Silverlight Studio 2010.2 Released, with Holiday Savings Offer
Last month we released Silverlight Studio 2010.2, which included major updates to SyntaxEditor and added a new Book control to Views.
Read on to discover some of the new features along with a special holiday discount for our customers.
SyntaxEditor Updates
In this version, SyntaxEditor has exited beta status and has added numerous updates.
First is the new LL(*) Parser Framework, which is a unique custom parser-building framework that
features grammars written in C#/VB using EBNF-like notation, customizable AST construction,
advanced error handling/reporting, easy code injection, a complete debugger UI, and much more.
We've completely rewritten from scratch our Getting Started series based on customer input.
The new series is now 17 parts and shows step-by-step how to add features to a syntax language.
The resulting language can do everything from parsing and code outlining, to text formatting and automated IntelliPrompt.
This is now the best place to go to learn how to tie SyntaxEditor's features together using best practices.
Printing support has been added, with optional built-in margins and the ability to inject custom margins.
A new built-in language service can be registered to automatically show an IntelliPrompt quick info tip when the mouse hovers over a parse error.
New language services have also been created to support customizable smart indent for a language,
and the ability to format part or all of a document based on language-specific rules.
We've ported the WPF version of the Web Languages Add-on to Silverlight (sold separately from Silverlight Studio).
Features include automated IntelliPrompt quick info for elements and attributes, AST generation,
code outlining, XML syntax error display, mouse hover quick info for syntax errors, end tag auto-complete, line commenting, and text formatting.
New Book Control
The new Book control, added to Views for Silverlight, allows you to render any Silverlight content within its pages.
It renders exactly like a real book does, and includes animated page curls, turns, and shadow effects.
Use it to create any sort of book, brochure, calendar, or other scenario where a page-turn metaphor can enhance a user interface.
Book is fully data-bindable, supports virtualization, and has page transparency capabilities.
Special Holiday Savings Offer
From now through the end of December 2010 we are giving thanks to our valued customers and are offering some incredible savings on Silverlight Studio.
Eligible WPF Studio customers can get 50% off, SyntaxEditor for WPF customers can get 42% off, and SyntaxEditor for WinForms customers can get 33% off new licenses.
See this blog post
for exact eligibility details and notes on how to obtain the discount.
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Ribbon Goes Backstage
Ribbon for WPF has added a complete Backstage implementation, which is the newer Office 2010-like application menu
that provides a tabbed interface which overlays the content area of the window.
Buttons can be embedded in the Backstage tab area, enabling quick access to common commands like Save and Open.
The RecentDocumentMenu control can be embedded both in the Backstage tab area (quick access to recent documents)
or within one of the Backstage tabs via a larger variant.
Additional control styles have been created for the Button and Separator controls for usage on Backstage tabs.
A new TaskTabControl control has been added that allows for the secondary tabs functionality found on some Backstage tabs.
Grouped tabs with group headings are fully supported.
For customers using interop content in their Windows,
see this tip
for assistance on getting our Backstage implementation to work around the WPF airspace issues with interop.
All in all, Ribbon for WPF now offers the most thorough Ribbon Backstage implementation available today.
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Gauge Enhancements
Gauge has recently gotten several new features.
Text on Pointer Needles
Circular and linear gauges now support the ability to render text labels on pointer needles.
The text moves with the pointer needles and offers several options for how to orient itself with the needle.
One option intelligently flips the text upside-down when appropriate so that it continues to always render right-side-up for readability, as seen above.
Refresh Rate Management
Both circular and linear gauges also received new features for managing refresh rate, similar to an existing feature we had with our digital gauges.
This feature is useful when there is a high update rate of data sent to the gauge.
The refresh rate will buffer the updates that appear in the UI to a designated refresh rate.
So instead of having a gauge pointer flipping all over and being difficult to read, you can set it up to just update a couple times a
second and it will animate much slower, thus making the gauge data easier to visually consume.
Digital Gauge Character Casing
Another new feature added is the ability to render lowercase letters in the digital gauges via a new character casing option.
Choose to force characters to lowercase, uppercase, or render text as-is.
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SyntaxEditor for WinForms Enhancements
We just posted new versions of all WinForms controls that have an updated Shared library along with numerous
enhancements to SyntaxEditor and its related add-ons.
SyntaxEditor Control
A free new Ruby language definition is now included in the samples, and several minor tweaks and fixes were made.
Web Languages Add-on
Major improvements were made to support xs:any in automated IntelliPrompt.
.NET Languages Add-on
Numerous enhancements to C# and VB automated IntelliPrompt were made, particularly in the areas of implicitly-typed
variables in a C# foreach statement, generic methods, and delegates.
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Blog and Web Site Update
We just switched web servers to a newer, faster server.
You should notice an improvement in web page delivery and download speeds on the new server.
In addition we launched a fresh new design for our company blog that focuses on simplicity and readability.
Check out the new blog design and be sure
to subscribe to its RSS feed to keep on top of the latest development news at Actipro.
What's Next
In the short term we're focusing on several areas of new development.
SyntaxEditor .NET Languages Add-on for WPF/Silverlight
We've begun development of the .NET Languages Add-on for the WPF and Silverlight platforms.
This add-on has been highly requested by our customers, and will provide features
like parsing, AST generation, syntax error reporting, code outlining, automated IntelliPrompt,
and more while editing C# and VB code in SyntaxEditor.
The first beta release of the add-on will likely focus on core features like parsing, AST generation,
and syntax error reporting. Then we'll continue layering on other features as development continues.
We've started work on some exciting enhancements to our SyntaxEditor LL(*) Parser Framework
that this add-on will harness. Any language developer will be able to use them in custom language grammars too.
We hope to announce details on this soon.
True MVVM Support for Docking/MDI
We are going to be adding true MVVM support to DockSite, probably in the first WPF Studio 2011.1 build,
which will enable you to data bind to any data source and have document and/or tool window containers
get generated.
It will work very similar to how ItemsControl works and will even support customized templates and styles.
Multiple Miscellaneous Controls
We have several new miscellaneous controls in various stages of development but all of which should be
ready for WPF Studio 2011.1. We'll reveal what they are closer to the 2011.1 release.
Native Control Themes
We are planning on delivering a new native control themes product in the coming months that will
make it easy to apply our Office themes to the native controls provided by Microsoft.
This will ensure a consistent look for your apps when combining Actipro controls with native controls.
Stay tuned to our blog for more details on upcoming development.
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