Support for C# 7.0 and VB.NET 15

Hi Markus,

While we do want to get there, there are a couple things currently holding us back.  First, the older WinForms implementation of the .NET Languages Add-on isn't nearly as powerful as the one in our newer WPF .NET Languages Add-on (whose codebase is also used in the Silverlight and UWP versions).  That particular implementation has a much better design and can be enhanced with language updates much easier and reliably.  In fact, we are adding C# 6 and VB 14 support to that add-on in the upcoming maintenance release.  We want to get that design backported to WinForms as well, but in order to do that, we need to backport the entire newer API model of SyntaxEditor in the other platforms.  A stumbling block there is how WinForms renders UI (GDI-based) compared to the other platforms that are XAML based.  Yet we are hoping to look into it again soon here because it would be ideal if we could have the WinForms SyntaxEditor in sync feature-wise with all the other SyntaxEditor offerings.

The other major issue and the main reason we don't have C# 7 and VB 15 support in the WPF version yet is that Microsoft has done a horrible job after C# 5 (when they open sourced Roslyn) of updating their specs.  Without specs, it's difficult to know what parser grammar updates to make.  They only just recently released a C# 6 unofficial spec and the VB one is still on VB 10.  That has been very frustrating.  I highly encourage you to support and comment any issues in their Roslyn GitHub repo related to releasing updated language grammar specifications that match what they have officially released.

What about your backport of C#6 and VB14 to SyntaxEditor for Windows Forms and SyntaxEditor .NET Languages Add-on for Windows Forms?

Any progress on that?

Moving to WPF is no option for us at the current point in time.

Thank you

Hi Markus,

No progress on the WinForms API updates yet.  We are hoping to take a look again at trying to build some common rendering infrastructure that could be shared among the SyntaxEditor implementations after the 2017.2 versions of our XAML products are out, which should be soon.  There are a lot of hurdles with the common rendering infrastructure to overcome, but if we could get a foundation there, that would help move us forward in trying to get the WinForms SyntaxEditor API brought up to where the other SyntaxEditor APIs are at.

Hi.....where does the support stand now for the C# syntax editor?  does the latest support C# 6 or C#7?  I can't seem to find a reference to the support on the web site

Hello,

We are still working on SyntaxEditor vNext (see our blog) as our top development priority.  This project involves basically bringing the WPF/UWP SyntaxEditor API back to the WinForms SyntaxEditor so that the more modern features in those versions and the much better .NET Languages Add-on can be supported in WinForms.  We also are adding a lot of new features to all platforms along the way.

The latest WPF .NET Languages Add-on supports C# 6, which is what the WinForms SyntaxEditor will then support once the vNext project is completed.  After that, we do want to try to enhance the add-on for some newer language constructs.  The difficult thing is that Microsoft's C# spec is still back on v6.  Their language specification documentation has fallen way behind from where they are in implementation, which is annoying to say the least.  Anyhow, the benefit of WinForms finally getting on the same API as the other SyntaxEditor platforms is that any updates to add-ons, etc. in one platform will flow to all of the platform at the same time.

ok....we ship a product that includes your syntax editor though.  What's the ETA you have on delivery.  the blog entry I read was over a year old.  I need an ETA at least.

Hi Marty,

It's turned out to be much more work than we had hoped.  But the hardest parts (like building various adapters for each platform where platform-specific APIs come into play such as elements, rendering, input, etc.) are already done.  And adding the multiple selection/caret features ended up being massive, because those touch an enormous portion of the product.  

While I can't give an ETA yet, we are working on it every day and it's our top development priority.  The good news is that we are at a point where we are starting to compare APIs to make sure we get everything in the WPF version now ported over.  We also haven't started on searching features or IntelliPrompt porting yet, which will take some UI platform-specific code.  Keep watching our blog for more details on feature implementation and also as we get closer to a beta.

We are still interested in a WinForms version of the SyntaxEditor where the .NET Languages Add-on supports the latest VB - Language features (and C#).

We are nagged by our customers about the lagging code-highlighting and intelli-sense support on that.

Any progress on that?

Hi Markus,

Not yet but we expect to start to work on it soon.  We have the WPF SyntaxEditor vNext version out already (as v2019.1) and are almost ready for the UWP vNext version's beta.  Then we need to finish off the WinForms vNext version.  We may start work on the .NET Languages Add-on update during the WinForms update phase to get the ball rolling on it.  We know there is a lot of interest in those updates.

Just out of curiosity, do we have to wait another 2 Years then for getting this?

Sadly, this sounds like we need to check our other options in the market.

Hi Markus,

Actually we already started on the C#/VB updates about three weeks ago, while the final beta testing of the UWP SyntaxEditor vNext updates is occurring. 

We have all the C# 7.0/7.1 and VB 2017/15.3 updates integrated into the parsers so they are generating ASTs for those updates without syntax errors.  Some of the parser grammar updates have been pretty difficult to add due to ambiguities introduced in the syntax, but we hope to be past all the C# 7.2/7.3 and VB 15.5/15.8 grammar parser updates soon as well.  Then we'll get it released in the subsequent maintenance release.

Thanks for the heads-up.

We do really need this badly, as we are under serious pressure by our customers around the syntax issues in VB and we already started to evaluate our other option.

But we would prefer to stay with Actipro as our vendor for the Syntax Editor, so we are looking forward to the new release containing this addition.

Hi Markus,

We have all the syntax updates done for VB through v15.8 now.  We are currently doing some additional work in certain areas with the resolver to help with the new language updates for IntelliPrompt.  Would you like to help beta test these updates?  If so, please write our support address and mention this thread.

We are hoping to publish a new maintenance release very soon, and these language updates would likely officially roll out into the maintenance release after that.

Great news!!

Is there any maintenance release (WPF) that includes support for C# 7?

Hi Daniel,

Yes the maintenance release for WPF with C# 7.x support just rolled out today.

Any plans to update to C# 8. Would be easy, hard...?

Hi Daniel,

We have C# 8 on the TODO list.  Some parts don't look that difficult but other like the pattern enhancements might be.