Latest and greatest build is posted and online docs are updated.

Breaking Changes

Summary of breaking changes:

• Move Halign, Valign, Orientation from fwt to gfx
• Color.alpha => a (to match new h, s, v methods)
• DateTime.timeZone => tz
• Func.curry => bind
• BorderPane now based on new gfx::Border API

Documentation Changes

The docCookbook manual has been removed, in favor of using example scripts for all sample code. This has some nice advantages:

• unifies sample code in one place
• each example is a stand alone program ready to experiment with
• lets me run compiler on each example during build process

As part of this change, all the old docCookbook chapters are now example scripts. And most importantly you can browse the examples in HTML.

Obj.toImmutable

The old List.toImmutable and Map.toImmutable have been moved up to a common sys::Obj.toImmutable method. This change is part of the closures rework to support enhancements to Func immutability.

This enhancement is also used to plug a hole in the const type system. Const fields which are Obj, List, Map, or Func will implicitly have toImmutable called at construction time. Previously these checks were not applied to Obj const fields.

Closure Variables

I posted a separate blog topic about how the compiler now generates closure variables.

Curry Operator

This is the last build which will support the & operator. The compiler will now print warnings any place it is used.

The closure enhancements will now allow you to replace all occurances of the & operator with a standard closure. If you happend to be binding static methods, you can also use this trick:

&someMethod       // old way
#someMethod.func  // new way

Also as part of this upcoming change, I renamed Func.curry to bind since technically curry isn't the right term.

UI Enhancements

Lots of new work has gone into the gfx and fwt APIs.

The new gfx::Border class is used to declaratively model CSS-like borders. The fwt::BorderPane has been modified to use this new class. Best way to play around with this new feature is the "examples/fwt/demo".

The gfx::Color class supports new APIs for the HSV model.

The gfx::Pattern class adds support for image based brushes.

These changes are summarized in #712.

JavaScript Compiler

Andy has been made tons of progress on the Fan-to-JavaScript compiler:

Fields: Changed how fields get emitted in order to support overriding a method with a const field.

// Old model
foo.x$get()  // getter
foo.x$set()  // setter
foo.x        // storage

// New model
foo.x()      // getter
foo.x$()     // setter
foo.m_x      // storage

Trap: Changed trap to function the same was as Java/C# work. Previously used the normal JavaScript call operator. But this doesn't work correctly for using the dynamic invoke operator in Fan with fields.

FWT:

• Better support for relayout after lazy loading images
• Combo.selectedIndex
• BorderPane (incomplete)
• Button: toggle and check button modes; animate button press
• Polish Dialog L&F

Sys:

• Better method relfection
• More List methods
• Uri implemented

Change Log

Build 1.0.46 (8 Sep 09)

• Closure variable redesign
• Change JavaScript field naming model
• gfx::Border
• gfx::Pattern
• Move Halign, Valign, Orientation from fwt to gfx
• Color: alpha => a, makeHsv, h, s, v, lighter, darker
• Obj.toImmutable
• Err.trace now takes options
• Fix chunked transfer encoding bug in wisp
• DateTime.timeZone => tz
• Func.curry => bind
• WebClient.postStr
• Fix fwt::ScrollPane to actually work
• Compiler warning for curry & operator
• #676: Compiler bug? walkback in closure type inference
• #679: JVM - emit LocalVariable attr for debuggers
• #710: Actor programming example?
• #712: UI enhancements
• #721: Cookbook versus Examples

Ooh, lots of new goodies to play with. Looks really good!

Fields: Changed how fields get emitted in order to support overriding a method with a const field.

A pretty standard JS convention is to have x() be the getter, and x(v) be the setter, which is implemented in pretty straightforward fashion:

function x(v) {
    if (v === undefined) return m_x;

    m_x = v;
}

This might make the generated JS code more friendly for use by JavaScript programmers.

I considered that approach (this is what I do for default arguments), though what I have was a bit simpler to implement with respect to custom accessors. We can pretty easily move to this pattern (but very painful to move back...). I don't have a strong preference either way.

I like the pattern JohnDB suggested, since calling foo$ to set a field is kind of obtuse.

FYI - the closure redesign #736 broke the JavaScript compiler. For JavaScript we "inline" closures since they are natively supported, and the compiler just needs to be reworked to support the new design. Working on that now.

Looks to be a reason why graphics.fwt example do not works. hello.fwt works just fine. Is there a plan to provide 1.0.46 update addressing this issue?

I think Andy pushed the fix to hg (which requires a compilerJs recompile).

Although if anyone wishes the fix in a new full build, just let me know and I will be happy to do another build this week.

Actually I'm fine either with hg fix or stepping back to 1.0.45 to play JS stuff... Please think about newcomers, who try JS example for first time with 1.0.46, do not see expected results and probably never get back to Fan again in near future.

FYI - the closure redesign #736 broke the JavaScript compiler

Everything should now be working in hg tip. While I was in there, I added proper support for multiple catch blocks and the catch all block. There are a few issues with the JavaScript Graphics impl - but that seems to be related to another change made. Will look at that before we roll another build.