Actipro Silverlight Controls 2013.1 has been released and is now available for download. This version adds a new full-size Charts product, a complete reimagining of the Sample Browser's UI, and some great new SyntaxEditor functionality.

Major new features are described below.  See the announcement post for the detailed list of enhancements and updates.

Note:  Version 2013.1 updates the Silverlight controls to target the Silverlight 5 platform.

Our new full-size Charts product has been added, allowing you to create stunning charts for your apps.  See this announcement post and this first look post for a couple other chart screenshots.

Line Charts

A line chart renders quantitative data as a series of points connected by line segments. Lines can be straight, curved, or stepped. Markers can optionally be displayed based on type (such as first/last, high/low, negative, etc.).

Scatter Charts

Scatter charts render data points where each point is represented by a marker. Markers can use numerous built-in shapes or can be set to use custom shapes.

Area Charts

An area chart is a derivative of a line chart, where the area between the line and axis is filled in. As with line charts, areas can also be rendered using straight, curved, or stepped lines

Bar Charts

A bar chart displays rectangular bars with lengths proportional to the values they represent. Bar spacing can be set and the bars can be changed to render horizontally instead.

Indicators

A rich object model for supporting indicators has been added.  Indicators are special "tagged" regions of text that optionally display a glyph in the indicator margin and optionally highlight the text range with special styles.  Built-in indicators include bookmarks, breakpoints, and current statement indicators.  Custom indicators can easily be created as well.

See this bookmark indictors post and this debugging indicators post for much more detail on indicators and examples of functionality.

TextFormattingMode Support

SyntaxEditor's text rendering has been updated to support Silverlight 5's TextOptions.TextFormattingMode property setting.  This feature allows for improved text clarity.

Line Terminator Backgrounds

When a style that has a background encompasses a line terminator, it now will render the background of the line terminator's virtual character.

A new property BackgroundSpansVirtualSpace property has been added to highlighting styles that when set to true, will extend the background over a line terminator to cover all the way to the right edge of the view.

Trim All Trailing Whitespace

A new edit action has been added to trim all trailing whitespace in the entire document, regardless of the current selection.

CollectionTagger<T> Enhancements

The CollectionTagger<T> class has received a large number of new methods that make it easier than ever to manage a collection of tagged regions.

.NET Languages Add-on - Text Formatting

Text formatters have been added to the C# and VB languages in the .NET Languages Add-on, which beautify code by adjusting whitespace and making it more readable.

See this C# text formatter post and this VB text formatter post for more information and examples of the formatting results.

.NET Languages Add-on - Attribute IntelliPrompt

Full automated IntelliPrompt while editing C# and VB attributes is now included.

.NET Languages Add-on - Implicit Variable Type IntelliPrompt

Automated IntelliPrompt quick info now displays when hovering over var in C# or Dim in VB.

See this blog post for some more information and screenshots.

Last week we blogged about how indicators are coming to the WPF and Silverlight SyntaxEditor controls in their 2013.1 versions.  Indicators are special "tagged" regions of text that optionally display a glyph in the indicator margin or highlight the text range with special styles.

In that previous post, we showed off bookmark indicators.  Today, I'd like to show off the other two built-in kinds:  breakpoints and current statement indicators.

Visual Debugging

A new QuickStart we are adding is a simulated debugging experience.  It allows you to set breakpoint indicators on various C# lines and then enter a debugger break state when executing the code.

You can see how three breakpoint indicators have been added.  Our implementation of breakpoint indicators includes an IsEnabled property.  When set to false, the indicator renders differently to reflect its disabled state.

Breakpoints in this sample can be added via the Toggle Breakpoint toolbar button.  Or alternatively, you can click the indicator margin (where the glyphs appear) to toggle a breakpoint.  We include the full source code for showing how to interact with that margin by intercepting mouse events.

Let's click the Run button.

The first breakpoint is located and we set a current statement indicator.  This kind of indicator uses a yellow arrow glyph and renders the background of its contained text in yellow.  It is set up to be higher in z-order than breakpoints.

