Update 03-19-2012 - Partial Alpha Release

[LarryMc]

I'm calling this an Partial Alpha Release because this is the first release that anyone other than me has seen(alpha) and there is still more to do than has been done(partial).

Hopefully I'll get some comments/suggestions/constructive critism by at least a few people.

Download, unzip and run the installer.

DO NOT - REPEAT - DO NOT INSTALL THIS WHERE YOU HAVE iwbASIC CURRENTLY INSTALLED!!!

When the installer is ran the following will happen.
1.the welcome page is displayed
2. the license agreement(partial) is shown; accept it.
3. the installation type selection page is shown:
the user is given two choices
1) normal and 2) memory stick.
There are two choices because of where things are stored since there are no registry entries involved.

1) NORMAL
just what it says. the following installation pages will suggest the Program Files\IWBDev3 folder for installation but can be changed.
then the user can select what components are to be installed followed by where the examples and the templates will be stored. The suggested location will be the localappdata folder for the currently logged on user. Although not currentlt coded these entries are saved in the ini file (which will be in that folder) for preloading when opening one of those two type of files in the IDE.  This scheme gets around the restriction that win7 has that does not allow updating the ini file in the Program Folder.  This type of installation will add several entries to the START MENU.

2)MEMORY STICK
Really means something other than NORMAL.
The suggested location is the system drive(normally C:\IWBDev3) but can be any folder where the user has read/write access. So, this suggested entry will most likely be changed to a memory stick or other USB type drive; but it can be installed as suggested.
As above the user will then be prompted for what components to install.  The user will not be presented any destination pages at this point like above.
That is because all components will be installed below the application folder.  Also, no entries will be made in the PC's START MENU.

I have installed in the following locations during testing:
win7 x64 in c:\Program Files folder
win7 x64 in nested sub-folder outside of c:Program Files
win7 x64 K:\IWBDev3 memory stick

I took the memory stick and plugged it into a XP SP2 and it ran fine.

What you can do now:
open a new or old file(iwb/eba/inc/asm) via the menu or toolbar
open a new or existing project and add/delete files to project
I'm hoping someone will try all the menu options along with bookmarks and the various editor options.
The recent files and projects menus also work.

Anyway, here it is and I hope someone is interested enough to play with it.

Link Removed

LarryMc

[billhsln]

Nice look and feel.  Found how to open a single IWB file, but there is no icon or easy way to close it.  Maybe put it up on the tab itself to close it.  Also, I prefer my background to be black, when I do that I can no longer see the cursor position (it stays black).

Will keep playing with it.

Thanks for all your work on this.

Bill

[LarryMc]

Nice look and feel.  Found how to open a single IWB file, but there is no icon or easy way to close it.  Maybe put it up on the tab itself to close it.  Also, I prefer my background to be black, when I do that I can no longer see the cursor position (it stays black).

Will keep playing with it.

Thanks for all your work on this.

Bill

Click the close button( x ) for the file.
When you open the first file it is opened maximized so the three buttons in the file's caption move up and sort of blend in with the parent window,  If you click that middle button (the square) the file window will shrink down.  You can do the same by clicking Windows/Tile in the main menu.  Once you do that all subsequent windows will appear so you can see their edges.  It's pretty much standard operation for MDI windows.

The black background thing I'll see how I can address that.

LarryMc

[Haim]

Hi,
installed it on a memory stick.
After I get a "not yet functional" messagebox, (eg after clicking the "About" menu item)  the main menu disappears. It redraws when I hover the mouse pointer over the menu line.

Haim

[LarryMc]

Also, I prefer my background to be black, when I do that I can no longer see the cursor position (it stays black).

I've added code to set the caret color to inverse of the background color.  That will work unless someone changes the bg to medium grey.
I think I'll change it so the caret follows the text foreground color.

@Haim -

After I get a "not yet functional" messagebox, (eg after clicking the "About" menu item)  the main menu disappears. It redraws when I hover the mouse pointer over the menu line.

It doesn't do that to me. What OS are you using?

LarryMc

[LarryMc]

Hi,
installed it on a memory stick.
After I get a "not yet functional" messagebox, (eg after clicking the "About" menu item)  the main menu disappears. It redraws when I hover the mouse pointer over the menu line.

Haim

I duplicated the problem with double clicking on a non-existent project file in the project list window (with the resulting error message) and fixed that one but still haven't duplicated your problem.

