10 replies to this topic

[Rob Donovan]

Hi,

The first 'Alpha' release of ProIV IDE is nearly ready.

This first release will be a 'closed' release only available to a limited number of people.

After any 'major crash bugs' have been dealt with, I will release it for anyone to download.

It will remain in Alpha stage until all the current features are finished fully. Then we will move to a Beta stage to iron out the remaining bugs etc.

Once I (and you) are happy with the quality of it then Version 1.0 will be released.

After that, items in the 'To-do Feature List' post will be added, and any others people suggest.

Once these have been added it will move to version 2.0 and will then become a chargeable product.

Until version 2.0 is released, you will have to download a key each month to keep the application working.

If you find any problems or have any comments (bad or good) please either post, or email me direct.

Your help is very much appreciated.

See the following posts for more info about ProIV IDE and some current screen shots...

What is ProIV IDE?
ProIV IDE Current Feature List
To-do Feature list

Thanks,

Rob Donovan.

[CSuarezdelReal]

Hi Bob!

I would like to know whether you are still wotking on this project. I like the XML concepts, applied to a RAD environment, creating an "intermediate" code that can be executed as Java bytecode or Microsoft's Internal Language (IL) bytecode (.NET or J2EE).

I have being playing around for a while with LAVA (http://lavape.source...avaHomePage.htm) and I would like to see more about what you have done.

[Rob Donovan]

Hi,

Thanks for your interest in ProIV IDE.

I was very close to releasing a public version a few weeks back, but decided to hold on for a few more weeks.

This was because of the problems around Bus & Tasks.

ProIV IDE used to use Bus & Tasks to communicate with ProIV. However, I had quite a few problems with Bus & Tasks and it seemed to crash randomly.

Also, I found that Bus & Tasks is not the easiest of things to install and get up and running and some users don’t have 'root' access to their servers so that they can setup Bus & Tasks.

ProIV Single Developer was also brought out with no Bus & Tasks.

So, I decided to redo the communication part in another way, which did not need Bus & Tasks.

I am now finishing this part off and its much easier now for users to install. An added bonus is that the communication is over twice as fast than Bus & Tasks was. Which was a bonus.

I'm also working on ProIV IDE updating the VIP bootstraps so that VIP users can also use it.

Currently ProIV IDE is being used by my current workplace for development, and the users are very pleased with it. They are using the Bus & Task version.

Hopefully, I will be making a public version in a few weeks now, once I've tested the new communication methods.

If you would like a copy before that, just send me a mail or post,

Rob D.

[Tony Waszkiewicz]

Rob,

Is this an April fools joke

Are you really almost there?


best regards

[Rob Donovan]

Oops, hadn’t noticed the date

But, yes it is getting there.

For Green Screen it defiantly is there, and I and others at my work us it daily to edit functions.

I've got a little to do on the GUI screen painter, and I also have to do ActiveX.

Neither of these bits should take me too long, since its not complicated.

And of course, I can keep adding extras / utilities for a long time yet

However, I have to get it working without Bus & Tasks and also to update VIP boots first (which is a pain due to the way they were 'designed'), since that is my main concern at the moment.

Once I've got Bus & Tasks out of the picture, I will be releasing it publically as a beta for a few weeks and then version 1.0 shortly after. Since i've been in Alpha for a long time, many of the problems have been found so I dont see the beta going on for too long.

Rob.

[Stuart Burton]

Just out of curiosity Rob, what are you doing instead of Bus & Tasks?

[Rob Donovan]

Hi Stu,

I'm using the Client OCX embedded in VB....

But the Bus & Task interface will still work as I dont want to remove it. I just seems to crash every so often and that makes it look like my app is bit crappy.

When you setup a connection to ProIV in ProIV IDE, the default will be the OCX, but you can opt to use B & T.

I've made the code very 'OOP', so that I can use any interface I really want.

Just incase I need to change it again

Rob D.

[Stuart Burton]

Sounds cool.

I'm about to take a sabatical from the Pro-IV world but I hope I get to use IDE when I'm back. With any luck it'll be the new Pro-Aide!

[GBabula]

Rob,

What platforms will your IDE be compatabile with? We run PRO-IV green screen under VMS. VIP seems more work than it's worth for our needs, and the IDE looks like a nice replacement for native development.

~G

[Rob Donovan]

Hi,

It will work on any environment that will run the ProIV GUI client or Bus & Tasks.

It currently is designed around version 5.5.

At home I use Windows and at work its using UNIX. But there should be no reason that it wont work on VMS.

However, once that is working I will look into getting it to work with version 5.0 or 4.6, if there are people who want it for old versions of ProIV.

It shouldn’t be much work to support the old versions, since the only real difference is the layout of the bootstap files.

Also, its very easy to install IDE, it only takes about 10 minutes. You install some functions in ProIV and install a client on your PC. There is no 'conversion' process and IDE does not need to modify your original code for it to work.

So you can install IDE and just start using it along with @MOD, ProAide, Dev Studio or what ever. You do not need to do a system test of your product, which is what you 'should' do when converting to VIP because it effectively 'rewrites' your code.

Rob D.

[GBabula]

Cool...we'll have to check it out when you release it. We're currently on 5.5.

Do you currently have in the IDE (or plan to include later) utilities such renaming and deleting files and functions? Some of these functions don't work properly in native anymore, ex., @DFUN doesn't delete field records from FLDSPEC, and @RFUN doesn't create the header record [I think] for the new file name. (In fact, the only time we ever fire up Developer Studio is when we need to rename a file!)

~G