Post by George on Apr 27, 2024 11:40:40 GMT -5
Hi,
With a lot of help from members Jo and Mueh in testing the Alpha version, I think the new Release 3 version of SPFLite is ready to become a Beta release.
And by Beta, I mean one that is, in my opinion, at least good enough to let other users try it out.
Why a Release 3?
Well, although I have been trying to back out of SPFLite development for quite a while, I just keep getting 'sucked back in'. It's my fault, I love programming and SPFLite has been 'my baby' since I retired in 2003. So I have been working on this thing for over 20 years, it's hard to give it up.
But now my body is telling me - no more! It's increasingly difficult to work now, as neuropathy is slowly removing feeling from my fingers.
So I wanted to clean up the SPFLite code as much as possible before wrapping it all up. This has revolved around replacing the main command parser and making accompanying changes to the generalized search routine. These routines had become a hodge-podge
of patches and one-off exceptions.
At the same time, some old commands and functions have been removed, such as:
Removing these was solely MY personal decision, if it impacts you, my apologies.
So we now have:
SPFLite3
I've decided to bump the major release from 2 to 3 and keep it separate from the current production release - SPFLite2. It will install in a separate folder from SPFLite2. And both versions can exist together. When SPFLite3 is stable and becomes the production version, SPFLite2 can be simply removed via the standard Windows uninstall method.
However, all versions will still share a common point: the HomeFolder structure:
normally \Documents\SPFLite\
which contains the CFG file and sub-folders like MACROS etc.
SPFLite2 and SPFLite3 can both share the SPFLite.CFG file will all your settings. The only possible interaction is if you use the CFGMaint tool, as follows:
-- The SPFLite3 version of CFGMaint EXPORT will report and remove unneeded entries for the removed support items above..
-- The SPFLite2 version of CFGMaint IMPORT will report and add back these entries with their default values.
How to install SPFLite3
The install of SPFLite3 is performed in the same way as SPFLite2, it is a full normal installer package.
Since the download is too large to be embedded in a Forum post, the following link will download it from Google Drive. (You do not need a Google ID to download it)
Full Installer: SPFLite3Setup.EXE
Note: If you downloaded and installed the Alpha version, you should still download this Beta release version and run the installer again to pick up all changes to any of the installed files.
Further Beta Updates
The full SPFLite3 Installer need only be downloaded and installed once, it will create the new SPFLite3 install folder, and associated Start Menu and Desktop Icons.
Subsequent Beta updates will be posted here as simple forum downloads of a new EXE file, which can simply be copied over top of the main installed SPFLite3.EXE version.
Changes
This release also contains all fixes released since the last production release of SPFLite2 (V3.0.24069)
Latest Beta EXE version Download
For members: SPFLite3.3.1.24130.exe (508 KB)
For non-members: SPFLite3.3.1.24130.EXE
For non-Members, comments should be emailed to : support@SPFLite.com
RE: Beta 3.1.24118 -- or whatever the version is --
Or better yet, become a member, as it says in the news, it costs nothing, you get to post on the forum, and you will not be bothered by any emails from us.
With a lot of help from members Jo and Mueh in testing the Alpha version, I think the new Release 3 version of SPFLite is ready to become a Beta release.
And by Beta, I mean one that is, in my opinion, at least good enough to let other users try it out.
Why a Release 3?
Well, although I have been trying to back out of SPFLite development for quite a while, I just keep getting 'sucked back in'. It's my fault, I love programming and SPFLite has been 'my baby' since I retired in 2003. So I have been working on this thing for over 20 years, it's hard to give it up.
But now my body is telling me - no more! It's increasingly difficult to work now, as neuropathy is slowly removing feeling from my fingers.
So I wanted to clean up the SPFLite code as much as possible before wrapping it all up. This has revolved around replacing the main command parser and making accompanying changes to the generalized search routine. These routines had become a hodge-podge
of patches and one-off exceptions.
At the same time, some old commands and functions have been removed, such as:
- Support for the FOLD option
- Support for source code numbering (the commands AUTONUM, NUMBER, NONUMBER, NUMTYPE, ORDER and UNNUMBER)
- Support for "Command Chaining". Note: This is NOT the ability to separate commands on the command line with a ; character.
Removing these was solely MY personal decision, if it impacts you, my apologies.
So we now have:
SPFLite3
I've decided to bump the major release from 2 to 3 and keep it separate from the current production release - SPFLite2. It will install in a separate folder from SPFLite2. And both versions can exist together. When SPFLite3 is stable and becomes the production version, SPFLite2 can be simply removed via the standard Windows uninstall method.
However, all versions will still share a common point: the HomeFolder structure:
normally \Documents\SPFLite\
which contains the CFG file and sub-folders like MACROS etc.
SPFLite2 and SPFLite3 can both share the SPFLite.CFG file will all your settings. The only possible interaction is if you use the CFGMaint tool, as follows:
-- The SPFLite3 version of CFGMaint EXPORT will report and remove unneeded entries for the removed support items above..
-- The SPFLite2 version of CFGMaint IMPORT will report and add back these entries with their default values.
How to install SPFLite3
The install of SPFLite3 is performed in the same way as SPFLite2, it is a full normal installer package.
Since the download is too large to be embedded in a Forum post, the following link will download it from Google Drive. (You do not need a Google ID to download it)
Full Installer: SPFLite3Setup.EXE
Note: If you downloaded and installed the Alpha version, you should still download this Beta release version and run the installer again to pick up all changes to any of the installed files.
Further Beta Updates
The full SPFLite3 Installer need only be downloaded and installed once, it will create the new SPFLite3 install folder, and associated Start Menu and Desktop Icons.
Subsequent Beta updates will be posted here as simple forum downloads of a new EXE file, which can simply be copied over top of the main installed SPFLite3.EXE version.
Changes
This release also contains all fixes released since the last production release of SPFLite2 (V3.0.24069)
- Upgrade the INCLUDE support in the SUBMIT command to handle UTF8 files with embedded BOM markers.
- Correct error message display so that messages issued by a macro are not removed until all macro issued Post_Do commands are complete.
- Correct support for creating a new INSTANCE. It was not properly copying the correct previous INSTANCE, it was always copying DEFAULT.
- Correct IMACRO support. FileWatch Reload and MEDIT were not honoring an IMACRO xxxx OFF setting.
- Correct the generalized internal search routine: The support for negative color searches was simply not working.
- Correct command parse model file, it was totally missing the WHITE keyword.
- Replace the serial search on large internal tables with a binary search version.
- Improve the colorize keyword search by eliminating unneeded copying of strings to perform uppercasing.
- Correct parse not properly recogizing Hex literals.
- Correct search positioning error on re-find searches.
- Correct command parse model file. Locate was missing :tagname support.
- Correct case handling of searches for :tagnames.
Latest Beta EXE version Download
For members: SPFLite3.3.1.24130.exe (508 KB)
For non-members: SPFLite3.3.1.24130.EXE
For non-Members, comments should be emailed to : support@SPFLite.com
RE: Beta 3.1.24118 -- or whatever the version is --
Or better yet, become a member, as it says in the news, it costs nothing, you get to post on the forum, and you will not be bothered by any emails from us.