In our last post, we revealed that a new advanced implementation of the JavaScript language is being added to the Web Languages Add-on in the 2013.2 version.

In this post we'll look at which features will be part of the language's first release.

Syntax Highlighting

As with all our other syntax languages, a lexer tokenizes the code and allows for colorization of items such as keywords, comments, strings, etc.  This makes code much easier to read.

Parsing

A full parser that conforms to the ECMAScript 5.1 standard is included.  The parser runs in a worker thread, and even handles things such as implicit semi-colon insertion.

AST Generation

The parser outputs a complete abstract syntax tree (AST) of the document.  This AST is stored with the document and can be traversed to view the JavaScript code structure.

Syntax Error Reporting

Errors in syntax are returned by the parser and can be displayed in error lists.  In addition, squiggle lines are rendered under the errors and mouse hovers over the squiggles reveals the error description.

Code Outlining

All JavaScript functions are code outlined so that they may be collapsed (folded).  The outlining margin helps the end user by providing some visual structure to the code.

Smart Indent

Pressing Enter at the end of a line indents properly on the next line.

Text Formatting

A text formatter is included that beautifies JavaScript code.

Code Block Selection

Use Ctrl+Num+ and Ctrl+Num- to expand and collapse the text selection over the ancestor statement/block/function hierarchy.  This sort of functionality is described in detail in this post.

Delimiter Auto-Complete

A new feature (being added in 2013.2 with support for all languages) allows for delimiter auto-complete.  For example, this means that when you type a ( character, the end ) character is inserted immediately after the caret for you.

Summary

The advanced JavaScript language will be added to the Web Languages Add-on in the 2013.2 version of SyntaxEditor!

Great news… a new language add-on for JavaScript, specifically the ECMAScript 5.1 standard, is coming to SyntaxEditor.  Let's take a first look:

In this screenshot, you can see features like syntax error reporting and code outlining active.  This new language will allow you to instantly plug in an advanced JavaScript editing experience to your apps that use SyntaxEditor.

The advanced JavaScript language will be added to the Web Languages Add-on in the 2013.2 version of SyntaxEditor!

In the latest WPF and Silverlight controls maintenance releases, we've added some important functionality to our Charts product. In the initial release, we could chart quantifiable values (such as numerics and DateTime) on a Cartesian axis. Now we've added the ability to chart strings and other complex types using our new XYGroupedAxis.

Grouped Axis Example

Take this complex type as an example:

class Transaction {
    public double Price { get; set; }
    public string SalesPersonName { get; set; }
}

Given we have a collection of Transaction objects on our data context...

public ObservableCollection<Transaction> Transactions;

...then we can bind our BarSeries.ItemsSource to the collection of Transactions. The primary axis is our numeric value (Price), and the secondary axis is our string (SalesPersonName). Those are specified using YPath and XPath, respectively.

<XYChart>
    <XYChart.Series>
        <BarSeries ItemsSource={Binding Transactions} 
                    XPath="SalesPersonName" YPath="Price"/>
    </XYChart.Series>
</XYChart>

If our transaction data looks like this:

Now our chart will look like so:

Notice how on the x-axis, the strings are grouped by equality. So all transactions for Marcus, Mary, and Steve are grouped into single bars. Also notice how on the primary axis, the numeric values are summed together for each group. So for Mary, who had transactions of 300 + 50 + 100, the grouped value becomes 450.

Further Customization

There are several customization options -- you can change how items are grouped by setting XYGroupedAxis.GroupingFunc. XYGroupedAxis.LabelFunc controls how groups are labeled, and XYGroupedAxis.SortingFunc controls how groups are sorted. Using these, we can take the data above and group by the first letter of the name:

Here, notice that grouping is done by comparing the first letter of the name, rather than equality of the entire string. LabelFunc has been specified to show the first letter. Note how the values for Mary and Marcus get summed together on the Y axis.

Summary

XYGroupedAxis allows you to provide custom logic to chart complex types easily. Download the free trials of our WPF or Silverlight controls and check it out!

This same functionality will also be coming to the WinRT XAML version of Charts in its next release.

WPF Studio 2013.2 build 581 has been released and is now available for download. This maintenance release contains some massive new features and updates for the WPF controls.

This build has the following major new features:

• Charts: Added the ability to provide strings and complex types as chart data using the new XYGroupedAxis.
• Charts: Added support for multilevel XPath and YPath.
• Docking/MDI: Update the layout serialization to save/restore standard MDI layout information.
• Ribbon: Updated TaskTabItem controls to support key tips.
• SyntaxEditor: Added new auto-correct features, with a pre-defined AutoCaseCorrector language service for performing character case correction.  Easily add auto-case correct features to custom languages.
• SyntaxEditor: Updated the sample VB, VBScript, and PowerShell languages to perform auto-case correction.
• SyntaxEditor: Added new code block selection features, which let languages that implement an ICodeBlockFinder service expand/contract the selection to logical code blocks via Ctrl+Num+ and Ctrl+Num-.
• SyntaxEditor: Added a new free Markdown syntax language definition.
• SyntaxEditor: Made performance improvements in numerous areas.
• SyntaxEditor .NET Languages Add-on: Added an IAutoCorrector language service implementation for VB that case corrects keywords.
• SyntaxEditor .NET Languages Add-on: Added ICodeBlockFinder language service implementations for C# and VB.
• SyntaxEditor .NET Languages Add-on: Updated the resolver to handle the implicit value parameter in property setters.
• SyntaxEditor .NET Languages Add-on: Improved the C# text formatter.
• SyntaxEditor Web Languages Add-on: Added ICodeBlockFinder language service implementations for XML.
• All: Made numerous minor enhancements and updates.

See the announcement post for the detailed list of enhancements and updates.

Last week we posted about a new Markdown syntax language and new code block selection features coming to our SyntaxEditor code editor in the next 2013.1 maintenance releases of our WPF and Silverlight control products.

In today's post, I'd like to show off another major new feature that will be available:  auto-case correct.

Auto-Case Corrector Services

In the upcoming version, a new AutoCaseCorrector language service is included that can perform case-correction on documents as editing occurs.  This feature works out of the box on any languages (including your own custom ones) that use dynamic lexers, where the case sensitivity of patterns is set to AutoCorrect.

The new language service class can also be inherited and updated to work with programmatic lexers as well, which is what we did in the Visual Basic language in the .NET Languages Add-on.

Auto-correct features will be enabled (if they are implemented for a language) as long as the new SyntaxEditor.IsAutoCorrectEnabled property is set to true.

Case Correct Example

Let's look at a Visual Basic example of this new feature in action.

In this screenshot, I typed in all lowercase on line 23.  Next I pressed the Down key to move to the next line.

The auto-case corrector noticed that I edited the line and moved the caret to a new line, so it went back to auto-correct the previous line.  Note how the For, As, Integer, and To keywords were all cased appropriately.

The auto-correct text change was performed as an undoable change too, meaning the user could undo (Ctrl+Z) it if they weren't happy with the update.

Summary

Auto-case correct is a wonderful addition for any languages that use case-insensitive keywords, such as Visual Basic.  It will greatly improve the end user's editing experience, and is enabled on our Visual Basic, VBScript, and PowerShell languages.

This and other features are ready to go for the upcoming 2013.1 maintenance release, due soon.