The huge Unicode/ RTL/Compiler/Drivers implementation is progressing nicely but compatibility issues remain (and will take time to eliminate), so a re-think was in order, we have a ton of fixes, changes, and new features, and we have made the decision to release C11 today to the 3rd party  community, so that they can take advantage of the improved Template UI (details below), and modify their templates to make use of the improved UI.

We will continue to work on the compatibility issues while delivering a version of  C11 that assures the Clarion community can transition to version 11 with an absolute minimum of effort. Later on, we’ll release an update that can be run in parallel.

The next section highlights some of the improvements to Clarion 11, for the full list refer to the README.TXT file with the current build.

Templates
The Application Generator’s Template engine has been updated to provide for wider Template Dialogs (~2x wider) – While older templates (pre-C11) will continue to work exactly as before this change, they might not look as good aesthetically. This new implementation will make working with template options a lot nicer (and easier on the eyes). Here are a few screenshots to give you an idea of how we made minor changes to the core templates (ABC and Clarion chains) to take advantage of the new UI possibilities.

There are numerous improvements in the IDE designed to help streamline your development cycle, and here are some of the notable ones:

App file date/timestamp

The Applications Pad now shows the date/timestamp so you can easily identify where you last worked, or what you need to get updated.

Accessing embeds

Requested very often, access to the Embeds is improved with new buttons on the Procedure Properties tab. You have quick access to both “Filled” and “Source” embeds. Less clicks == more productivity.

Full path for the current solution
Another developer request, to make it easier to work with multiple variations of your APPs the full path to the Solution is shown in the Title bar (previously it was just the name of the Solution).

New shortcut button added to the Solutions Pad

User-defined text for indicating a Read-Only status

Usually any file opened in RO mode (like a DCT file opened when you have an APP that uses it loaded) displays the name of the DCT with a + sign
appended to the name, this was possibly a bit too subtle, and some devs lost time/work making mods to the DCT only to find thay couldn’t be saved (unless you closed the .SLN/App). To help with that we introduce user-defined text for read-only files. Here’s a screenshot

and here’s a screenshot of how it looks in action

DCT Editor: implemented new ‘Validation Choices’ dialog to add/edit/visualize, pairs of data, instead of entering a string pair separated by a pipe char (|)

Here’s a screenshot:

Tab Order Assistant / Actions and Embeds

We know that a lot of developers love to work from the TOA (Tab Order Assistant), now we’ve added another reason – direct access to both the Template Actions
and the Embeds for the selected control

Just a mention for one more shortcut, here’s one more in the Solutions Pad

Quick access to often used tasks

SQL drivers and Unicode data

Added support for UNICODE strings on the backend to the ODBC, SQLAnywhere, PSQL, and MSSQL drivers:

‘ using PROP:NAME’ UnicodeFile{PROP:Name, 2} = ‘strFld | UNICODE’

and

‘ using a Driver String’ driverString = driverString & ‘/UNICODE=TRUE’

A Look into what’s coming up next

The docs are done and these are implemented but are pending release to ensure ~100% compatibility.

BSTRING – The BSTRING is equivalent to the OLE API ‘s BSTR data type.

USTRING – Fixed-length Unicode string

VARIANT – The VARIANT is equivalent to the OLE API’s VARIANT data type.

INT64 – a SIGNED 64bit integer

UINT64 – an UNSIGNED 64bit integer

New implementation for Internationalization support

PUSHASTRINGS / POPASTRINGS – new functions for working with the ASTRING type

New user-defined Date pictures

New user-defined Time pictures

CHR function supports Unicode

VAL function supports Unicode

Pictures (@P, @N, @K, new style @D and @T) can use any displayable Unicode character.

Transition to the EMF format for Reports