Hello
I don't know if the other people face such big problems with the new CW
version, but I am falling slowly into the frustration. I am in the
programming business since many years and came across many platforms, but I
cannot recall such slow progress. It's not that the problems could not be
solved, but everything requires too much effort.
Let's hope that my memory fails and the things will turn finally better.
Another reason for my dissatisfaction might be that I am relatively new to
the Palm development, but I am not so sure: lately I experienced much faster
progress with Java and that was even new language. There I also had - mainly
at the beginning - the feeling that many things are not good, but I had to
bring down very soon that the road to the solution is highly intuitive and
the programmer is very productive. And what is even more important, bugs are
rather exceptional and the resulting product is rather safe.
But it is not my intent to discuss these general things; rather I would like
to comment on a few particularities.
PilRC Designer
Looks better than the Constructor in CW8, but here is what happened to me:
After CW found some compilation bug, .rsc file was suddenly empty! (More
precisely, it contained 1 line "/* pilrc generated file. Do not edit!*/".)
So I did some manipulations, the .rsc file changed from time to time and
after some 10 minutes it was restored. (I have no idea, what sequence of
actions triggered it.)
I rebuilt CW project: again some error and .rcp was again empty. (I must be
stupid that I did not backup it.) Coming back into PilRC designer, it
crashed. Error report (Access violation...) was in loop, so I had to use
task manager.
(Just as a side remark: Crashes happen too often, sometimes without saying a
word. I don't quite understand the reason. Bugs happen, but catching (at
least most of) them should be relatively easy excercise.)
-----------------------
While talking about the resources ... I would need some hint how to convert
the old (CW8) build process into the new (CW9) process. (For an existing
project.) I spent quite a few hours walking through the documentation, so I
have some insight, but apparently not enough, because my trials finished
with app crashes. I suspect that the problem is in the resources. The
documentation seems to advice to continue old projects in the old way and
vice versa for new projects. But I would like to go for armlets.
-----------------------
Boolean, NULL
Under CW8 these things were known to the compiler a'priori, not so now.
-----------------------
Next thing, which I find strange, is the described bellow. (It is "C" code
and maybe the compiler is right, but I rather report it, because I am not
sure.)
For struct member definition:
struct {
...
Boolean (*Read)( void *vm, void *buffer, long offset, long byte_count);
} ;
and function
static Boolean fRead( VMObject *vm, void *buffer, long offset, long
byte_count) {}
and line
struct.Read = fRead ;
compiler announces error illegal implicit conversion. That's 100% OK and I
am happy.
But if the things change
struct { long (*Tell)(); }
long fTell( void *THIS ) { return 0; }
struct.Tell = fTell ;
Then the compiler is happy! Whereby (unlike the first case) this is a
really serious programming bug.
--------------
Help system is to large extent incomplete, code completion appeared maybe 2
times within the week I work with CW9. I know, it's not yet ready, but from
what I could see I am not sure if it goes in the right direction.
--------------
Mouse bug
(Initial state: Help window closed) 2click a word, press F1 -> mouse cursor
lost (within CW).
--------------
Armlet interface in C seems to be unsupported.
--------------
I created new Armlet stationary (starter.prc), renamed Application target to
debug and added new target (release). IDE never allows release run (CTRL-F5)
even if I set all settings identically to the debug target.
This is the final state:
Debug target: Both CTRL-F5 and F5 allowed.
Release target: only F5 allowed. CTRL-F5 disallowed (both menu command and
icon button grayed). However, F7 works and the produced prc file is OK (i.e.
can be launched manually).
--------------
I make use of the occasion and add a few suggestions, which would (in my
opinion) improve CW environment.
Find text
CTRL-F should work the same way as in MS VC++; it is more productive: To
search for particular word 3 actions are needed (click, CTRL, F), whereas
current CW needs 8 actions (click, click, CTRL, INS, CTRL, F, SHIFT, INS).
It is one of the most frequent actions and I find it very annoying.
Help system could react to:
1. the text selected (if any)
2. the word under cursor (otherwise)
This would again save some extra actions on the programmer's side.
Another useful command from MS VC++ would be CTRL-]. (Searching for counter
bracket)
CTRL+arrow
I would prefer to keep the cursor all the time on the screen. (Same way as
MS VC++.) Current implementation (cursor gets off screen) requires an extra
click (that I usually forget and have to repeat the whole scrolling again
... frustrating).
Version
Where can be found the CW version (except searching the disk files)? Version
report in About Dialog contains all but the most important item.
I kept CW8 installed and it is a bit difficult to keep track of which
version is running.
Jan Slodicka
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