JK-IDE Version 2.0 including Visual Designer V 1.0

[Juergen Kuehlwein]

Dennis,


i can download it as usual - just tested it. The "Download" button on the web page does, what it is expected to do ..


JK

[Denis Gura]

webpage works but download link? Is it just me? than sorry.

[Mike Doty]

https://jk-ide.jimdofree.com/ or more direct https://www.dropbox.com/s/hn2rl86e6i...k-ide.zip?dl=1

[Frank Rogers]

Worked fine for me. I used the download link in the first post here.

[Denis Gura]

jk-ide can no longer be downloaded ...

[Theo Gottwald]

I like JK-IDE: Its currently the best IDE for PB. And its continuosely developed from Jürgen.
Great work, Jürgen, keep it going.
You should be working on the PB x64. :-)

[Juergen Kuehlwein]

Hi all,


V 2.4.6.8 is online - fix two minor bugs with Fixmes. There were unicode encoding issues leading to garbage characters in rare cases, the Fixme text wasn´t copied correctly to the code file for higher Fixme numbers.
Both nothing serious, but nevertheless ...


JK

[David Roberts]

got to know a few interesting persons.

Yes, there are some which is why I was mindful to write "for the most part".

[Juergen Kuehlwein]

Hi David,


thanks for your words! I don´t look back in anger - not at all. I learned a lot of new and interesting things and got to know a few interesting persons. So everything is fine!


JK

[David Roberts]

Neither the current developers nor the cummunity seemed interested enough in new features

I won't bore you all but the FreeBASIC members, for the most part, have as much adventure running through their veins as a baked potato that has been left to cool down for a few hours. As for the moderators they couldn't moderate a p**s up in a brewery and I have told them as much. I had a row with one and I likened it to being savaged by a dead sheep. One member wrote a post which is probably one of the worst that I have ever seen. He got suspended for 14 days. I reckon to get a lifetime suspension would require murdering a fellow member.

As i don´t see any potential of development (for me) in FreeBASIC, i drop support.

I don't blame you, Juergen, I really don't. Anyway, for what it is worth - thanks for trying.

Oh, thanks for V 2.4.6.7.

but you can run one instance from "C:\IDE-1\jk-ide.exe" and another one from "C:\IDE-2\jk-ide.exe".

Nice one.

[Juergen Kuehlwein]

Hi all,


V 2.4.6.7 is online, added a new ToDo feature: Fixme. A Fixme is text added to the ToDo window and to code as a reminder for something, which has to be changed or fixed in the future. See ToDo help for more. Fixed a drawing bug in project properties. The IDE can now run in more than one instance, but these instances must origin from different installations. E.g: you cannot run "C:\IDE-1\jk-ide.exe" in two instances, but you can run one instance from "C:\IDE-1\jk-ide.exe" and another one from "C:\IDE-2\jk-ide.exe".


FreeBASIC is interesting and has potential, but compared to PowerBASIC (IMHO) it definitely lacks some key features. On the other side it has to offer some cute features PowerBASIC doesn´t support (procedure overlading, apply a value to a variable with the definition, define operators for objects, namespaces, 64 bit executables, etc.).

FreeBASIC lacks most string handling functions, a dynamic wide string type, array handling functions and much more things, which could easily be added to make it a real alternative. Unfortunately FreeBASIC was a dead end street for me, because (though technically possible) it seems impossible to add, what´s missing. All my attempts in this direction failed. I wrote a lot of code for the compiler and RTL package making these things basically work, i elaborated this code and made corresonding pull requests. But it was impossible to make it part of the offical distribution. Neither the current developers nor the cummunity seemed interested enough in new features (it would bloat the language and and overtax the syntax).

Sad to say, i finally gave up on it, because in my opinion the effort measured by the amount of time and work, i put in there, isn´t worth the outcome. There won´t be any substantial progress any time soon in my opinion.

