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Spotlight on Synergy/DE 9
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Upgrade to Synergy/DE 9 to improve your productivity
This is the first in a series of articles that will describe the many reasons to upgrade to Synergy/DE 9. In this first article, we’ll describe how version 9 will boost your productivity. Developers are always looking for ways to work more efficiently, which is why we strive to include productivity enhancements in each Synergy/DE release. Synergy/DE 9 is no exception and in fact has significant productivity enhancements, including
Improved error checking in the new compiler
A new strong prototyping feature enables you to compare each routine call to a “prototype” that you define for your routines and that we’ve defined for all Synergy/DE-supplied routines. The compiler then validates the number and nature of all passed arguments. This feature, along with stricter syntax checking, can save you significant development effort by finding more bugs while you are developing your applications, instead of letting them through for you to discover during testing—or even more costly, after you’ve deployed.
Workbench improvements
Workbench is the most productive environment for Synergy developers, and it keeps getting better. Version 9 features include
- Support for more Synergy Language syntax (such as GROUP arguments)
- Expansion of more keywords (when you type a space after them), such as DO, FOR, FUNCTION, and many others
- Caching of .INCLUDE and repository information
- Code templates, a new mechanism (better than aliases) for creating new files based on template code
- And many more…
Debugger enhancements
New features in the debugger make it easier for you to troubleshoot issues in your code.
- Scrollable debug window, so you can go back to view previous output (This feature is also supported in the UI Toolkit debugger.)
- Ability to log your debug sessions to a file
- Ability to view all (outermost level) named members of a field with EXAMINE
- And many more…
UI Toolkit composite windows
The new support for composite (parent/child) windows significantly decreases the development effort required to create “windows that contain other windows.” With this feature, you have a container window with multiple child windows that all behave as a single window. For example, a composite window can have input fields at the top for header information, a table in the middle for line item entry, a multi-line field that supports rich text editing through an ActiveX control, and buttons.
Structured exception handling
This is a new method of handling errors that is more flexible and more structured than ONERROR, enabling you to be much more efficient with your error handling. Every error is represented by an exception class, and the class hierarchy groups and categorizes exceptions. You can decide how specific your exception handling is. You can catch
- A specific exception (Synergex.SynergyDE.RecordLockedException)
- A more general exception (Synergex.SynergyDE.FileIOException, which catches any one of 16 file I/O exceptions)
- A very generic exception (Synergex.SynergyDE.SynException, which catches any Synergy exception)
- ANY exception (System.Exception)
- Any combination of exceptions or exception “groups”
You can also define and throw custom exceptions. Also, exceptions do not have to be caught “at source”; they can be caught anywhere higher in the call chain.
Structure fields
Version 9 supports many new uses of “structures,” giving you some powerful new coding capabilities. You can now declare a field based on the layout of a structure and access individual subfields directly. You can also declare a subroutine argument based on a structure, and you can have arrays of fixed-length or dynamic (defined at runtime) structure fields. In addition, you can create global structures and collections of structfields.
Collections
Another version 9 tool at your disposal is “collections.” A collection is similar to a linked list mechanism. Version 9 supports collections of objects, and it enables you to “box” and “unbox” Synergy types back and forth into equivalent objects in order to use this powerful feature.
More info
As you can see, Synergy/DE 9 provides many productivity features in a number of areas to help you work more efficiently. For more information about these or other Synergy/DE 9 features, refer to
- The Synergy/DE 9 Web site
- The Synergy/DE 9 Online Manuals*
*Attention HelpDesk Support customers: After clicking on the above link, log into the Resource Center. You'll then be redirected to the appropriate page. Not yet on HelpDesk Support? Contact your SynergyDE account manager to sign up.
Or contact your Synergy/DE account manager. |
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| Customer Success Story |
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Jackson Lumber adds a Microsoft .NET user interface to their Synergy application with
Synergy/DE xfServerPlus
Jackson Lumber & Millwork has been providing quality building materials since 1946. Their Synergy/DE-based intranet delivery system enables dispatchers to access and manipulate data remotely around the clock and to plan their truck delivery routes using MapPoint.
In an effort to make their centralized data more accessible and easier to manage across their wide-area network—spanning three facilities and two states—Jackson Lumber recently began adding a Windows .NET user interface to their existing UI Toolkit application. This enables them to take advantage of the modern functionality that .NET can provide while preserving the significant investment that the company has made in their Synergy logic and data. Read the full article.
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Getting the most from your online manual set
Synergy/DE 9 comes with a new set of manuals, totaling over 6000 pages of comprehensive technical information. You can purchase the entire printed manual set, or use the online version that is included with each distribution of version 9. The online set includes several features that make it easy for you to navigate though all of this information.
Did you know that you can
- search across the entire manual set, rather than just one manual?
- jump to related sections from the text you’re currently viewing or from the Contents or Index?
