Some issues with the new Beta

[frank]

Hello,
I have worked with the latest build herrantically this weeks because I am jumping back and forth between different project but I have noticed some issue that i'd like to bring to your attention:

1. The snippets aren't appearing in the intellisense and they are not getting expanded when typing the word and pressing tab while in the previous beta everything was working fine.
The only way at the moment to work with the snippetts is to use the right click menu (really annoying if you are a keyboard addicted like me) 

2. I have imported a project using "import or convert FLEX project" option and once the project was created I realized that the startin was one of the subfolder of my project rather than the root one so I clicked on project properties and under main source folder I clicked on the "..." button and I selected the folder before the default one and visual studio crashed!!
I am able to reproduce it even if I create a new FLEX3 project and and if I select the folder before "src" (that is the deault one) Visual Studio crash.


Frank

[frank]

Some correction to the previous bug #1.

I forgot to mention that I have imported the snippets from the previous beta and only those are behaving as described in my previous message.
I tried to create a new one with the current version and it is working fine except that it is still not appearing in the intellisense but at least if I type it and press tab it will get expanded.

I have compared the format between the new one and the old one and there is no difference.

Frank

[Huw Collingbourne]

Regarding the snippets. In which directory are you saving your snippets? Can you check that the snippets are in the expected directory and that the Code Snippets Manager (on the Tools menu) has that directory set up as a source for snippets. This is explained more fully here: http://www.sapphiresteel.com/ActionScript-Snippets-in-Amethyst

I'd be grateful if you can let us know if you can solve this problem using the Snippet Manager. We may need to automate the creation of a default snippet directory to simplify this process but it would be useful to know if we are on the right track first. 

best wishes

Huw

[Dermot]

I've fixed the problem with the Visual Studio crash - thanks for the report.

I've also fixed a small problem in the installer - it wasn't creating the MyActionScript Snippets directory for use in the Snippet Manager.

Btw, we should have a Flash IDE integration ready for you to test soon. I've got it building and launching the Flash IDE to do the compilation, so once Huw has given it the OK, I'll put it in the downloads section on the website.

Dermot

[frank]

Regarding the snippets. In which directory are you saving your snippets? Can you check that the snippets are in the expected directory and that the Code Snippets Manager (on the Tools menu) has that directory set up as a source for snippets. This is explained more fully here: http://www.sapphiresteel.com/ActionScript-Snippets-in-Amethyst

I did those steps after I have upgraded to the new version.
My scenario is the following:
1. I have created some snippets with the previous beta using "Snippet Editor" and I have placed them under the folder under the folder that I have created: "C:\Program Files (x86)\SapphireSteel Software\Amethyst 2008\v1.0\Snippets\Mine".
2. I did all the steps to configure Visual studio as described in the link that you sent me and everything was working fine.
3. I Upgraded my system with your latest build and I have realized that you changed the installation folder from Amethyst 2008 to Amethyst so I moved all my snippets to: "C:\Program Files (x86)\SapphireSteel Software\Amethyst\v1.0\Snippets\Mine"
4. I run visual studio but intellisense wasn't working for any snippet (even the default ones).So I have realized that the snippets were pointing to the wrong path (Amethyst 2008) even for your default ones so I updated the visual studio snippet folders to point to the right ones including my custom folder ("mine") using " Code Snippets Manager".
5. Intelli-sense still wasn't working and the snippets weren't working with the tab but only with the right click. So I created a new snippet using "Snippet editor" and I saved it in "Mine" folder.
6. At this point Intelli-Sense still doesn't show the snippets but the tab key works. I checked tools/option to see if the option for showing the snippet in the Intelli-Sense was enabled and it was. I tried to uncheck, close the window and check the option back with no avail.

I hope that my description will suffice to reproduce the problem.

I've fixed the problem with the Visual Studio crash - thanks for the report.

I've also fixed a small problem in the installer - it wasn't creating the MyActionScript Snippets directory for use in the Snippet Manager.

You are very welcome! I am glad that I can help you guys out.

Regarding the installation my two cents: I have noticed that "SnipedUserGuide.pdf" doesn't get installed on the "Sniped" folder but in the "Documentation" folder while Sniped is looking in its folder when you click on the "help" menu.

Btw, we should have a Flash IDE integration ready for you to test soon. I've got it building and launching the Flash IDE to do the compilation, so once Huw has given it the OK, I'll put it in the downloads section on the website.

Dermot

Thanks you very much! It will be a great Christmas/New Year gift for us! 

Frank

[frank]

Hey Dermot,
I have just a quick question for you.
Is your Visual studio Flash project type supposed to have the intellisense that recognise the component (and compilers) tags like "inspectable" ?

E.g.
[Inspectable(defaultValue=false, type=Boolean, name="My Property")]

Thanks,
Frank

[Dermot]

The IntelliSense recognizes the metadata that is in the compiled SWF/SWC files, but not if it's in the source code. Currently, the parser ignores it - but it could do somthing with it, if required.

