PerlWiz - Change History

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In this section, you will see a history of the changes made to the PerlWiz product in reverse chronological order - i.e most recent first.

Current Version - 2.1 [27th June 2004]

Click here to download this version from the PerlWiz web site.

• Project Properties Dialog is now arranged hierarchically as number of tabs was becoming unwieldy.
• Can navigate to up to 8 most recently used property pages using drop-down list, and clear the list if required.
• Can store recently used property page list and last visited page with project
• Right-click over property dialog page heading to expand all items under heading, contract them all, expand the whole hierarchy, or contract the whole hierarchy
• Web Browser now has forward button. Forward / Back / Cancel buttons only enabled when appropriate. Print button gives dialog box.
• Web Browser has URL address edit box which keeps a history of up to 8 URLs for this editor tab in drop-down list - stored within project. User can enter own URL and tab out / Press Enter to navigate browser to any page.
• Web Server now has CGI Timeout setting in Project Options to enable longer-running CGI Apps to execute without hitting the previous 30-second timeout limit.
• Three new project stats: Project File Count, Visible File Count, and Temp File Count.
• Start / Elapsed time now shown in error / messages box when program executed
• PHP documents are now HTML syntax highlighted, with the <?php tag triggering PHP syntax highlighting and ?> cancelling it.
• Right-click menu over code template editor to mark where text should be selected / cursor placed after template has been inserted.
• Exact match feature when searching for code templates
• Project organizer size + position can be saved with project. Also Project organizer visibility.
• Postal Address can now be included with project identification data
• Help updated to reflect changes

Bug Fixes & Tweaks

• Timeouts for Module installer extended to 20mins for installs and upgrades, up to 3 hours for upgrade of whole Perl installation.
• PerlWiz would sometimes report that the MySQL server was down when it wasn't (or when a program did not even connect to MySQL) - especially when using the web server and if the web server timed out.
• Browser can now refresh as program outputs results (unless using internal Web Server)
• Save As... file name change was not reflected in status bar immediately
• Auto-Configure option for MySQL added to ensure the correct tools directory is set up in the my.ini file
• If change selection of what to execute within an SQL script and click on tab to see results, will now execute (previously only re-executed if there was a change to the script - would need to use the green arrow button or right-click the tab to execute)
• If no username provided for MySQL, defaults to using root username (and password if given in project).
• If nothing was returned from local module search, gave Index out of Bound message. Fixed.
• In case EXE moves after installation, reapplies file associations when any file associations change
• When drag file in, will go as text inside existing document if drag into editor part of window, or will be opened as another tab in the editor if dragged anywhere else in window (prev. only former worked)
• Undo for inserting template now covered in one undo
• Context-sensitive template insertion enabled only when selected keyword is a valid template alias.
• If right-clicked over non-editor sheet, cursor was still moved to where cursor was clicked on the editor sheet
• When created new program, environment variables weren't brought through from project until restarted PerlWiz.
• If project was same directory as CGI-BIN, and doc root another directory, then CGI-BIN inherited doc root on start up (as directories stored relative to project and so became blank). Rectified by distinguishing between blank (meaning inherit doc root dir) and absolute address
• Content type now passed to environment variable via web server from browser POST instead of defaulting to application/x-www-form-urlencoded (big oops!)
• Buffer size for environment variables raised from 16k to 24k because I'm neurotic.
   

Version - 2.0 build 2 [28th April 2004]

Click here to download this version from the PerlWiz web site.

• The buffer size for environment variables was set VERY low causing errors on almost every execution.  This has now been multiplied by 16 to prevent this.

Version 2.0 build 1 [26th April 2004]

• Execution speed of Perl / PHP / Module Installer etc. much improved
• For new installations, the Perl instructions were not being offered first-time
• PHP File Association checking was a bit wonky
• Module installer missed off first line of local search for v5.6 of ActivePerl
• Can now use multi-line tabs. May get message "You will need to restart PerlWiz to change Multi-line tab mode" if try to change from what currently using. Need to restart PerlWiz for it to take effect.
• When select text in editor and then find/replace, appears automatically in Find/Replace "Find" edit field
• If help file not found, will attempt to locate default help file
• Displays help file name / stats in Properties Statistics
• Keywords edit box made a little larger
• Upgraded source environment and components to utilise Delphi 7

Version 2.0 build 0 [22nd March 2004]

There's a lot of changes in this release. They have thus been categorised for easy reference:-