- navigate the manual using bookmarks and thumbnails?
If not, then read on!
Searching across the manual set
The Synergy/DE Online Manuals include a searchable database of all the words in all the manuals. Searching this database is much faster than searching the text in individual manuals or searching all the PDFs in a directory.
To search:
Tip: If the Search PDF pane takes up too much space on your screen, you can close the tabbed navigation pane on the left to make it easier to see the manual page.
- In the first field, type the word or phrase you want to search for. (You can use wild-card characters in this field.)
- Under “Where would you like to search?” make sure that “In the index named syn##.pdx” (where ## is the Online Manuals version number) is selected.
- Click the Search button. The Results list shows all the manuals that contain the search text.
- Click on a manual in the Results list to go to the first instance of the search text in that manual. You can also expand the plus sign to the left of the manual name to see all instances of the search text within the manual. Some context is provided, which may be helpful in locating the information you need.
- To go to the next instance of the search text in the same manual, press Ctrl + G or select Edit > Search Results > Next Result. You can also select from the Results list in the Search PDF panel.
If you click Use Advanced Search Options (or Refine Search Results, if you’re looking at the results list) at the bottom of the Search PDF pane, you can also do the following:
- Use Boolean operators by selecting “Boolean query” under “Return results containing”
- Expand the search to find words that share word stems with the search term you entered by selecting the “Stemming” check box
- Narrow the search to find multiple words that are near each other by selecting “Match All of the words” under “Return results containing” and then selecting the “Proximity” check box
For more information about searching PDFs, select Help > Adobe Reader Help.
Note: The white papers and migration guides accessed by clicking Other Docs on the Online Manuals links page are not included in the searchable database. You can search them individually by selecting Edit > Find.
Jumping to text from related text or from the Contents or Index
Cross-references (for example, “See” and “See also” phrases), table of contents entries (in the Contents or on the first page of a chapter), and index entries are active links. When you move the cursor over a link, it changes to a pointing finger, and you can click to jump to the referenced text.
Navigating the manual using bookmarks and thumbnails
The Bookmarks tab in the navigation pane serves as a table of contents for each manual. You can expand a heading to display its lower-level headings by clicking the + sign in front of the heading. Click on a heading to jump to that section.
The Pages tab in the navigation pane displays a thumbnail view of the pages in the manual. The current page number is highlighted. You can click on any page to go to that page.
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Synergy-e-Quiz |
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Submit your answers and be in the running for the third $100 gift check. Test your Synergy/DE and trivia knowledge. Answer questions, win prizes. Play now.
Curious about the answers to the last round of questions?
Find out which answers were correct, and why.
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Support Tech Tip
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(32-bit Linux) Synergy/DE 9.1.1 compiler throws "V8Error" and terminates
Problem:
The version 9.1.1 compiler throws a "V8Error" and terminates without reporting anything more specific. This error occurs when a compile-time arithmetic expression or compile-time function fails, and it may look like this:
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'Problem'
terminate called recursively
Aborted
Explanation:
In our test case, an %ATRIM call was made on an undefined variable. At compile time, the compiler had no definition of the variable, and the %ATRIM function failed. The Synergy/DE 8 compiler reports a "syntax error at or near {%s}" error in this situation.
Resolution
This has been resolved in 9.1.1a. Upgrade today.*
*Attention HelpDesk Support customers: After clicking on the above link, log into the Resource Center. You'll then be redirected to the appropriate page. Not yet on HelpDesk Support? Contact your SynergyDE account manager to sign up. |
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Synergex Platform News |
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Microsoft
Microsoft slates six patches for next week
June 7, 2007
Microsoft tests tool for assessing hardware with Vista
June 8, 2007
Microsoft Orcas Beta 1 hints at a killer IDE on the horizon
June 1, 2007
Tools aim to ease Vista deployment pains
June 5, 2007
Linux
Reviews: Fedora 7
June 6, 2007
Novell says Microsoft deal is good for Linux business
May 31, 2007
AMD
AMD systems may experience Time Stamp Counter (TSC) drift*
June 8, 2007
*Note that although this article focuses on HP ProLiant servers, this problem can affect all AMD systems. |
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| Synergex Education and Events |
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July 19, 2007 - 8AM PDT - Workbench Highlights* - At your desk
*All attendees receive a free t-shirt!
August 20-24, 2007 - Synergy Language Essentials - Gold River, CA |
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| Synergex Holiday Reminder |
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July 4th is Independence Day, and Synergex will be closed in observation of the holiday. If you anticipate needing our assistance on this day, please let us know. |
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and all other Synergy/DE product names are trademarks of Synergex.
All other product and company names in this newsletter are
trademarks of their respective holders.
Synergex
International · 2330 Gold Meadow Way · Gold
River, CA 95670
+1 916.635.7300 | 800.366.3472 (North America) | 0800.898.368
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