The Property Window does display metadata - that's how Flex components from the Framework get their dropdowns (e.g. Button.visible is a boolean and has a dropdown for true/false).

But what are you trying to do?

Dermot

[frank]

The Intelli-Sense recognizes the metadata that is in the compiled SWF/SWC files, but not if it's in the source code. Currently, the parser ignores it - but it could do something with it, if required.

The Property Window does display metadata - that's how Flex components from the Framework get their dropdowns (e.g. Button.visible is a boolean and has a dropdown for true/false).

But what are you trying to do?

Dermot

I have several classes that define components that are on the stage (pretty much movie clips with an associated class in the project folder).
I think that it is a standard way of using non compiled objects present on the stage and it will be nice if the intellisense recognize it and does some check for the type and other parameters.
Right now if you add an AS class to a flex project and copy and paste my property that I wrote in my previous post intellisense marks the word "String" that comes after the "Type=" with  curly red underline (as an error) and the same thing happen for the word "name=".

Also while we are talking about intellisense... it seems that it doesn't show any static variable defined in a class.
E.g.

package  {

   public class Class2 {
public static var myvar:String;
   
   }

}

if I go inside another class and type "Class2." intellisense doesn't show myvar but just the standard methods of that class if it derives from a general flash class.

The last but not the least... inside the if statement the intellisense doesn't work as a work around I type "if" without parenthesis I use the intellisense to bring my var or function that I want to use and I add the parenthesis later on.

I hope that I haven't put too much meat on the fire (and I am not asking to fix or implement this things) but I am just rising a flag with something that I use daily when I program in flash.

Frank

[Dermot]

I have several classes that define components that are on the stage (pretty much movie clips with an associated class in the project folder).
I think that it is a standard way of using non compiled objects present on the stage and it will be nice if the intellisense recognize it and does some check for the type and other parameters.

- yes, I can see the advantage of this. It's not too difficult to get the parser to send the metadata through to the next stage of building the symbol table and treat it just as the compiled metadata is now handled. I'll do it in my next set of IntelliSense updates.

Right now if you add an AS class to a flex project and copy and paste my property that I wrote in my previous post intellisense marks the word "String" that comes after the "Type=" with  curly red underline (as an error) and the same thing happen for the word "name=".

This was due to a small bug with the parser. Now fixed.

static variables work ok for me - I cant reproduce that.

On the way that IntelliSense generally works:

I use the 'last good parse' when displaying IntelliSense (IS). So if you've declared a variable 'x', say, and the parse is valid, then IS should work even though the file is now invalid from the compiler's point of view. However, I think it could be a bit less pernickerty about the context. If IS cant recognise the context, it displays nothing. I'll think about getting it to be a bit smarter. Sometimes, you will be able to do what you want and put the brackets in aftarewards, (I've just tried that and it works in simple cases) but sometimes you wont. It all depends on whether IS can figure out where it is in the symbol table.

Dermot

[frank]

static variables work ok for me - I cant reproduce that.

It seems that it got fixed in the Beta 797. Probably it was related to some other bug that was fixed.

Frank

[frank]

Hello,
I have just installed your latest 'edge' beta release and started to use it. First of all, great job (as always) !!
I am really glad to see the possibility to specify the AIR project type.
We have actually other two developers with your release and they are going to start using it and give you more feedbacks.

Anyway, something that I have noticed starting to use this build is that the intellisense doesn't work if you put a rounded parenthesis after the if statement.

I think that I have already told you that in some previous post and I was wondering if this is something that just slipped through the cracks of our discussion.
It is a minor thing but it is annoying.

Anyway as soon as I will give a better squeeze to your build I will post my findings.

Thanks,
Frank

[Dermot]

The Project Importer should also convert AIR projects - I've added an option in there for Flash/AIR projects.

I haven't done the IntelliSense yet - I'm just about to start work on adding Flex 4 things and other improvements to IntelliSense.

But it would help if you could post a small sample of code where the if IntellIsense does not work. Then I can test against that and make sure that it's doing what you want.

Thanks,

Dermot

[frank]

But it would help if you could post a small sample of code where the if Intellisense does not work. Then I can test against that and make sure that it's doing what you want.

To reproduce the issue just create a new flash project and open FlashApplication.as (the base as created by default).
If you go in the constructor and start to type the word "if" after you press space if you type 'b' the intellisense will show up the class button.
If there is an open round parenthesis after the if statement no matter what you type intellisense doesn't show up (and I have just noticed that with the latest version actually you can press ctrl+space to force it to appear while with the previous one wasn't showing at all.)

Like I said it is a really minor thing but I liked to bring it to your attention just in case (and to be sincere I hope to see it in some future build because like I said I am an intellisense addicted!  )

Thanks,
Frank

[Dermot]

Thanks!

Yes - it's a bug. I was trying something else and wasn't seeing that.

I'll fix it in the next 'edge' release.

Dermot

[frank]

Thanks a lot Dermot!!

Frank