PHP Support

• PHP now supported in editor
• Syntax Check PHP Programs
• Execute PHP programs to text or Web Browser directly or via inbuilt web server. N.B. Currently no debugging support (stepping / breakpoints etc.)
• Automatically picks up location of PHP and amends / creates INI file to ensure cgi.force_redirect=1 in [PHP] section and also environment variable / command params can be picked up
• Option to turn off INI file creation/amending in project
• See PHP version information from Project Properties Compiler tab (also PHP Info dynamic HTML page from browser)
• Help on PHP installation
• Auto-Link to PHP .chm Help index

Editor Features

• Temporary files can now be Perl, HTML, SQL, Batch or Text Scratchpad
• Temporary file can be converted between different types
• Matched opening/closing bracket automatically highlighted in Perl and HTML files
• Bracket depth shown during matching in task bar, block nesting depth shown otherwise
• Drag and drop from Windows Explorer over editor tabs as quick and easy way to open files in PerlWiz
• Integrated browser now includes toolbar with back, cancel, refresh and print buttons
• Form Field Data has a memo field instead of a text box to allow for long parameters / parameter lists
• Double-click the Form Field Data memo to toggle between word wrap on and off (off as default)
• Improved operation of Word Case and Title Case options
• If try to save over a read-only file, now gives the option of saving over it as a writable file.
• If editor file read only, this is shown on the tab
• New Project Organizer button on toolbar - F12 shortcut
• New right-click option in Editor to select the file in the project manager
• Warning given if file has been deleted outside of PerlWiz whilst editing
• File Sizes (e.g. in status bar) now rounded to nearest 1/10th multiplier
• Double click filename on task bar to copy the filename to the clipboard
• If MRU list has deleted files, menu option to clear these from the MRU list now available (unless only 1 list item - that's silly!)
• "Reset to PerlWiz Defaults" will now reset the default.pwp project (the default project) to its default settings and locks this as the default project. This is now only available whilst you are using the default project.
• If using a different project than the default, you can now switch quickly back to using the default project by using the new "Use PerlWiz default project" option from the Projects menu

Project Features

• Unrecognized text file types are now included as an uneditable file in the project
• Switch bracket matching on and off via project options
• Editor Font and size can now be set for language types and colour schemes
• Option to keep FTP connection open between transfers
• NEW - File Types tab in project properties for defining file types, whether they should be transferred as ASCII by FTP, and whether they are editable within PerlWiz. Can change values, add and remove types
• To avoid having many backups from relatively minor changes, can now set a "pause" time to ensure a file is not backed up if it was last saved within a specified period of time. E.g. if you set this to 30 seconds, then after backing up once (if the backup was less than 30 seconds old), if we save 5 times in the next 30 seconds, no backups will be made. After 30 seconds, the file will be backed up, and the 30 second count starts again
• Option to turn off file date change checking
• Buttons next to copyright notice in project properties to give (c) and (r) and tm symbols

New Project Manager

• New Project Manager for managing files within project. Also replaces previous FTP / Upload screen
• Files can be made visible and invisible through the Project Manager
• Select All, Select None, and Flip selection options in project manager
• Order of files within project can be easily altered
• Context (right-click) menu on selected files in project manager (Save As... only works on one file)
• Update attributes of multiple files simultaneously - e.g. path on FTP server to file
• Selective files can now be saved within the project file (previously was all or no files) and the rest can be linked only
• Close one or multiple selected files using project manager
• Files missing on disk will show in project manger in red for easy and immediate warning
• Can now FTP temporary files (and ineditable files)
• Statistics now given when upload complete
• Additional FTP checks for missing source file / name
• FTP date last uploaded shows red if the file has been changed since last upload or never uploaded
• Default FTP path for a file is now preset as its project offset

Code Templates

• Selection / Parameters can now be included in automatic code templates when new files are created
• Hold down Shift or Ctrl whilst dragging in Code Template Explorer to drop as a child of target
• When searching for a code template in organizer, word no longer has to be an exact match - can be within text
• New code templates: random number 1-n, Metaphone

Debugging & Logging

• Any PerlWiz exceptions are now automatically logged for support purposes
• Application-level exceptions are reported with an option to immediately quit PerlWiz. These are logged
• Option to trace PerlWiz' inner workings for a period of time for support purposes (e.g. program error)
• Option to list contents of temp directory in log file
• If no log filename is set, then a default is chosen in the PerlWiz projects directory, called perlwiz.log 

Help Features

• Support forum now available from Help menu
• PHP First Steps tutorial available from Help menu
• Updated Web Programming tutorial to utilize new Project Organizer

