Posted 17 years ago
by Actipro Software Support
- Cleveland, OH, USA
We've been getting questions almost every day regarding the status of the VB.NET language implementation for the .NET Languages Add-on. Since there is so mcuh interest, we thought it would be a good idea to start posting a "blog"-like topic so you will know where things stand as far as its development.
Actipro Development Priorities
In terms of Actipro development priorities, the VB.NET implementation is at the top. This means that right now most of our development time is going towards the VB.NET implementation.
Why is it taking so long?
Well, it's really complicated stuff and for a language this size, takes hundreds of hours of work to implement it properly. A main reason v4.0 of SyntaxEditor took so long was that it was an enormous effort to get the C# language implementation working like it does. We're very happy with those results and hope to achive to the same thing with VB.NET.
What are we working on now?
We are still in the midst of defining how the semantic grammar builds AST nodes. This is what we are concentrating on until it is done. Currently we are probably over 70% through the grammar. After the grammar is complete, we may decide to start packaging the beta VB.NET language in the add-on, even though IntelliPrompt won't work yet. However at that point, document outlining, syntax error highlighting, the AST and several other things will be mostly ready. This would be a great time for customers to start using it to make sure that all our syntax parsing is correct.
What is the release date?
It will be finally released when it is done. Again we are working on it as our top priority since there is so much interest in it so rest assured that we are doing the best we can. And as mentioned above, a beta will be included probably once the grammar is complete.
Questions?
If you have any questions, feel free to ask them here.
Further Posts
We'll try and update this post every few days so that you can keep on top of the status.
Actipro Development Priorities
In terms of Actipro development priorities, the VB.NET implementation is at the top. This means that right now most of our development time is going towards the VB.NET implementation.
Why is it taking so long?
Well, it's really complicated stuff and for a language this size, takes hundreds of hours of work to implement it properly. A main reason v4.0 of SyntaxEditor took so long was that it was an enormous effort to get the C# language implementation working like it does. We're very happy with those results and hope to achive to the same thing with VB.NET.
What are we working on now?
We are still in the midst of defining how the semantic grammar builds AST nodes. This is what we are concentrating on until it is done. Currently we are probably over 70% through the grammar. After the grammar is complete, we may decide to start packaging the beta VB.NET language in the add-on, even though IntelliPrompt won't work yet. However at that point, document outlining, syntax error highlighting, the AST and several other things will be mostly ready. This would be a great time for customers to start using it to make sure that all our syntax parsing is correct.
What is the release date?
It will be finally released when it is done. Again we are working on it as our top priority since there is so much interest in it so rest assured that we are doing the best we can. And as mentioned above, a beta will be included probably once the grammar is complete.
Questions?
If you have any questions, feel free to ask them here.
Further Posts
We'll try and update this post every few days so that you can keep on top of the status.
Actipro Software Support