of Sept2007)
recursive UDT
execution speed improvement


Ciao
Eros

[Petr Schreiber]

Thanks guys,

this preview is very nice ( and even nicer XPRINT is back :) )
WMI and LAN modules are nice, improvement on VARIANTs is welcomed too!

Next preview plans are big ones, I keep my fingers crossed, although I know you do not need luck when being coding heroes :)


Thanks,
Petr

[Michael Hartlef]

Thanks you guys :)

[kryton9]

Thanks for the update guys!
I had a questions but I will try to place it in the proper forum.

[ErosOlmi]

New thinBasic preview version 1.4.0.1 updated.

Mainly fix and few new functionalities.
See list of changes at: http://www.thinbasic.com/public/products/thinBasic/help/html/version_1_4_0_1.htm
Download from: http://www.thinbasic.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=19&Itemid=66

Nice new features:

VARIANTs inside UDT. Memory is to be released manually but we are working on this
ARRAY SCAN, interesting way to search inside an array for elements


Ciao
Eros

[Petr Schreiber]

Thanks Eros,

very nice updates,
thanks a lot for ARRAY SCAN !


Petr

[kryton9]

Thanks for the update!!

[ErosOlmi]

New thinBasic preview version 1.4.0.1 updated.

Mainly fix and few new functionalities.
See list of changes at: http://www.thinbasic.com/public/products/thinBasic/help/html/version_1_4_0_1.htm
Download from: http://www.thinbasic.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=19&Itemid=66


thinBasic preview version is now again able to create Bundled Executable.
Functionality has been recovered. Still some fix coding to do on this matter but should work as expected. Please report any problem.
Fixed a important bug in parsing DIM ... AT statement (thanks Abraxas)


Ciao
Eros

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi,

this is very much appreciated release,
no more need to swap 1.4.0.0 and 1.4.0.1 releases to make EXEs ! :)


Fantastic,
Petr

[Michael Hartlef]

Thanks a lot man!

[kryton9]

Thanks for another update. Eros you and Roberto should be the new industry standards for support of their product. This is really nice to log on and to see access to the latest release with fixes without having to wait for a long time!!!

[RobertoBianchi]

should be the new industry standards for support of their product

True, this is the Thin(BASIC) Industry Standards ;D

Joke apart, time to go live for updates it's a focal and very important parameter in order to understand the quality of software development and support.

Greeting,
Roberto

[ErosOlmi]

New thinBasic preview version 1.4.0.1 updated.

Mainly we have collected all recent fix and few new functionalities.
See list of changes at: http://www.thinbasic.com/public/products/thinBasic/help/html/version_1_4_0_1.htm
Download from: http://www.thinbasic.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=19&Itemid=66
Also updated mirror site (see left menu here in forum for mirror links)

Ciao
Eros

[Petr Schreiber]

Grazie mille :D,

it is good to have all improvements in once package.


Petr

[ErosOlmi]

Quite ready to release stable version.
If you have some last easy change request, this is the right time, but only if little and easy, otherwise new preview will be the right place.

Ciao
Eros

[Petr Schreiber]

Good news !

I have no fastly doable request, maybe just complete documentation for Console module. But as I am working on one for new TBGL it is not anything like easy task :-\


Thanks,
Petr

[ErosOlmi]

New thinBasic preview version 1.4.0.1 updated.

Code name: nothing changed, all changed.
We have updated all the code in charge of internal variable data change and data retrieve. So nothing really visible but in charge of everything. So abig step for us mainly due to better source code maintenance.
In this preview, also all recent fixes.

See list of changes at: http://www.thinbasic.com/public/products/thinBasic/help/html/version_1_4_0_1.htm
Download from: http://www.thinbasic.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=19&Itemid=66
Also updated mirror site (see left menu here in forum for mirror links)

Ciao
Eros

PS: very close a stable version in order to start with a new preview full of new features not ready to be included into stable.

[kryton9]

Thanks for the update guys!!