[Gambas-user] Some new features in Gambas 3

[Benoît Minisini]

Hi,

Here is just a few words about recently added features in Gambas 3, for those 
who didn't see them.

1) The gb.qt4.webkit got support for cookies and file downloads. See the 
WebBrowser example for the details.

2) A new set of native functions named Mk<XXX>$() to create a string from the 
memory representation of a value. For example, MkShort$(1234) returns 
Chr$(210) & Chr$(4) (on a little endian machine).

3) The contrary are the new <XXX>@() functions (Bool@, Byte@, Short at ...2513......) that 
replace the BoolPtr, BytePtr, ShortPtr... functions. It is just a rename, 
except that these functions can take a string instead of a pointer. In that 
case, the function will read the memory at the beginning of the string. In 
other words:

	Before: ... = ShortPtr(VarPtr(AString))

	Now: ... = Short@(AString)

4) Structures now can be read from and written to a stream with the READ and 
WRITE instructions. That way:

	Public Struct TheThing
	  ...
	End Struct

	Dim AThing As TheThing

	AThing = New TheThing
	...

	Write #AStream, AThing As TheThing

	AThing = Read #AStream As TheThing

Note #1: reading a structure from a stream does not fill the structure, but 
creates a new one.

Note #2: writing a structure is done in one shot (one system call). That way, 
you can use structures do send and receive messages to UDP sockets.

Note #3: structures can include other structures, and embedded arrays, and 
embedded arrays of structures! All that is managed recursively and 
transparently.

Now, I am going to make the big change on the Is<XXX>() functions that 
frightens a lot of people. Let's be bold! :-)

-- 
Benoît Minisini