************************************* * * * DB/C Newsletter * * May 2007 * * * ************************************* News and Comments There may be a glimmer of hope with regard to the broken email problem. The DKIM proposal that I discussed in February's Newsletter has made it to the draft standard phase. It is RFC 4871. Information about DKIM is found at www.dkim.org. We are interested in implementing this standard as soon as possible. Unfortunately, our email server provider does not yet support it. If any readers have experience with DKIM, please contact me. Thanks. Beta testing of DB/C DX 15.0 began this month. We expect to complete testing and release it by July 1st. This month's article is an overview of the new features in DB/C DX 15.0. If you are interesting in helping us with beta testing, please contact me. don.wills@dbcsoftware.com ****************************************************************************** DB/C DX 15.0 There are several significant additions to the GUI capabilities of the DB/C language in DB/C DX 15.0, along with a .NET version of the client-side Smart Client software. However, the most important new feature is not a feature per se. It is the fact that we're providing source code for both the Java and .NET Smart Clients so that additional functionality can be added to Smart Client by customers. The source code is being provided as open source. That is, there are no licensing restrictions for using the code in any way. The .NET version is written in C#. Here are other features new in DB/C DX 15.0. The clock and pause statements, the timer device, and the pause and timeout control codes provide for accuracy to hundredths of a second in UNIX and LINUX. The change multiple function allows for multiple change actions to occur in a single change statement. Although this doesn't provide any new GUI functionality, it provides for more compact source programs. More importantly, it can significantly improve the performance of Smart Client. Here is an example of DB/C DX 14 code, and then the corresponding DB/C DX 15 code - DB/C DX 14 code: CHANGE panel, "GREY101" CHANGE panel, "MINSERT102"; "line1,line2,line3" CHANGE panel, "TEXT103"; "Name" CHANGE panel, "SELECT102"; "line1" DB/C DX 15 code: CHANGE panel, "MULTIPLE"; "{GREY101}{MINSERT102;line1,line2,line3}": "{TEXT103;Name}{SELECT102;line1}" The text color of a table, a column in a table, a row in a table, and an individual cell in a table may be changed dynamically. The implementation defines a hierarchy of color settings that control the actual color of each individual cell. The priority of color specification is (from highest to lowest) cell, row, column, table. For example, if the color of the table is specified as red, and the color of a given row in specified as yellow, and the first cell in that given row is specified as blue, then the first cell of the given row is blue, the rest of the cells in the row are yellow, and the rest of the cells in the table are red. If that given row is then reset to the 'default' color, the first cell of that row stays blue and the rest of the cells in the table are red. A table control now provides a PUSH message when the column heading is clicked. A table can now contain CVTEXT controls. When an edit cell in a table receives focus, all of the characters in it are now selected. There is a new special dialog to allow choosing or creating a directory. An example of the syntax is: PREP resource, "OPENDIRDLG=name, DEFAULT=defaultdir" There is a new change function that sets the selected line of a tree control. The fontsize of a Smart Client console window can now be specified on the Smart Client command line. On Windows 2000 and newer, a character mode program's console can have its close button disabled by use of a new runtime option. There have been many changes to DDT including support for ICONSUBMENU, allowing columns to be re-ordered, enhanced Undo/Redo capability, and a new 'Touch Guide' to assist with laying out controls. Closed projects can be filtered in the projects window and the properties page of a file allows the file type (Program, Include, Other) to be changed. And finally the DDT debugger can now watch and display a single array element indexed by another variable. DDT for DB/C DX 15.0 requires Eclipse 3.3 which is at the Release Candidate 2 stage, and should be released before DB/C DX 15.0 is released. And that's it. Happy programming! ****************************************************************************** DB/C DX Class Schedule Class: DB/C DX Fundamentals Date: June 18-20, 2007 Location: Woodridge, Illinois For information, send email to admin@dbcsoftware.com. ****************************************************************************** Subscribing to the DB/C Newsletter If you don't already have the DB/C Newsletter delivered to your email address and would like to have it emailed to you monthly, just send an email message to dbcnews-subscribe@dbcsoftware.com. The newsletter will be delivered to the email address from which the message was sent.