Heard it through the Bit-vine - Notes and News about the products you use

by Tom Hebenstreit, Review Editor

Published 1998-05-01    Printer-friendly version

Welcome to the May Bit-vine! Just a quick reminder to you all to send me your news, tips, tricks, cool web sites or anything else you want to share with the rest of the world!

EE!

For quite a while now, TopSpeed has been talking about a new top rung in the Clarion food chain - the Enterprise Edition (EE). (In case you didn't know, most all of us are currently using what is designated the Professional Edition.) Sightings of actual product, though, have been on par with Elvis sightings - lot's of rumors, but nothing you could put on stage and take picture of.

Well, I just got a glossy flyer advertising the availablity of the first public beta of EE, so it appears that EE may be getting a leg up on the original big E. No word of price, though, and very little hard info in the flyer either. To further the confusion, David Bayliss (TopSpeed UK, author of the compiler and architect of ABC) has been talking about C5EE in his CompuServe postings. C5? Yup.

Hopefully, TopSpeed will be making official announcements (or at least pronouncements) regarding EE at EuroDevCon in mid-May. Stay tuned for "As the Big EE Turns".

For EE beta program pricing info, call TopSpeed Sales at 1-800-354-5444.

Debugging Tips

Debugging. Yuck. What else can be said?

I have seen some interesting tips for debugging lately, though, and thought I'd share them with you.

Message() - the old standby

We've all done this one a million times - sticking in a message() statement to let us know just what the program is doing. This works fine for simple problems, but there are cases where message is awkward or actually makes it harder to solve a problem.

For example, if you are looping through records and need to see what is happening at some point in each record's processing, you'll quickly wear out your mouse finger as message pops up over and over (and over and over...).

Even more insidious is the fact that message() can change the state of your program. Huh? Think about it. You are popping up another window - your window loses focus while the message is being displayed, threads are held up, things go modal, etc. If the problem you are trying to track down is dependent on a particular set of circumstances within your program, popping up a message() window may prevent the error from occuring. In this case, the program fails without the message, but works with it! Not very helpful, is it?

Granted, this second type of problem is rare, but according to Richard Chapman (TopSpeed Development Center), it can happen.

Using the Window Title Bar

This tip is attributed to Team TopSpeed member Brian Staff and it works great for simple debugging. It is also very handy for testing when particular events occur.

Instead of using message(), try just putting your debug message into the title bar of your window. How? Well, let's say we are debugging some field validation code and want to test the value of a variable after the user has tabbed out of the field. Where you would normally put in code like this:

If FIL:Field <> TheRightValue
message('FIL:Field is ' & FIL:Field,'Debug Msg')
End

Try using something like this:

If FIL:Field <> TheRightValue
0{PROP:Text} = 'FIL:Field is ' & FIL:Field
End

If there is a problem, you'll see the message displayed in the title bar of the window. Your program flow is not interrupted, and you still get to see the information you need. What does the zero in "0{PROP:Text}" stand for? It just means 'use the current active window'. If you know the label of the window, e.g., 'ThisWindow' or just 'Window', that works exactly the same way. I just find the zero is quicker to type, and it works no matter what the template writer has labelled the window.

Another case where this works great is if you are testing something like drag and drop, where popping a message() box can interfere with the process itself. You can change the title bar all you want during those events, e.g., ' LeftMouse pressed on field', etc., without interrupting the actual function of the code.

Logging to an INI file

This method was devised by Carl Barnes, another Team TopSpeed member.

It is a bit more work than the previous method, but it also offers several substantial benefits:

• You don't have to declare a 'log' file in your dictionary or app.
• You don't have to worry about opening or closing the file.
• The information is persistent. In other words, if your program crashes, the information is still available. (Try that with message()!)
• It works great in iterative processes where you want to see what is happening inside something that happens over and over (a record loop, for example).
• It is invisible to users, unlike message() or changing the title bar. In other words, you can utilize this method while the program is actually being used. Very handy for tracking down data related errors that don't occur on your machine with your test data. (Yes, it will cause the program to run a bit slower, but that's still a heck of a lot faster than a crashed program runs!)
• It can be used anytime you want to keep a log of events, not just for debugging, etc.

