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

by Tom Hebenstreit, Review Editor

Published 1999-04-01    Printer-friendly version

My, my, how time flies. I've been working recently on a project which is based in CW 2.001 (yes, not even 2.003), and it has really brought home to me how much Clarion for Windows has improved since those days. The Clarion5 core is so much nicer to work with - I'd gladly take it any day over all those cute little CW 2.x 'anomalies' which I am so quickly (and reluctantly!) re-discovering.

Ah, well... on with the show!

If I am elected C5a...

It's been a month full of candidates for C5 EE release A (remember that postcard you got in the middle of February?). First up was Candidate Release 1. A noble effort, but it had a number of regressions ranging from the annoying (frame maximized state wasn't being saved to the INI anymore) to the show-stopper (GPF's if you tried to edit global embeds with lots of code). Needless to say, this engendered a bunch of screaming on the newsgroups (more on that later). TopSpeed went back to the labs and cranked out Candidate Release 2, which they say addresses most of the regressions in CR-1. Ain't quite perfect yet, though, but getting closer.

Most recently, they released a mini-candidate 3. They are trying to fix some problems with the Synchronizer locking up under Windows NT (and -possibly- Win 9x). The culprit is lost timer events, so if you are testing C5a CR2, please download CR3 and check it out (all it is is a new runtime DLL). According to Bob Zaunere: "The update is available at ftp://topspeed.com/patches/c5ee/c5acr3.zip *** You must have already installed C5A - CR2, and remember to MAKE A BACKUP COPY of C5Run.dll BEFORE unzipping this update. ***"

Note that CR3 is only the 16-bit runtime (as used by the IDE), not 32-bit. A few late breaking reports have indicated that the CR3 fix seems to be 'sort of' working; i.e., not locking up but other problems still there.

If you can spare the time, I highly encourage everyone to get involved with testing these candidate releases. It is far better to have them fix the problems now than waiting until they do the actual release. If you do decide to join in the fun...

When I say beta, I MEAN beta!

I can never quite understand how so many people seem to just grab the first beta of a new release, install it over their production system and then start screaming bloody murder when something doesn't work right. It's as if the word (and the meaning of the word) 'beta' is somehow invisible to them. They are out there on the newsgroups, yelling that C5a is worthless, etc., leading to the inevitable flood of replies that C5a has not been released, etc., etc.

But I know none of you would ever do anything like that, would you?

Let's just be straight about the entire process, eh? A beta is NOT a final release and should never be treated as one. It should NEVER be installed over your working, production copy of C5. Indeed, even a final for a new release should never be installed for production until you have thoroughly tested it. So how do you test C5a CR-x if you don't have the luxury of having multiple machines with C5 installed? Here's a simple solution anyone with a bit of hard drive space can use (about 60-100 megs needed).

Doing the testing tango

The key to this is the fact that Clarion keeps all files related to a version in one location; e.g., your \Clarion5 folder. An environment variable and an INI section tell the system how to find itself and its components, pointing to that one folder location. Thus, we can do the following:

• Rename your actual \Clarion5 folder to, say, "\Clarion5 production".
• Re-install Clarion 5 into the same original location; i.e., the same drive in a \Clarion5 folder. You will now have two versions installed on your machine. TIP: If you want to save space, either don't install the examples or just remove that folder (and its sub-folders) after doing the second install. Also, don't reinstall the extra EE components such as Version Control and Data Modeller. The task at hand is to test the core C5 patch, not the add-ins.
• Apply the CR-1, CR-2 and, possibly, CR-3 patches, in that order.
• Re-install/re-register any custom or third party templates you might need for testing.

At this point, you should have two separate installs. To switch, simply rename your current \Clarion5 folder according to whichever install it is, then rename the other one back to \Clarion5. Now you can test your apps under C5a candidates (or the final) without messing up your production \Clarion5 setup.

Some additional things to keep in mind, though:

• Always back up your app development directory before testing with a new version! At the very least, archive copies of the .app and .dct files just in case something really goes wrong.
• This process only works if you have not copied any TopSpeed C5 DLLs into your app directories (you shouldn't be doing that anyway).
• Each time you switch, be SURE to re-compile your application and all support DLLs with the currently selected version of C5. The point here is that you don't want half of your system compiled with C5 gold, while other bits were compiled with C5a. You could get all sorts of strange problems if you do that.
• If you want to test new features or classes added in C5a, either a) copy your application to another folder and test from there, or b) create a small test app with portions of your real app to use as a test bed. I personally prefer option 'b', as it lets you play with new features while not disturbing working code. Do NOT try and experiment with new features in your main app, as it won't compile when you switch back to the older version (remember, they don't exist there).
• Did I mention backing up your .app and .dct files before testing? Just do it!

