dennis' blog

I’ve put together a list of tips and tricks that I hope will help everyone get the most out of the Data Access Worldwide forums.

A big part of our job as software developers is knowing lots of detailed information, but I would argue that knowing how to find information when you need it is even more important. So here is an assortment of resources and tips for Visual DataFlex developers, published today on the DAW Development Team blog.

I played with Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 over the weekend and I really like many of the improvements.

My favorites are new features to make code navigation simpler:

• Call Hierarchy: being able to see in design mode what method calls and is called by other methods is brilliant! This is only available for C# in this revision, but that’s really the only .Net language I code in anyway.
• Navigate To: an easy way to type any part of an identifier name and find it anywhere in the current solution.

I’m really happy about this. One of the most cumbersome things when working in Visual Studio has been navigating through code.

I still miss one of the best features of Visual DataFlex Studio, Code Explorer, in Visual Studio. While I appreciate the improvements for making code easier to find in VS 2010, I always have Code Explorer open in the Visual DataFlex Studio. Code Explorer is a docking panel that displays the structure of the current code file. This makes it very easy to locate a class, object or method with a click.

Class View at first appears somewhat similar, but the way it’s implemented, it still takes a lot more steps to find something.

See here for product details.

Why Some Files Are Not Migrated to the Latest VDF Revision is the title of my first blog entry, published this morning, on the DAW Development Team blog.

Look for future Visual DataFlex-related posts by myself and other members of the development team here.

Details are in the build notes.

My personal favorites are numerous Studio improvements, including opening each file on only one tab, instead of 2 separate tabs for designer and source code, and an updated Workspace Explorer which now shows all files included in the current project.

See the forum post/release notice for details.

Highlights include:

• AJAX Library Support for Web Applications – Beginning with revision 2009, the AJAX library will be officially included and supported in Visual DataFlex. Plus The Visual DataFlex 2009/15.0 Web Application Server now provides JSON support.
• Visual DataFlex Studio Enhancements – Include Design time anchor support, improved breakpoint panel, easier text selection in Code Explorer, a new Go-back option to provide “go back” points in a file, faster loading and running of large applications in the Studio via a Dependency Cache rewrite, and Debugger improvements including Conditional Breakpoints.
• Runtime Improvements – Include new Array functions, new Pos and RightPos functions, and improved icon resource handling.
• New and Improved Classes – A number of new classes and improvements to existing classes have been implemented. New classes include Hyperlink, Scrolling container, and Splitter container. Tooltips are also now supported in classes.
• Library Enhancements – Improvements have been implemented that encourage the development and use of Visual DataFlex libraries within and across development teams.

My personal favorites are conditional breakpoints (yes!) and a simply hyperlink class (cLinkLabel).

See the forum post/release notice for details.