Basically, you just use the PUTINI() statement wherever you want to see what happened or would have used message(), etc. Here's a quick example:

LOOP Age = Now to Retire
  blah..blah
  PUTINI('Pass ' & Pass,    | ! Sets the section
         'Age ' & age,      | ! The 'entry'
         ' Payment='& pmt & | ! The 'value' string
         ' int='&int &      |
         ' blarg=' & blarg, |
         'debug.log' )      ! The INI file to use
  blah..blah
END

This might result in an INI file (named 'debug.log') which contains something like this:

[Pass 7]
Age 30= Payment=34.50 int=8.75 blarg=77
Age 31= Payment=37.80 int=8.75 blarg=88

Note that in this case the 'entry' value needs to be unique. For example, if we had just called the entry 'Age', each time through the loop the 'Age' entry in the INI file would have been replaced with the new value (updated rather than added). By using a changing value with it (a loop counter, unique record ID, whatever), we ensure that new lines are added to the file. Other times you may simply want to replace the values from the last run.

Finally, notice how sections can be used to further divide up the information into meaningful chunks within the INI file. Read up on the PUTINI() function in the Clarion Language Reference Manual for exact syntax and more information.

Happy hunting!

Linder Software LSP SFX Builder

Linder just announced version 2.0 of their LSP SFX Builder ($69 US). I have mentioned this product before, but let me stress again that this is a GREAT tool for building small single file installation files. Version two has a bunch of new features such as multi-volume support, passwords, encryption and a lot more. More info is available at http://www.lindersoftware.com. Oh, and if you already own LSP SFX Builder v1.x, this is a free upgrade.

Interestingly, I recently received a small product whose install was built with the TopSpeed Deployment Kit (TDK). Just for grins, I created an install of the same product using SFX Builder. There was a 10-1 difference in the final EXE size - SFX was around 111 KB vs 1.2 Megs for the TDK version. Yes, products like WISE or the TDK are better for large, complex installations which require a lot of choices or complex interaction, but in my opinion SFX Builder is the tool of choice for compact, good looking installs of simple products. If you need to create downloadable installation files, your users will thank you.

Other news

Here are some tidbits and announcements gleaned from the TopSpeed forum and elsewhere over the last month. If you see any products here which you would like to see scheduled for a full review in Clarion Online, let us know!

• TopSpeed release: Clarion 4a TopSpeed Driver Interim Release (Beta 1) From their blurb: "This is a preliminary release of the updated TopSpeed driver set. This file set has been alpha tested and solves all of the known and reproducible problems in the TopSpeed driver. It also includes an updated TPSFIX utility. You must have Clarion 4, release A installed before applying this update.". They list 6 bugs fixed. It can be downloaded from CompuServe (lib 17) or from www.topspeed.com (Product Updates).
• TopSpeed also released Beta 3 of the C4a ODBC Drivers. Once again, see www.topspeed.com (Product Updates).
• In a non-software announcement, TS said: "TopSpeed Appoints a Senior Vice President of Sales. TopSpeed is pleased to announce the appointment of Gene Piken as Senior Vice President of Sales." Go, Gene, go. Let's see some advertising.
• Gitano Software announced updates to their GRegPlus product and others. See their web site at http://bizweb.lightspeed.net/~gitano.
• Linder Software released the LSP Visual Archiver 2.50, a replacement for the older LSP Shell Pro (a part of their LS-Pack product). If you use their LS-Pack libraries, drop a line to friedrich@lindersoftware.com to get a password for the free update.
• Greg Berthume announced that his PCL Tools product has been modified so that it is no longer LaserJet specific. According to the release, it now works with WMF files as well as PCL macros, and you can offer your users the choice of which to use at runtime. For more info, check out http://members.aol.com/gberthume. He also stated that he has a demo of this which is not on his web site. To obtain a copy, contact him via the web site or at 74652,665 on CompuServe (that's 74652.665@compuserve.com in internet speak).
• Tip from Troy Sorzano (www.cwsuperpage.com): "I just downloaded a C4 demo and template set from IceTips called C4OC10.ZIP. It is a really great demo. Just connect to any ODBC database and enter a SQL statement the data will be displayed in a list box. You can also display each field of data retrieved.". I downloaded them myself, and the templates seem to be from Bashkirov Sergey (?) of St.Petersburg. You can find them in the 'incoming' directory of the www.icetips.com FTP site.
• Mike McLoughlin of Sterling Data announced version 2.8 of his Impex Import/Export templates. Improvements include saving option to INI file, OEM to ANSI character conversion and support for more European date formats. This is a free update for users of Impex 2.6 and 2.7. A demo and more info is available on http:\\www.sterlingdata.com.
  * See the February issue Clarion Online for a full review of Impex.*
• After suffering from slow mail and problem CD's, Barry McClure was overjoyed, I'm sure, to announce that ReportDAT! Express for C4 (for the Clarion Template Chain) is now available for download from their web site (www.grebar.mb.ca/grebar) . This version works with CW 2.0x and C4. Users who purchased ReportDAT! Express after Jan 1st 1998 will receive a free upgrade. Registered users who purchased prior to Jan 1, 1998 can upgrade for $79 (USD). This is a hip product - check it out.
• Query Wizard 4.0 from Toolcraft is now shipping (printed manuals and all).
• Lee White of Lodestar Software announced that RPM (Report & Presentation Manager) for C4 Clarion and ABC is now available. For more info, contact him at lee@kcug.org or 74067,3441 on CompuServe. Don't expect a fast answer during the first week of May, though, as Lodestar will be closed during the ETC conference which they are helping to sponsor.
• Ragnar Hellspong announced the release of v3.51 of his award winning ForKeeps message manager/archiver. Way too many new features to list here - go to http://www.fkeeps.com for more info.
• From Mike Hanson at BoxSoft Development: " We have released incremental updates for SuperQBE and SuperTagging. The version number for both is 4.02. These new files contain several fixes for bugs reported over the past two weeks since SuperQBE for ABC was first released.". Get the updates and more info on BoxSoft products (the 'Super' line of templates) at http://www.boxsoftdevelopment.com.
• Gordon Smiths Compile Manager and Class Browser are now free. I haven't had a chance to check this stuff out, but I've heard good things about it. More next month. See http://ireland.iol.ie/~schmoo/

