Ubercode blog
Welcome to the Ubercode news blog. This is updated monthly, or whenever personal life allows.
Here I talk about the ease-of-use and power of Ubercode and its latest improvements. Sometimes I
blog about website updates and I may even wander off for a rant on unrelated topics. The most
recent entries are at the top.
Useful add-ons for the v1.3 release (17 Apr 2012)
- As part of the next release I added regular expressions to Ubercode. There are new functions
IsMatch(str,exp) and IsLike(str,exp). The IsMatch function does matches using
the normal regular expression syntax and IsLike does matches using Visual Basic LIKE syntax.
These functions are currently in the propedit unit, so add uses propedit near the top
of your classes to use regular expressions.
- Examples of IsMatch:
IsMatch("cat", "c[ao]t") = true
IsMatch("Sleeps in a cot", "c[ao]t") = true
IsMatch("dog", "c[ao]t") = false
IsMatch uses regular expression syntax with * for repeated characters, . for
single character matches, .* for a wildcard match, [...] for character classes,
[0-9] to match a single digit and ^ $ indicate the start and end of the string.
- Examples of IsLike:
IsLike("the big cat", "*cat") = true
IsLike("a big dog", "*big*") = true
IsLike("a small dog", "*big*") = false
IsLike uses VBA syntax where * is for a wildcard match, [...] is for character
classes, # matches a single digit and the start and end of string characters are not
needed.
- The Strchg (string change) function was retired and replaced with Strreplace
(string replace). The new function is much faster, especially where a large string has many small
substrings changed in it.
- I've done some work on MySQL integration. Ubercode programs can now connect to MySQL databases (v5 and later) and to Microsoft SQL Server. The MySQL installation
needs the MySQL ODBC drivers (32 bit
MSI) to be installed.
- All the Ubercode SQL example programs have been updated and tested using both databases.
- There's a new Trial Pack download which is jam packed with the
latest improvements. Download now and get coding!
More work on v1.3 release (25 Feb 2012)
- As part of the next release I made improvements to the Exec function. Exec can
now capture the output of any command line process. To do this, pass a file name to Exec and
when Exec returns the file contains the output of the process. This is useful for running
external utilities and capturing their output.
- Exec also returns the process handle. This allows the calling application to run
Exec in NOWAIT mode and to continue running. The caller can periodically check the process,
and when it has finished it can load the output and close the process handle. There are new example
programs to show these techniques.
- Fixed a problem in the debugger that made it difficult to debug code that uses timers. The
debugger was being wrongly re-activated whenever timer events occurred while the debugger was
active. To fix this the timer events are temporarily suspended while the debugger is active.
- Added a new OnError statement, intended for use in core run time library functions. This
allows the run time library to be used to create wrappers for built in functions, and to 'hold
back' the error for use by the calling code. This improves error handling, by causing errors to
happen closer to the real point of failure.
- There's a new Trial Pack download with the latest improvements.
You can download this now and get programming!
Happy New Year! (12 Jan 2012)
- I upgraded the printed copy of the LRM (Language Reference Manual) and organized on-demand
printing for it. As a result the Ubercode store now offers a printed
copy of the Language Reference Manual. This is a quality printed book describing how Ubercode
works, including details of the library commands, details of internal data formats, language design
principles and much more.
- I updated the website, Trial Pack and the PAD file to ensure all file names are in lower case.
Use of lower case is a de-facto internet standard which avoids problems caused by inconsistent use
of capital letters.
- Also I made it possible to extend the Trial Pack by adding a "Request extension" option. This
contacts Ubercode Software and requests an extended evaluation period.
- There is a new 2012 release of the Trial Pack which includes these
improvements and more. Download now and start writing your own apps.
Earlier News
During 2011 I did a lot of ground work for the next version of
Ubercode.
During 2010 version 1.2 of Ubercode was released. This included
many improvements and the ability to connect to Microsoft
SQL Server.
During 2009 the Ubercode forum became live -
many thanks to Mike who helped get it off the ground, and thanks to everyone who asked (and
answered) questions. Also I made a lot of improvements ready for the v1.2 release.
During 2008 there was a need for speed - Ubercode got a much faster
installer (5 times faster) and the compiler became faster (about twice as fast). Also I ported
Ubercode to Windows Vista, and I presented Ubercode Basic at the European Shareware Conference 2008
(ESWC) in Berlin.
During 2007 Ubercode finally got a help system based on HTML Help
(CHM files). Also I gave a presentation on Ubercode at the European Shareware Conference (ESWC),
and you will see a detailed write-up of the 2007 Conference in Cologne. Read the 2007 news for more
details.
During 2006 Ubercode was written up in the International Developer
Magazine, also the Ubercode website was reviewed at the European Shareware Conference (ESWC). Read
the 2006 news for full details.
During 2005 a historic moment occurred - version 1.0 of Ubercode was
finally released.
During 2004 a beta version of Ubercode was released.
During 2003 the Ubercode website was completely rebuilt (I'm too
ashamed to put up a link to the earlier website!). Also a pre-release version of Ubercode was
prepared.
News from 2002 and before is here - this news is from the very early
version of the Ubercode website.
Pre-website news 1999 and earlier is here, including an early
picture of Ubercode.
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