Re: [dws-developer] Preparations for release DWSII 2.0

[Mark <mnm...@co...>]

Matthias Ackermann wrote:
> Hello Eric 

My first name is Mark. Don't worry, everyone does it! Ericksen is my last name and people seem to want to call me Eric. Teachers, friends, co-workers.. you name it! :)

> As mentioned I'm planning to release DWSII 2.0 "soon". I'd like to include your
> projects - Code completion and Unit Editor - in this release. What is the state of
> these projects? 


Current Status:
=========================================
Pascal Code Generation:
I'm in the process of refactoring the pascal code generation into objects also building run-time packages for them so they can be used in multiple design-time packages and ways. Right now I've been working on taking a compiled script and generating a Delphi unit that recreates the symbols in Delphi code. The idea is that you create the declaration script to express SysUtils.pas and it will create a unit that has an initialization function that creates all the symbols with wrapping execution code. I need to complete this and figure out how to optionally generate them as static symbols. I plan later to create an application that lets you define which units, which types, etc from the unit that you want to wrap and give the ability to override their declaration or Evaluation code. Then it could also flag a method (for example) as being related to a specific version of Delphi. This will allow us to regenerate the VCL on demand complete with compiler directives to support D5, D6 and D7.

UnitCompEditor:
The UnitCompEditor is 'broken' at the moment due to changes in the Pascal Code Generation. I also have to fix some reported issues with the RichEdit version. There are other units (mwPasParser, etc) that are 'third-party' but are needed and/or modified by me. I plan to create a module to hold these third-party units while renaming them to something like "dws2_mwPasParser" so they can be used in multiple installed packages. They will also need run-time packages to make multiple uses better.

IDE Demos:
What is there is mostly functional (see Class Completion) but not fully complete. There are a couple more demos I had hoped to create to demonstrate code navigation more. (EX: CTRL+SHIFT+Up to jump from method declaration to implementation and back).

Class Completion:
Currently broken. This is the CTRL+SHIFT+C to auto-complete a class with incomplete property Get/Set accessors and method implementations. I had started trying to support array properties and currently it will generate incomplete code.

IDE Component:
See below...

> What is the state of the code in the DWS-CVS> dws2tools\UnitCompEditor and dws2\Demos\IDEDemos. 


The demos are mostly okay (I think). :)


> What's about this IDE component you mentioned in an earlier e-mail? Will it be
> available for the release, too?


I've been working with Pietro and Fabio on this. About a week ago I started ripping it apart to clean up the GUI interface and the component interface. I hope to work some more on that soon. I have added some IDE stuff like (broken) Class Completion, Code Browser (tree view),  etc. It needs to be updated to reflect your new CVS changes. I have yet to fix the debug fly-over hints. I was hoping to use your new stack accessing methods to do that. :)


So depending on when you plan to release the 2.0, you may have to release without me. I refuse to support questions regarding this stuff until I have a chance to 1) finish it and 2) write the basic documentation with tutorials on the usage of it. I hate to be responsible for holding up the release so I won't ask you to wait. Particularly because I don't really know just when I'll be done! Depending on how accessing arrays and records has changed, it will also affect the auto-generated code for these types.

-Mark E.