As i don´t see any potential of development (for me) in FreeBASIC, i drop support. The current version will probably be the last one supporting it. Future versions of JK-IDE won´t support FreeBASIC anymore, because continued support doesn´t make sense to me, it costs resources and bloats the IDE. I will archive this version - just in case, but i don´t plan to resume support again in the future.

That said, there are libraries and wrappers for some missing features (WinFBX by José Roca), but WinFBX is more like an added extension. So for me it´s more like a workaround than an integral part of the language, which is, what i hoped to acheive.

So, if you want to do further coding in FreeBasic with this IDE, don´t update this version anymore! Or - make a copy of the current installation at a different place on your computer and keep using it for FreeBASIC. There will be continued support and updates for PowerBASIC. I plan to support PowerBASIC with this IDE, as long as PowerBASIC will live and i will be able doing it.


JK

[Peter Lameijn]

[Juergen Kuehlwein]

Hi all,


V 2.4.6.6 is online, added "Open Include File ..." menu option and "Alt+F3" hot key for having .inc files as default in File Open Dialog. The IDE now plays an error sound in all cases of an unsuccessful compilation, if "Beep on completion" is checked.


@Peter,

hope this helps ...


JK

[Peter Lameijn]

Thanks Juergen,

I think if you make default choice .bas; .bi,; .inc it would be easy for everybody. (just drop the separate .inc line)
What I would also like very much, that if you try to compile a non-compileable file (say a .inc file), you play the error sound.
(at the moment you only get a line of text in the output screen which is easily overseen)

Happens to me numerous times a day I click compile on a .inc file, after some waiting I realize it's not going to compile...

[Juergen Kuehlwein]

Peter,


did you know, that you can just drop a file onto the IDE to open it. I could add a hot key (Shift + F3) for .inc files to be the default in the Open File Dialog. F3 defaults to .bas/.bi. Would that be of help?

Personally i don´t use tabs when coding. With a fixed font and auto indentation (i prefer an indent of 2 spaces) there isn´t really a need for tabs. But i do like comments. Very often you can see comments intermixed with code. A line of comment followed by a line of code or vice versa. But with this method there are two major drawbacks (IMHO):
- the code is not easy to read, it´s difficult for the eye to extract, what´s code and what´s comment, even with syntax highlighting.
- you need a lot of extra lines for comments, meaning you have less code in a single screen.

Therefore i prefer inline comments (appended to the end of the code). To make this more readable i align these comments to a specific column. So you have the code on the left side and the corresponding comment to the right. If i don´t get, what the code does, i look to the right side and hopefully there is a useful comment..

So i mis-use the tab key for three things:
- add a comment character after the actual code aligned to a speciific column and place the caret afterwards. Now i can add my comment(s)
- place the caret at the beginning of an existing comment in this line, so i can easily edit it
- re-align the comment to my specific column, if there were changes in code shifting the comment.

I use this feature all the time, because it makes commenting so much easier for me.


JK

[David Roberts]

are .BI files still used nowadays?

FreeBASIC uses them for compiling libraries and JK-IDE can be used with FreeBASIC.

[Stuart McLachlan]

Might have been easier to use SHIFT + TAB for that. (nobody I know uses backwards tabs anyway... )

Shift + Tab already has a very useful function. It comments out a block of code. (Ctrl+Shift+Tab un-comments a block)

[Peter Lameijn]

Thanks,

Might have been easier to use SHIFT + TAB for that. (nobody I know uses backwards tabs anyway... )
Is there a way to change the default exensions on File -> Open ? Now it is .BAS and .BI (are .BI files still used nowadays?)
I use a lot of include files, so choosing .Bas and .Inc as defaults would be a lot easier... (saves me a few mouseclicks everytime)

[Frank Rogers]

When I used to write a lot of assembler, column 55 (or whatever you set it to) was where the comment started. Sometimes one line of assembler needed multiple comment lines so it was quicker to tab to the comment column without typing anything else. Just my guess.

[Peter Lameijn]

You are right!...
What is the use of that strange behaviour of the TAB key? (TAB is default disabled)