Can't beat that price...

One of the really nice things about using Clarion is the overall generosity of the user community. (Go ahead, all of you give yourselves a pat on the back!) Often, this manifests itself in truly useful templates which the authors have made available to the rest of us for that most favorite of prices: FREE! Each month, this column features a handy free template or tool which you might want to add to your bag of Clarion tricks.

Note: If you decide to download and try out any free items mentioned here, please remember that you get what you pay for - don't expect support from the author like you would from a commercial product. While most of them are generous to a fault (as witnessed by their giving away the product), they are NOT obligated in any way, shape or form to you because you want to use the template. Be nice to them!

This month's cool tool is:

G-Notes for Clarion's Editor from Gitano Software

From their announcement: "This version is compatible with both CW20 and C4 environment. Keep that special code handy, then when needed, simply copy and paste. Keep track of any notes you might need for your application. And all from within Clarion Editor's Menu."

Since it is larger than our usual small free template, you will need to download the program from the Gitano web site (http://bizweb.lightspeed.net/~gitano) if you'd like to check it out. It comes in a very professional self-contained installation file.

While you are at their web site, they also have a nice collection of 50+ icons that you can download for free.

Note: If you are not familiar with Gitano's nifty G-Notes product, there was a review in the very first issue of Clarion Online.

Next month: Who knows? You'll just have to come back and find out!

About the Bit-vine

Each month, this column will provide you with the latest in Clarion news, tips, rumors, freebies and basically anything else that seems interesting about the going's on in the Clarion world.

So, who determines what's most interesting? YOU DO!!

Are you a vendor? Let me know about new releases, updates, betas, product plans or anything else you think Clarion Online readers might want to know about.

Are you a user (and who isn't)? Drop me a line about any cool nuggets of information you come across, free templates or examples worth sharing, or anything else that other readers might find useful.

What do you get for contributing? Well, you'll see your name up in lights (phosphor, to be accurate) here in the Bit-vine credits. For especially useful bits, you may even win an autographed GIF of an official Clarion Online shirt or other similarly valuable prize. Come on, how can you resist?

Let me hear from you! The magic address isTomH@ClarionOnline.com

The disclaimer

Everything in this column is the sole opinion of me, the author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of this magazine, its publisher, or even of myself (hey, I can change my mind, too!). Don't bet the farm on anything you read here: consider it a starting point for your own inquiries and research. The point here is that this column is intended to both enlighten and entertain, and that in the fast-moving world of software development this month's truth (or product release date) is often next month's "oops, did I say that...?".

'Nuff said!

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Clarion Magazine ISSN 1718-9942