Bug Fixes & Tweaks

• If switched between file types and headers changed, inserted an extra blank line at each change. Fixed
• Change to log file name was not picked up
• Status of logging was not properly saved with project
• When switch between XP/Normal style, main toolbar now updates immediately
• Log dates are now local time (showed as GMT even when local time previously). Web Server uses GMT/UT
• When closing file, now does a save check first
• If close file, status bar now reflects correct file
• Minor tweaks in how colour scheme changes operate
• Editor colours specified using a new drop-down button
• Property sheet "Colo[u]rs" tab now "Font + Colo[u]rs"
• "Compiler" properties tab changed to "Compiler / Tools"
• "Perl Compiler" changed to "Perl Executable" - the phraseology was incorrect, as Perl is interpreted
• "Compiler Warnings" changed to "Perl Warnings"
• Properties Dialog now has a minimum size to fit all in
• Operators such as "eq" are now same colour as symbols such as '+' '<' etc.
• When converting HTML to Perl where Print statement, now also prefixes @ and $ and % symbols with a \
• "Clear MRU List" renamed to "Clear Recent Files List"
•  Can now save files in project when have temporary files in the project too
• Project Properties now has F11 key as shortcut
• If saved file with project, would sometimes be saved back into parent directory. Corrected.
• If load project with files saved in it, any existing file will now only be backed up if its file date has changed
• Infinite loop occurred when attempting to drag a code
  template node into one of its descendants. Will now prevent a node from dropping onto a descendant
• If Save As... no longer backs up original file
• If webs server finds Apache 'Status:' header prefix, removes and informs user via the errors/warnings box
• Most help items would not launch using Firefox as default browser. Fixed - problem with placement of double quotes around HTML page filename as parameter
• If use Print <<_EOT line on selection, now removes extraneous trailing empty line
• When opening file, would backup and remove original. Corrected.
• If switched to tab not showing editor, status bar did not update, and file change checking was not triggered.
• If after first time do search/replace (F3) cannot find any occurrences, then dialog box now displayed
• When create new project, now prompts for a filename first but remembers the compiler etc. path settings
• Old Upload screen has been removed
• Highlighter bar now shows when executing inside of a subroutine
• Had to take out the progressive update of HTML pages during execution as this has proven very unstable in practice. Only updates at end now.
• When Save As... for a temp file, now shows the correct default file type

Version 1.4 build 1 [9th November 2003]

• If Web Server port is in use, PerlWiz will offer to try another at random in the range acceptable for user-defined ports (49152 to 65535).  So no need to worry about port numbers to get your web server application tested.
• If web server not brought up due to another service using the port number, button will not now show as though web server was active
• The tooltip for the server enable / disable button now includes the port number.
• Watch Variables dialog: Right-click to copy text, double-click to see full execution history of debugger output
• Terminating a process left a hanging session in memory (visible from Ctrl+Alt+Del / Task List / Processes)
• Stepping through a program was unacceptably slow and "current line" highlighter bar was not visible
• Various dialogs (especially Properties) now work much better with text resolutions other than 96dpi
• Temporary directory was not being auto-generated when blank unless PerlWiz restarted.
• Support for logging errors encountered whilst in PerlWiz to a file, as well as system and project-related information.

Version 1.4 [2nd November 2003]