To sum up, with a bit of forethought you can easily test new C5 betas and releases without either jeopardizing your code - or your sanity!

Special Note for DEF users: The DEF (Dictionary Enhancement Foundation) templates are not compatible yet with either of the Candidate Releases, so don't even bother trying them out with DEF based apps. Nothing will work, as intrepid explorer James Fortune regretfully found out (need some help pulling those arrows out of your back, James?).

And after 'A' comes...

What!?! They are already talking about (and testing internally) C5b?

Yup. Talk is now that C5b will come along a lot sooner than it took (um... is taking) for C5a to arrive. In essence, C5b is getting the late 'dangerous' fixes that won't make it into C5a. These are fixes that TopSpeed has already completed, but their scope is such that they could possibly impact (a nice term for 'break') too many other areas to toss them into the 'trying-to-go-gold' C5a. In other words, adding them at this late stage would set C5a back to the beginning.

Bye-bye CSi?

Rumors keep surfacing that the demise of the TopSpeed CompuServe forums are imminent. The most recent statements are attributed to Roy Rafalco, TopSpeed CEO, and indicate that they might pull the plug within a few months (possibly less). Traffic has been down there, though a few stalwarts are hanging on. By far the biggest topic there lately was a contest to see who would post message 500,000 (yup, that's one-half million Clarion messages over the years).

Action was fast and furious until, in a major faux-pas, some Team TopSpeed member snagged the magic 500,000^th message in their private section of the forum. Well, boo hiss to them for once! The culprit hasn't owned up to the theft yet, either. Shame! Shame!

I sure do wish newsgroups handled message threads even half as nicely as CompuServe does, but it certainly seems that those days are about over. As soon as any official announcement is made one way or another, I'll let you know.

MSDN news

Microsoft recently unveiled their newly revised MSDN site (Microsoft Developers Network). The big news is that they have combined MSDN and their Site Builder Network site (SBN, for web developers), into one giant resource. According to the announcement: "Our two giant repositories of technical content -- the MSDN Library and Web Workshop -- will remain separate for a while. Access to the Library and Workshop remains free, of course, and you do not need to register for access to either of them."

Pay particular attention to that last bit - you no longer even need to register with them to access the MSDN Library. And what is the Library? Simply put, virtually ALL of Microsoft's documentation on Windows. The Win32 API, OLE, COM, MAPI, TAPI, WININET, Active-this-and-that, everything - there for free at your fingertips (uhh... ok, mouse pointer). Additionally, there are White Papers (i.e., documents explaining particular areas), magazine articles, book excerpts, the MS Knowledge base and more.

It simply can't be beat as the top Windows resource, and since we're living (and programming) in a Windows world, you should absolutely check it out: http://msdn.microsoft.com

Other news

Here are some tidbits and announcements gleaned from the TopSpeed forum and elsewhere over the last couple of weeks. If you see any products here which you would like to see scheduled for a full review in Clarion Online, let us know! (Special thanks this month to Robert Lerner for his suggestions on improving the format in this section!)