This screenshot also shows how content providers for quick info can be set up for when the mouse hovers over a glyph.  The displayed quick info content can be generated on-demand.

Let's click the Run button again.

The current statement indicator uses the built-in indicator search API to locate the next enabled breakpoint.  It skips over the one in the middle that is disabled and lands on the third breakpoint.

Summary

Although the debugging experience here is simulated, by hooking up these indicator features to a debugger for your language, you can easily implement a full debugging UI for your code editor.

These new features and sample will be in the 2013.1 version.

One of the feature areas we're adding to WPF and Silverlight SyntaxEditor controls is the ability to create indicators, which are special "tagged" regions of text that optionally display a glyph in the indicator margin or highlight the text range with special styles.

Several built-in indicator types will come with SyntaxEditor, one of them being bookmarks.

Bookmark Indicators

Bookmarks are line-based indicators, meaning they associate themselves with a single line of text.  Even as the line gets edited, they remain associated with a single full line.  They move around with the same logic found in Visual Studio's code editor.

Let's see what they look like:

In this screenshot, we show three bookmarks rendered in the indicator margin on the left.  Our default implementation of bookmarks only renders glyphs in the margin, and doesn't highlight the marked line in the text area in any way (but you could optionally do this too if you wanted).

The toggle bookmark button checks to see if a bookmark is already on the caret's line.  If there is one, it removes it.  If there isn't one, it adds a new bookmark.  Clear all bookmarks removes them all from the document.

The previous and next bookmark buttons use our indicator search API to find another indicator based on an initial line.  In this case, we pass in the line that contains the caret and find the previous/next indicator.  If one is found, we move the caret to that line.

Summary

These features will be in the 2013.1 versions of the WPF and Silverlight SyntaxEditor controls.

We are still working on the design and implementation of indicators.  If you have any feature suggestions, now is the time to contact us!  Please comment here or e-mail us with your ideas and questions.

Today I'd like to show off another new feature coming to the WPF and Silverlight .NET Languages Add-on:  Visual Basic text formatting!

As mentioned in our previous post, a similar feature is being added for the C# language.  Text formatters beautify code, making it more readable by adjusting whitespace.

Visual Basic Text Formatting Example

Let's see an example of some messy VB code loaded up in SyntaxEditor:

After formatting the document, the result is:

That's much nicer!

Intelligent Modifications

As described in a previous post, the best part about the text formatting feature is that SyntaxEditor only adjusts ranges it needs to.  It doesn't do a mass replace of the whole document.  For instance on line 23, it tweaks the leading whitespace on the line and removes the space before the end parenthesis, but doesn't touch the rest of the line.

All of the various text change operations involved in the formatting are merged into a single atomic text change that is added as a single undo stack item.  This makes it easy for the end user to quickly undo any formatting changes that were made.

Summary

These features will be in the 2013.1 versions of the WPF and Silverlight SyntaxEditor .NET Languages Add-on.

Today I'd like to show off a new feature coming to the WPF and Silverlight .NET Languages Add-on:  C# text formatting!

Text formatters beautify code, making it more readable by adjusting whitespace.

C# Text Formatting Example

Let's see an example.  Here is some messy C# code loaded up in SyntaxEditor:

When we format the document, the result is:

That's a lot more readable!  The text formatter also has an option for whether open curly braces appear on the same or next line.

Intelligent Modifications

The best part about this feature is that SyntaxEditor only adjusts ranges it needs to.  It doesn't do a mass replace of the whole document.  For instance on line 7, it does a tweak of the leading whitespace on the line but doesn't touch the rest of the line.

All of the various text change operations involved in the formatting are merged into a single atomic text change that is added as a single undo stack item.  This makes it easy for the end user to quickly undo any formatting changes that were made.

Summary

These features will be in the 2013.1 versions of the WPF and Silverlight SyntaxEditor .NET Languages Add-on.