• DOS Batch file option (local .bat file)
• Convert text to dos echo lines menu option
• Regular Expressions can be used in Find and Replace operations. Option saved with project.
• New help menus to access web site pages directly
• Multiple copies can now be printed
• Print page range and print selection print options now available
• PerlWiz now checks to see if an outside program has altered the currently displayed file
• Option to upgrade all installed modules  -  Search for nothing and upgrade. Prompts if you want to upgrade all.
• Force upgrade option - e.g. if module has become corrupted. Can be done on all modules as above.
• GET data now also passed as a command-line parameter
• Can now pass selected command line parameters using "Data Only" option
• File association and auto-checking with .bat files implemented
• Module installer now shows hourglass when working
• Reset to PerlWiz Defaults option to utilise "factory settings" project defaults
• If copy registration code into clipboard, this is now picked up automatically when you unlock the program without having to paste it into a dialog box.
• Pop-up menu from text output page - Copy Text / Paste as Keyboard Entry
• Now possible to type in multi-line input for standard input into arrays (Ctrl+Z termination) - to Version 5.6 of ActiverPerl only
• When use Save As... then the old default header will be replaced with the new header (if the file type changes)
• Standard input can now pick up Ctrl+letter combinations to pass through to console - to Version 5.6 of ActiverPerl only
• Right-clicking in the editor previously removed any selection made. Will now only move the cursor to the clicked position if there is no selection made.
• New "Duplicate code template" button
• Splitter in code template between hierarchy and alias/description edit area
• User Dialog input (and recall) available in Code Templates using ##:PROMPT:desc## and ##:PARAM:num##
• Cursor (and selection) placement available in Code Templates
• Pre-specify params in list by following template alias with : then param list, to avoid dialogs
• New code templates utilising dialog input
• New code template demonstrating how to load data into a hash with data held at end of a Perl program
• Six New code templates for case string handling
• Code Template for executing in a batch (default for .bat file)
• Help Designer now automatically expands first level
• Help Link to Registration page on PerlWiz web site
• Help for ActivePerl now selects the help implied by the compiler path in preference to the registry setting
• Environment variables were overridden incorrectly.  Symptoms included proxy server settings not working in module installer.
• Unchecking "Detect file associations" now works
• Printouts now show text/background colours as well as print effects correctly
• Menu hierarchy now displays correctly.  Click on it to copy it to clipboard.
• Debugger would not work with v5.8.0 of Perl - Now utilises older version of dumpvar.pl in order to maintain operability.
• Text output from debugging was sometimes incomplete
• Amended MySQL tutorial - retrieval of $author variable was omitted.
• Previously only files saved in same directory were allowed to be saved inside a project.  Can now be any subdirectory.
• Drop-down box removed from variable watch window. This was a pre-release debugging aid that found its way into the release version!
• Problem with resetting of breakpoints resolved
• New FAQs added

Version 1.3 build 2 [2nd May 2003]

• If Compiler or MySQL missing, and auto-find does not detect them, then pop-up a dialog box to ask if user wishes to see appropriate download / installation instructions. Checkbox to disable recurrence of this message.
• Special menu has two new items added to embed a scalar or array expression into text - for example, in a print statement.
• Bug Fix: HTML documents were not served by PerlWiz web server when root directory was left as blank
• Bug Fix: HTML documents now expected to reside within root path rather than cgi-bin path

Version 1.3 build 1 [15th April 2003]

• Export to RTF option added to File menu
• Clear Undo List option added to Edit menu
• HEAD requests to web server now handled
• If request to web server missing header section, error page is now served to warn user
• Can now check for downed MySQL server from web pages served to the internal browser
• Web Server Paths now stored relative to project and show as blank if same as project path
• Bug Fix - Web Server would ignore some requests - had to double-click to submit data sometimes
• Bug Fix - If opened file or created new file, some project attributes were not immediately applied
• Bug in feedback HTML on Web Programming Tutorial and MySQL Tutorial corrected 

Thanks to Ray from San Francisco for reporting these bugs, and with help during beta-testing of the fixes

Version 1.3 build 0 [11th April 2003]

There have been a large number of changes in this version. For this reason, the change details have been split into summary and detail sections:-

Summary

• Debugging support for breakpoints, stepping, termination, and variable inspection
• Web Server introduced for more realistic testing, including typing and posting form data
• Integration with MySQL to automate use of databases in Perl
• Module installation tool to update and install Perl modules from the internet
• Data can be input via the keyboard for use by STDIN
• Files can be stored as Dos/Windows, Unix or Macintosh delimited
• Launch program / document in a separate browser window if required
• Convert selected text into valid HTML or <PRE> block for code snippets
• File association changes can be automatically validated on startup
• Background editor colour can be set for different types of files
• Customizable colour schemes can be utilised to quickly set-up the look of the editor
• Environment variables can default from your operating system
• Lots of extra help, tutorials and code templates to aid programming in Perl, HTML and MySQL
• Various bug fixes

