This morning I got back to work on the Icetips Utilities. The first task was to clean up some template code that was supposed to be included but I had pulled out. I spent several hours on the documentation and reorganization of the demos. Instead of a single big demo app, there will be new demo apps for each class released as I finish document the class. This makes adding features to the classes and corresponding demonstration code to the demo apps easier.
I'm starting at the bottom and working my way up, starting on the Core class, which all the other classes inherit from. It has several basic functions that are used in almost every class, such as search and replace, filename splitting, etc. Part of the core class is already documented, but I have added a few new functions to it since the last time that I worked on the documentation. I should be done with the core class tomorrow along with the demo. Which means that it will be out in a new release on Thursday if nothing comes up.
I'm also starting on the core library in Visual C++. There are three main reasons why I'm doing it in Visual C++, rather than Clarion.
First is that it makes it completely independent of Clarion versions so the library could be used equally well with Clarion 7 as with Clarion 4. No more recompiles for each and every version of Clarion. I have already done this with some of my template code where I have moved it to a Borland C++ DLL. When I did that I realized I had over 20 DLLs for various versions of Clarion and various products. By using C I could take it down to a single DLL without any problems at all.
The second reason is that I find some things are just easier to deal with in C. I have access to all the api prototypes and all the structures and data types. I also have access to millions of web sites with examples in C!
The final reason is that it forces me to work with other languages than Clarion. I think it is very important to learn new things and a new language is a new tool to make my work easier. Many times I look at some C or VB code and realize that it can be coded much more simpler in Clarion. In other cases I look at some C code and realize that it would take 5 times as much code to get it done in Clarion. So, I try to pick the right tool for the task!
In the past month I have been playing a little bit with Delphi 2007 and I have a feeling that I may dig into it a bit more. Icetips Creative has a technology partnership with CodeGear/Embarcadero Technologies for our work with the Build Automator so we have access to their products and beta products and I'm looking forward to take a look at Delphi 2009.
But, that's getting a bit ahead of myself! Right now I'm concentrating on the Icetips Utilities. I will be working on them until the end of August and then I will be working on them along with design work for the new browse extensions which will replace Xplore.
Arnor Baldvinsson
