OKScript Status Report #26

August 5, 2004

Dear OKScript User,

The OKScript Status Report is sent to OKScript
licensees, developers and friends when significant
updates have been made to the program. Interesting
techniques and applications for the program will
also be distributed in the report periodically. To
update or be removed from this distribution list
please see the links at the bottom of this message
or write me at yweare@gte.net.

This issue announces OKScriptX, the first major update 
to OKScript since version 4.0 was released in October 
1998. The motive for developing OKScriptX was to
rework the implementation of several annoying 
features. During this process a few features were
added and several bugs were fixed. Annoyance removal 
has made the OKScriptX language slightly different 
than the OKScript 4.0 language. Existing scripts, with
the .oks extension, automatically execute in legacy mode 
and generally run fine. The changed and new features are 
accessed from scripts with the .okx extension. In the
list below, items that pose a compatability issue are
marked with an asterisk (*) bullet. The changes should
make the program easier to learn and use, and be less 
prone to coding errors.

The current version of OKScriptX (dated July 4, 2004) 
can be downloaded from...

  http://home1.gte.net/yweare/index.htm

The new and changed features of OKScriptX include:

  - extending the built-in macro feature to accept a macro
    parameter. This makes it possible to add many of the
    new features as macros. For example, %-ISNUM abc% 
    examines the macro abc and returns 1 if it is a
    number and 0 otherwise. A macro argument can be
    either a macroname or a literal string that begins
    with an apostrophe ('), thus %-ISNUM '123% returns
    1 (true).
    
  - the addition of several new built-in macros, including...
    -ARG n		access PROC arguments.
    -QUERY 		display a user dialog.
    -ISNUM 		test for numericity.
    -UPPER 		change a string to upper case.
    -RUNNING 		test if a program is running.
    -LENGTH 		determine the length of a string.
    -EXISTS 		test if file exists.
    -BUTTONENABLED 	test if a button is enabled.
    -MENUENABLED 	test if a menu is enabled.
    -MENUCHECKED 	test if a menu is checked.
    -STATESAVED 	test if the current macro state
			  has been saved.
    -EQ -NE -LE -LT -GT -GE
      and -SEECASE and 
      -HIDECASE		string comparisons.
    -CHR		produces a character with a
    			  particular ascii value (also
    			  {#ddd} ).
    -ORD		produce the numeric ascii code
    			  of the argument character.
    -EX			start of a numeric expression.

  * the IF instruction was changed to take advantage
    of the new built-in macros. The argument of IF is
    now simply an arithmetic expression - no more
    awkward iftypes.

  - brace character usage has been extended...
    * {alt}, {ctrl} and {shift} replace ~, ^ and +. This should
      solve the frequent problem of PUTing a plus (+) character
      with the expectation that it will be interpreted literally.
      In OKScriptX +, ~ and ^ have no special (meta) meaning.
    - a braced character now can include a count, thus
      {RIGHT 3} is the same as {RIGHT}{RIGHT}{RIGHT}.
    - {SPACE} has been added.
    - {#nnn} returns the ascii character nnn.

  - new PRAGMAs...
    - ROLLUPON and ROLLUPOFF - replaces functionality from PLACE.
    - SHOWTABS and HIDETABS - replaces functionality from PLACE.
    - OKX - enables OKScriptX features for .oks file.

  - new instructions...
    - RECOMPILE rebuilds the current file, which may render 
        differently if macro values have changed.
    - EXTRACT gets a substring from a string.

  - new arithmetic formula features...
    * syntax: %-EX%formula; ... can be used wherever macros
        can be used. (See the help for syntax option.)
    - macro names can be used within formulas without %...% 
        bracketing.
    - several instructions accept formulas without a preceeding
        %-EX%, including PLACE, IF, EXTRACT, LOOP, DELAY and MOUSE.
    - added relational operators.
    
  - changed instructions...
    * PLACE no longer accepts rollup and showtabs arguments.
        This functionality is now provided in PRAGMAs.
    - the STATE instruction can now specify a macro list.
    * when the DO AT time preceeds the current time it will
        fire at that time on the following day.
    - name and hints fields in MENU and BUTTON can now use macros.
    * removed QUOTECHAR instruction.
    * removed TRUNC instruction (see EXTRACT).
    * IF instruction performs arithmetic test (see above).
     
  - assorted fixes and changes...
    - PROC arguments were changed from %-argn% to %-arg n%
    - simplified Panel Options dialog.
    - fixed panel sizing with status bar and no buttons
    - fixed replace/skip issue in editor.
    - /x command line switch interprets extension-free files 
        as .okx filenames.
    * diacritical characters work properly in GET instruction.
    - the MESSAGE, QUERY and GET dialog boxes stay on top of
        other dialogs.
    
For more information, or to offer suggestions or 
interesting techniques or applications for OKScript
write me at yweare@gte.net, or visit the website at 
http://home1.gte.net/yweare/index.htm

Thank you for supporting the continuing development of 
OKScript.

Michael Mardesich
okb://mikezzz