Detail

• Breakpoints can be set in the gutter (margin)
• Breakpoints are stored as part of Project for each file
• Step through program line-by-line - see progressive changes in both text and browser windows
• Program reset option - works with any program executing
• Run option (Alt+F9) to run to debugger until end of program or breakpoint reached
• Continue execution option
• Variable watch list shows all variables in scope at each step-point
• Variable hints - hover mouse cursor over variable in source to see it's contents whilst debugging
• Output sent to text window as it changes
• Check Syntax option moved to Debug menu
• Type text into output window to be sent to <STDIN> or <> inputs
• Web server introduced (can be enabled / disabled) to allow interactive testing of forms etc.
• Web server can be enabled / disabled from a new button on the toolbar
• New properties page for web server configuration - e.g. set base path, cgi-bin base path / alias etc.
• Launch file in browser window facility added - can work with web server
• Perl Module Installation Tool: Search on CPAN, Install, Uninstall, and Upgrade modules.
• Change stored text file format  to be one of Dos/Windows, Unix or Macintosh
• Auto-detect opened text file format as Dos/Windows, Unix or Macintosh
• Store original text file format as part of project
• SQL File Type now accepted. Syntax highlighting settings saved with project.
• Execute whole or part of a MySQL script file within PerlWiz in one click
• Define "must-run" SQL instructions for when executing part of a MySQL Script
• MySQL settings - e.g. userid and password can be saved with the project file
• Automatically start MySQL at PerlWiz startup and/or shutdown when Perlwiz terminates
• Tool for checking MySQL server status / bringing server up / down
• Can detect when MySQL server is down when running SQL and Perl scripts and automatically bring server up as needed.
• Auto-detect MySQL installations on startup to automatically link PerlWiz to MySQL
• MySQL path can now be stored in the project (under compiler options)
• Help option added to access MySQL manual if available
• Convert to HTML option to convert selected piece of text to HTML fragment and copy it to the clipboard
• Convert to <PRE> block option - as above, but encloses in <PRE></PRE> tags and omits line breaks
• Test for file association changes on program startup. Also option in Tools menu.
• File association checking will highlight in red the specific association changed
• Background colo[u]r for editor can be set / stored for each file type
• Customizable colour schemes can be utilised to quickly set-up the look of the editor
• When changing background colour, any background colours for other elements follow suite
• Tab into / out of Template Editor box using [Shift]+Ctrl Tab
• Execution / Debugging / Syntax Check options greyed for non-Perl/SQL programs
• Keystrokes used for 'replace' function changed from F7/F8 to F5/F6
• Setup program has separate associations for SQL and PerlWiz project files as well as Perl programs
• Several new templates added for default sql file header, MySQL instructions / header / footer, and obtaining a unique id from Apache or MD5 digest.
• Environment variables now have their own tab in Project Properties
• Project Properties Cancel button now shows as Close unless a change has been made
• Default environment variables can now be brought through from PC's environment
• The TEMP and TMP environment variables can default to the Project's TEMP directory
• Executing to text / clicking in the Output to Text tab now utilises debugging support
• Right-clicking over the Output to text and Output to Browser tabs will re-execute the program
• Save As... now ensures filter matches original file
• When create a new file, puts the cursor into the editing window
• When amend a temporary file, registers as a change to the project (as temporary files get saved with the project)
• Pressing the ESC key will now quit the "About" dialog box
• Three new tutorials added for MySQL, Debugging, and Keyboard Input
• Bug Fix: Memory leak from two windows being created twice
• Bug Fix: If opened a non-existent file and replied YES to creating it, gave a repeating error dialog
• Bug Fix: Project now remembers last edited file being a temporary file
• Bug Fix: When reading file using standard Arctan format, inserting new section caused further sections to 'disappear'
• Bug Fix: Occasional "Cannot open clipboard" error is now handled
• Bug Fix: Changed exit file shortcut from Ctrl+X to Alt+X
• Bug Fix: Form GET string for simulated forms would show with extra &s in some circumstances
• Bug Fix: Tab size change in editor settings now triggers a project change 
• Due to problem with help-file naming in original version of PerlWiz, version jumps from 1.1 build 2 to 1.3 build 0

Version 1.1 build 2 [31st January 2003]

• Auto-update option added for updating PerlWiz
• Pop-Up (Right-Click) menu now available in editor
• 'New file' button added to toolbar
• Close File option now has associated shortcut: Ctrl+X
• Remembers last Project/File path saved to/loaded from
• Save As... now gives filename of current File/Project
• Insert Code Template option shows alias to be used, and only enabled when something selected
• Indenting and Unindenting now work even when nothing is explicitly selected
• If try to save to a temporary or actual directory that does not exist, now creates directory
• How To Register menu item disappears when product has been registered
• Added Overwrite check to Project Save As...
• Project Save As... now adds to MRU list
• No longer prompts for project save if closing a non-temporary file
• New file is now immediately executable/savable etc.
• Correct editor tabs are now shown when save as different file type
• Backups no longer stored to default directory if unspecified - now stored at same path as original
• Code Template Explorer now picks up text deletion
• Select All on Upload form will not select disabled files.
• If install unregistered version, 30-day trial will re-commence from last time registered version used
  

Release Version - 1.1 [5th January 2003]

• First commercial release of PerlWiz

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This Page was last updated: 01 February 2007 00:45