Online presentation: Unboxing XSharp 2.8

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Created: 20 April 2021

We are releasing XSharp 2.8 in the coming days.

On Thursday April 29 at 16:00 Amsterdam Time (CEST) we will have an online "unboxing" session in which we will show some of the new features and improvements in X# 2.8

Some of the topics covered are:

• Compiler changes (LOCAL functions, Expresion Bodied Members, Null coalescing operator, /enforceself, /allowdot
• FoxPro related compiler and runtime changes (foxpro arrays, several new functions, ExecScript())
• Runtime debugging with a couple of new windows and functions
• Improvements in the Visual Studio integration

The recording of the session will be uploaded later to our Youtube Channel

We will open the session room at 15:30 so you can chat with eachother before the session if you want.

Help Needed

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Created: 05 April 2021

During our last online session on March 25th there was a dicsussion about how we make it easier for  people to migrate their applications to X# and how to document the common pitfalls and other problems. People suggested that they would want to help out with for example documenting compiler errors with examples of code that throws these errors and examples of how to solve these problems.

In this article we would like to list several areas of the XSharp project where we could use some help

Online presentation: Part 2 of "Migrating VO Apps to X#"

Details

Created: 20 March 2021

On Thursday March 25th at 16:00 CET (Amsterdam time)  Chris Pyrgas will present part 2 of his online presentation about  migrating applications from Visual Objects to X# and the changes that you have to make to your source code because of the differences between the two.

The session that was originally planned for Thursday about transporting FoxPro apps to X# has been rescheduled to April.

The session will use Zoom and the login details will be published here on Thursday morning.

If you missed part 1, you can still see it in our Youtube channel "X# Academy"

The recording of the session will be uploaded later today to the same Youtube Channel

We will open the session room at 15:30 so you can chat with eachother before the session if you want.

If time permits and if the attendees are interested then we will also preview some of the changes for X# 2.8 that will be released soon.

XSharp Spring 2021 Sale

Details

Created: 07 March 2021

We have a special "Spring Sale" for the Friends Of XSharp subscription.
Order the product in March 2021, add the discount code SPRING2021 on the checkout page and get a 25% discount !

Compiler 2.8 preview available for FOX Subscribers

Details

Created: 04 March 2021

We have uploaded a preview version of the new X# compiler to the website. Subscribers can download this version from the following link:

A RTF document with detailed descriptions is included in the ZIP file.

Compiler changes in upcoming build 2.8

Details

Created: 02 March 2021

The compiler for the upcoming 2.8 build of X# has received an "overhaul". We have updated the Roslyn code to the latest C# level (the same C# that comes with VS 2019 Preview 4). This means that we now benefit from many changes in the C# compiler. You should see that the compiler is a bit faster. The new compiler requires .Net framework 4.7.2 or .Net core 3.0. The apps created with the new compiler can still target the framework versions from 2.0 until 4.8, .Net Core 2.0, 3.0 and .Net 5 and .Net 6.

We have also taken the opportunity to add a few new things to the language:

Local Functions and Local Procedures

You can declare local function  and local procedures inside methods, properties, functions and procedures.

The syntax is

LOCAL FUNCTION <Name> (<Parameters>) AS <Type>
.
. statements
.
END FUNCTION

Some remarks:

• parameters are optional but must be typed
• return type is mandatory
• the local function automatically has access to the local variables and instance variables from its surrounding code.
• the local function cannot have attributes

Embedded bodied Members

C# has the option to write simple bodies of methods, functions and properties with a one liner and the => operator. We support that too now. For example:

FUNCTION Multiply ( nLhs AS LONG, nRhs AS LONG) AS LONG => nLhs * nRhs

This does the same as

FUNCTION Multiply ( nLhs AS LONG, nRhs AS LONG) AS LONG
   RETURN nLhs * nRhs

 but is a bit compacter.
You can use this notation for FUNCTION, PROCEDURE, ACCESS, ASSIGN, METHOD, PROPERTY etc.

Using declarations

You can now declare a variable and tell the compiler to automatically dispose it at the end of the block where it is declared. This means that you will no longer have to use a BEGIN USING .. END USING block. Behind the scenes the compiler will automatically create such as block.

Example

USING VAR reader := StringReader{manyLines}

Null Coalescing Operator and Null Coalescing assignment

This operator allows you to choose the first non NULL value of 2 or more values. Note that the values MUST be reference typed. Otherwise the compiler will complain that the value cannot be null.

 x := A ?? B

This assigns the reference value A to x, but when A is NULL then B is assigned. So this is the equivalent of x := iif (A != NULL, A, B)

A ??= B

This assigns B to A when A is NULL. So this is the equivalent of

A := IIF(A != NULL, A, B) 

Native Integers

We have added 2 new data types:

• NINT (signed native integer)
• NUINT (unsigned native integer)

These types are  32 bit integer on x86 machines and a 64 bit integer on x64 machines.

More changes will follow in the coming months.

A prerelease version of this new compiler will be released to our FOX subscribers in a few days.