• In his never ending quest to build the perfect calendar tool, Jesus Moreno of Gitano Software announced the release of G-Cal1.8d. Some new features, a few fixes and the update is free. [Read the review of G-Cal in last month's issue of Clarion Online.] Info, demos and more can be found at their web site: http://bizweb.lightspeed.net/~gitano
• Also from Gitano: "G-Calc v4.1- a new update:
• 
  * Feature. A new calculator (#6) for C4 & C5. This is a copy of #2, with the standard OK and Cancel buttons.
  * Feature. Calculator 5 has now been added to GCalc for C4
  * Feature. The global calculator can now be selected at run time.
  * Initialize GCALCTYPE at any time in the application.
  * Modified. All calculators have been slightly modified to maintain even margins.
  * Feature. The installation procedure now contains both C4 and C5 installations."
  The new release can be downloaded from
• site listed in the previous item.
• From Mike Pasley of Logic Central came this announcement regarding a new product: "Internet Framework Templates-HTTP Server Edition are in beta test. These templates will make it very easy for developers to quickly have HTTP server capability using Clarion. Developers will be free to develop almost any kind of HTTP server application they need. See short article at http://www.logicentral.com/netengines.html Pricing to be determined. Check out the What's New department at http://www.logicentral.com for Mar 29, 1999 and Feb 24, 1999 for more information."
• 
  Sounds verrrry interesting (being a net-head myself). I'll pass on more news as I get it.
  Late Flash: The templates have been officially released with an introductory price of $99. Check out their web site for purchase details.
• From Phil Will of ProDomus: "I have posted minor updates to PDTranslator for C4 and C5 to the PD Translator page http://www.tiac.net/users/prodomus/tran.htm to the ProDomus web site. Among other things, these facilitate multi-dll development and simplify the extension template screens." He has also posted an update to the PD Source Manager Utility that accompanies the Translator templates, and new versions of the templates to go with C5a EE CR-2.
• From Pete Halstad of NextAge Computing regarding his new Imaging Templates for adding document scanning, storage, and other imaging features to your applications: "I now have a completed beta version of the templates that can produce everything you saw in the demo. Support for BLOB's and automatic Path File Management are also included. The demo program includes shows examples of all these features. The price for the standard version of the templates will be $149.00 US. Everyone who purchases the beta release before the final release will receive the final release for free as well as a 50% discount on the upgrade price for the professional release when it is released." The demo and more info can be found at: http://www.thenextage.com
• Something brand new from Tim Sullivan of Automated Solutions Group: "We have just released version 2.0 of our Web Server Printing Toolkit (WSPT). WSPT is now available in both OCX and DLL format and we even included Clarion header & library files as well as a hand-coded example. (No templates as of yet...we should have those within the next week or two)
• 
  "WSPT is a server-based (as the name implies) product that redirects printed output directly to PDF files or our own client/side printing format. There are no 3rd party packages to purchase although we do offer a competitive upgrade to Acrobat Exchange.
  "With client/side printing and our free Netscape/IE compatible plug-in, you can redirect the output directly to the users printer (printer independent format) or let them preview it on the screen for true print-preview capabilities. You can password protect the documents and even embed the documents into a standalone viewer/printer executable."
  More info can be found at: http://www.active4.com/default.asp?PI=WebPrintToolkit
• Steve Parker let us know that: "GTL (Go To Lunch) EE, the batch compiler, has been re-made in C5A and posted up to CWICWEB's download site: http://www.cwicweb.com ". Some new feature are included as well, from the sound of it.
• 
  Late tip: Steve released v5.2, which can start any version of CW. Accordingly, he is dropping support for all prior versions of GTL.
• From Ronald van Schagen at Princen Information Technology: "A new candidate release of QuickDDE (v2.06 CR-1) can be downloaded from www.princen-it.nl/clarion This should fix the install problems with C5 and some other bugs. This update can be downloaded for free by all registered Quick DDE 2.0 users. We also opened a news server for the support:
• 
  News Server: News.Princen-IT.nl
  News Groups: Clarion.Tools"
• Also from Princen Information Technology: "The Candidate Release 1 of Send Internet Mail 3.03 is available from our web site: www.princen-it.nl/clarion" The new release adds full support for 'Reply-To' fields, support for C5 and fixes a number of bugs. Check out their news groups from the previous item as well.
• Again, from Princen (my, they've been busy lately!), an announcement for a new tool: "OLE Class Generator - as the name says - generates Clarion Classes for a selected OLE Control. The generated Clarion classes can be used in your application to call the functionality of the OLE control directly as Clarion methods - no more scary property access syntax!". Want to know the best part? They have released it as freeware. Does it work? Who knows, but I'll be checking it out over the next month.
• Steve Ryan announced Beta 1 of his ABC OOP SplitBar templates. He describes them as: "a Clarion ABC Control Template to provide control over splitting your Window into 3 parts for dragging and window control resizing. Drag and resize controls with a Horizontal and Vertical split bars just like in Outlook and Explorer." More info and a demo can be found at: http://www.qd.co.nz/service/cw5addon.htm The price listed at the web site is $25 US.
• Stealth Software has released a bug fix for their Mail and Fax Templates. The new version is 5.002, and it can be downloaded from:
• 
  http://home.mweb.co.za/jo/joe-vn/index.htm

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 or tools 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 template), 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 jewel (or tool) is:

Vince Sorensen's ABCFree Templates

Vince's free template set has been around for quite a while, and just keeps getting better. The current version contains nearly 50 templates, including API, browse, form, code, threads, reports, and more. He just released an updated version this month, so I figured it was time to feature them again. New stuff includes:

• - Bug fix in "Move Up/Down" templates
• - Bug fix in "fCalendar" function
• - Enhanced "Form: View Mode" template (now global option)
• - Added "Tab: Set Colour and Bolding" global template
• - Added "Misc: Show in Status Bar" template
• - Added "Misc: Check Unkeyed Link Field Deletion" template
• - Added "Values: Load Queue with List of Files" template
• - Added "Form: Disable Related Used Fields" template

To download the templates, or to see a list of the goodies it they contain, go to: http://www.dlcwest.com/~sorev/topspeed

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 is TomH@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 Ralph and Kakoo, my fire bellied tree frogs. 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