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NEW FEATURES OF RELEASE 4

This document outlines the new features in FB^3 release 4. You will also find here the list of bugs that were reported and fixed.

Profiler

Our new function Profiler checks the time required to execute your functions down to the nearest millisecond.
Sort the output by execution time, function name, and more. Separate the amount of time spent in a function from the time spent in called functions.
The new Profiler even checks your system to determine how much time is used as overhead for a standard function call.

FACT
Need greater detail?

Check out the Frequency Analyzing Code Tester (FACT).
You'll see what lines are executed in your programs and how many times each is called. Find and eliminate orphan code!

Faster! Faster! Faster!
•INDEXREPLACE operations are much faster.t
•The is a 200% increase in the speed of some floating point operations.
•Many string operations have been optimized in PPC assembly and are much faster.
•DEF BLOCKFILLnow rocks.

Toolboxes
Added or modified more than 100 toolbox calls; many are related to the sound manager. Additional calls are now present for the System 8.5 Window Manager. QuickTime and QuickDraw calls were also added.

Project Manager
•The project manager now displays a pop-up menu for each file with a list of functions. Selecting one of these items opens the file and scrolls to the function definition.
•The project manager now coordinates itself more closely to the Command menu by correctly deactivating items.
•The "click-through" feature that allowed you to accidentally turn on the debugger or toggle a folder open or closed when bringing the project window forward has been disabled. supprimé.

Debugger
•We now have a pop-up menu for variables. It even allows you to clear and set break points.
•You may also reset values and view common structures using MacsBug.
•The debugger now correctly steps through block remarks and other structures.
•It's even faster than it was before!

Program Generator
•Repaired a crash that might occur when the Filters dialog was opened..
•Made minor repairs to the 3D Panel, Embossed Text, GRFX, and POP! filters.

New Error Checking
•Underscores in constant names are now flagged as errors.
•The compiler no longer allows the use of BUTTON(n) = 1 (It was never legal.)
•IF without THEN is flagged as an error
•A sting length overflow error now brings up a stop dialog instead of a shut down alert.
•We reworded many error messages to help you locate and correct problems.

Editor
•Tired of having only one type of divider line in your source code?
We've got the answer. In fact, the new routines are so intelligent that the type of line last used is preserved from one run of the program to the next and is automatically used when Command-L is selected.
•You may remark out or un-remark a block of text via an Edit Menu Option.
•You may now add a "Page Eject" command directly to your source code so that printed page breaks come out where you want them. Just select Insert Page Break from the Edit menu. The page break will be visible in the edit window.
•The Command-Double-Click (and Command-E menu option) to find a definition has been sped up considerably. The operation also works more reliably.
•If you hold down the option key during startup, the editor would always reset your preferences. Now there is a cancel button that allows you to abort the operation.
•You can now click on any part of the line number display to bring up the "Go To Line" dialog."
•Compiler directives like #IF and #ENDIF automatically indent the source code.
•Shift-delete now works the same as the forward delete key.
•Command-L (for lines) and Command-D (for dated remarks) may now be used in scripts.
•We changed "FBII" in the menu and in message texts to "Standard Basic"

Runtime/Compiler
•Floating point operation have been greatly improved. The problems with seemingly simple numbers ending with .99999 attached has been virtually erased.
•We now look for and handle carriage returns in strings when executing a PRINT statement.
•Color cursors are sought out and used by the runtime if available when your program uses the CURSOR statement.
•The CLEAR command now works as advertised.
•The Navigation Services Files dialog can be moved and resized.
•Arrays (even floating point arrays) now work in true records. Record arrays use brackets instead of parenthesis. (See BEGIN RECORD in the Reference Manual for info.) Record elements may now be used as counter variables in FOR/NEXT loops.
•The EXIT statement works for just about anything: EXIT FOR, EXIT NEXT, EXIT CASE, EXIT DO, EXIT WEND, and many more.
•File routines have been repaired for INPUT, WRITE FILE, READ FILE, READ#, and others. File range errors are no longer erroneously reported.
•A new global (gFBFloatMaxDigits) can limit the number of digits of precision used.
•Core init routines have been moved into the runtime source code files to allow programmers very low level access during initialization of managers during program startup.
•The short hand representation for not equal (!=) now works with records.
•You can reset font, size, style, and color in edit fields using EDIT$(n) = text$, font, size, style, face, mode, red, green, blue.
•Vous pouvez attribuer la police, la taille, le style et la couleur dans un champ d’édition à l’aide de la commande EDIT$(n) = texte$, police, taille, style, transfert, rouge, vert, bleu.
•The COMPILER VERSION function returned an incorrect result.

New Examples

- Full National Instruments libraries.
- Expression evaluator.
- Thread Manager
- Location Manager.
- Notification Manager
- Drawing program.
- Many new HFS+ and file routines.
- New Appearance Manager examples.
- Spread sheet Module & graphing functions.
- Updated sorting examples.
- Toolbox dialog tricks.
- Buttons, buttons, buttons.
- 3D flight simulator
- Proportional window resizing