LarryMc

[Haim]

Hi,
I use a laptop with XP/SP3

[LarryMc]

I've uploaded a new version with the black background / caret color fix and what I hopefully will fix the disappearing menu Haim reported(it works fine on my XP).

http://www.ionicwind.com/forums/index.php?topic=4896.msg37499#msg37499

LarryMc

[LarryMc]

uploaded a new version.
The following menu options work:
File Open /Source
File Open /Example
File Open /Template

The Source file path is stored each time the user loads a source file.  The initial path is set for the Open File dialog so it will open to the location of the last file opened.

The Example and Template paths are save during installation and do not change.
The intent is to cut down on the number of clicks when a user wants to open one of these two types of files.

In all 3 cases an opened file will appear in the Recent Files menu.

http://www.ionicwind.com/forums/index.php?topic=4896.msg37499#msg37499

LarryMc

[Haim]

Hello,
With this current version, the issue with the disappearing menu has disappeared 
Thanks for your work.
Haim

[DominiqueB]

Hello Larry,

what do you mean by : "DO NOT - REPEAT - DO NOT INSTALL THIS WHERE YOU HAVE iwbASIC CURRENTLY INSTALLED!!!"

Can i install iwb3 in another place but on the same computer as iwb2 ?

Thank's

Dominique

[LarryMc]

Hello Larry,

what do you mean by : "DO NOT - REPEAT - DO NOT INSTALL THIS WHERE YOU HAVE iwbASIC CURRENTLY INSTALLED!!!"

Can i install iwb3 in another place but on the same computer as iwb2 ?

Thank's

Dominique

Don't install it on top of existing IWBasic(same folder).
Install it anywhere else on the same computer without any problems since the new version doesn't use the registry.

LarryMc

[Brian]

Larry,

Looking good so far...

Just been having a look at the print preview. Is it possible to put tabbing on the
four paper margin boxes, so you can enter a number and tab through them?

Also, when the path and filename are quite long, it doesn't show properly at the top. Maybe
moving the icons, etc, over to the right would allow more space?

And I think it didn't appear to show the bottom margin correctly when I set it to less than
the 1 inch you had as a default

Also, why would you want to print back to front as a default?

Other than that, I haven't come across any problems yet

Brian

[LarryMc]

Is it possible to put tabbing on the
four paper margin boxes, so you can enter a number and tab through them?

Added tabbing function to margin edit boxes. order will be top,left,right,bottom

Also, when the path and filename are quite long, it doesn't show properly at the top. Maybe
moving the icons, etc, over to the right would allow more space?

I moved the file name to the caption bar so space is no longer an issue.

And I think it didn't appear to show the bottom margin correctly when I set it to less than
the 1 inch you had as a default

I printed a page with the bottom set at 0.0 and 0.2 and then measured. Got the correct results.
Here's something you might not know.  When you read the data FROM a printer one set of parameters is how much space on the left and top are non-printable. So if you set the margins to 0.0 the printer is incapable of printing right on the edge. (I know that word and other text editors warn you when you try to set the margins to print in those areas.) So, when calculating where and how much you can print on a page those values have to be taken into account.  Since my print preview was not for some fancy wordprocessor I decided to keep my calculations as simple as possible. Therefore, when I check the printer and get those values I apply the top value to the bottom also; and the left value is also applied to the right. If you set the margins to 0.0 you will still have a border around what is printed. On my HP it amounts to about 1/4 inch.
If I had made the margin settings absolute to the edge of the paper I would have had to add a bunch of code to disallow a setting within the non-printable area and warning and such.  I didn't feel the effort was worth the gain in this application.

Also, why would you want to print back to front as a default?

On my printer the pages come out ink side up. If I print 5 pages(1,2,3,4,5) then page 5 will be on the top of the stack and page 1 on the bottom. With the back to front set the pages will come out 5,4,3,2,1 so page 1 is on the top and 5 is on the bottom.

Good comments.  I appreciate them.

Download has been updated.

http://www.ionicwind.com/forums/index.php?topic=4896.msg37499#msg37499


LarryMc

[Brian]

And excellent answers!

Didn't know about the printer margins - you did right the way you have set it

And my printer (Epson) works the same as yours, so all is well the way you explained it.
I should have printed a couple of pages to see (blush!)

Brian