VFP7 teasers

[foxdev]

Some of the new features to appear in VFP 7 that we've been wanting for a long time:

[tab]CLEAR DLLS allows releasing a specific DLL

[tab]MESSAGEBOX has a timeout property

[tab]SQL SELECT supports read-write cursors

[tab]USE command when used with a remote view supports dynamically specifying a connection string, rather than the one stored in the DBC

[tab]STRTRAN supports case-insensitivity

[tab]XMLTOCURSOR and CURSORTOXML functions

[tab]HIGHLIGHTBACKCOLOR and HIGHLIGHTFORECOLOR properties specify colors for the row with the focus

[tab]MOUSEENTER and MOUSELEAVE events for "rollover" type behaviours

[tab]SELECTEDITEMBACKCOLOR and SELECTEDITEMFORECOLOR for use in list and combo boxes

[tab]SHOWINTASKBAR property determines whether the application shows in the Windows task bar [sig]<p>Robert Bradley<br><a href=mailto: > </a><br><a href=

http://www.foxdev.com/>FoxDev

- Visual FoxPro Development</a><br> [/sig]

 

[TomasDill]

Hej, you forget A LOT of new cool things. At DEVCON discussed following:

XMLUpdateGram() (VFP-ers already started to complain about absence of backward function to transfer updates into cursor)

INPUTBOX() (with timeout too - Cool!!!)

aTagInfo() (Cool, but not completed because do not show CDX file name)

DBC_<events>

SYS(3054) improved
SET TEXTMERGE TO MEMVAR, TEXT TO VarName and such other

GetWordCount() and GetWordNum() (words in text string)

Case-sensitivity for STRTran, aSort, aScan, some other flags for aScan, like exact search and search by column only (Cool!)

Array returning from function (does it works for remote COM object?)

ASessions()

ADLLS()

Added pictures to menu, now menu can be handled like in MS Windows 2000 (dimmed menu items)

Grid header now have multi-line caption !!!
RowColChange property of grid

The MOST COOL - MyControl.hWnd - windows API window handle for EACH visual control - here we now can make elliptic or any form buttons (have seen sample on DEVCON), or make any other visual effects using WinAPI!!!

DEFINE CLASS x AS class OF classlib (no more SET CLASSLIB for that)

AMembers() function now returns ALL members of COM object! Here we now can see all undocumented methods/properties of Word object, for example It also have filtering of output by members types and provides Help string in result array.

Now VFP have strong typing for COM objects that is significant improvement for type libraries (using AS clause for property definition). VFP7 also allows to define special property with '_comattrib' suffix to desinate special property and method attributes in type library, like 'restricted', 'hidden', 'nonbrosable', 'readonly', 'writeonly'. It may be used as array to define help string, capitalization and type for property. Special command 'HELPSTRING' allows to write help string into type library for method.
IMPLEMENTS for COM+ and EVENTHANDLER() method for VFP COM object to handle COM+ events.
No VCX support for above, however, this may be defined only in the PRG file.

What you think about IntelliSense?

Command Window content now restored after quit/run VFP!


Above is not complete list, however...

[sig]<p>Vlad Grynchyshyn<br><a href=mailto:vgryn@softserve.lviv.ua>vgryn@softserve.lviv.ua</a><br>[/sig]

 

[jonscott8]

FWIW,

Here's a link to a list compiled by other contributors:

http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~VisualFoxPro7Features~VFP

My Personal Favorite: ExecScript Function - Enables you to run multiple lines of code from variables, tables, and other text at runtime.

A simple example:
ExecScript( &quot;for i=1 to 10&quot;+CHR(13)+&quot;?i&quot;+CHR(13)+&quot;endfor&quot;+CHR(13) )

Havent you ever had the need for macro expansion within a loop? Previously this wasnt feasible because macro substitution occured only once, when compiled. But ExecScript should alleviate this problem. :-D

What you think about IntelliSense?

I think it's an overdue feature, but if implemented correctly, developer's will be quick to forgive. The only beef I have with VB's intellisense, is when the window pops up, pressing enter on your selection still sends the carriage return to the editing window. IMO, this action should be configurable. [sig]<p>Jon Hawkins<br><a href=mailto: jonscott8@yahoo.com> jonscott8@yahoo.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>Focus on the solution....Not the problem.[/sig]

 

[TomasDill]

As for me, VFO IntelliSense is much more 'sensitive' than VB [sig]<p>Vlad Grynchyshyn<br><a href=mailto:vgryn@softserve.lviv.ua>vgryn@softserve.lviv.ua</a><br>[/sig]