What is new in Ring 1.3?

In this chapter we will learn about the changes and new features in Ring 1.3 release.

List of changes and new features

Ring 1.3 comes with many new features

• Better RingQt
• Better Ring Notepad
• Ring mode for Emacs Editor
• Better StdLib
• Better Loop/Exit Command
• New Functions
• Return Self by Reference
• Using ‘<’ and ‘:’ operators as ‘from’ keyword
• Embedding Ring in Ring without sharing the State
• RingZip Library
• Form Designer

Better RingQt

(1) Another version of QPixMap class is added (QPixMap2) which takes (int width,int height) during object init.

Example:

Load "guilib.ring"
New qapp
{
        win1 =  new qwidget()
        {
                setwindowtitle("Drawing using QPixMap")
                setgeometry(100,100,500,500)
                label1 = new qlabel(win1)
                {
                        setgeometry(10,10,400,400)
                        settext("")
                }
                imageStock = new qlabel(win1)
                {
                        image = new qPixMap2(200,200)
                        color = new qcolor() {
                                setrgb(255,255,255,255)
                        }
                        pen = new qpen() {
                                setcolor(color)
                                setwidth(10)
                        }
                        new qpainter() {
                                begin(image)
                                        setpen(pen)
                                        drawline(0,0,200,200)
                                        drawline(200,0,0,200)
                                endpaint()
                        }
                        setpixmap(image)
                }
                show()
        }
        exec()
}

Screen Shot:

2. The Objects Library is updated to include the next functions

• Last_WindowID()
• Open_WindowNoShow()
• Open_WindowAndLink()

Also the class name (WindowViewBase) is changed to (WindowsViewParent).

In The next code for example the Open_WindowAndLink() will create an object from the SecondWindowController Class Then will add the Method SecondWindow() to the FirstWindowController Class Also will add the Method FirstWindow() to the SecondWindowController Class

So the SendMessage() method in FirstWindowController class can use the SecondWindow() method to access the object.

class firstwindowController from windowsControllerParent

    oView = new firstwindowView

    func OpenSecondWindow
        Open_WindowAndLink(:SecondWindowController,self)

    func SendMessage
        if IsSecondWindow()
            SecondWindow().setMessage("Message from the first window")
        ok

    func setMessage cMessage
        oView.Label1.setText(cMessage)

3. The next classes are added to RingQt

• QPixMap2
• QScrollArea
• QSplitter
• QCompleter
• QCompleter2
• QCompleter3
• QProcess
• QMdiArea
• QMdiSubWindow
• QCursor
• QListView
• QDesktopServices

4. Many constants are defined in qt.rh (loaded by guilib.ring)
5. New Classes names - Index Start from 1

We added new classes to RingQt - another version of classes where the class names doesn’t start with the “q” letter Also updated methods so the index start from 1 when we deal with the GUI controls like

• ComboBox
• ListWidget
• TableWidget
• TreeWidget

These classes are inside guilib.ring under the package name : System.GUI

To use it

load "guilib.ring"

import System.GUI

This doesn’t have any effect on our previous code, It’s just another choice for better code that is consistent with Ring rules.

Also the form designer is updated to provide us the choice between using classes where (index start from 0) or (index start from 1)

Example (Uses the Form Designer)

1. https://github.com/ring-lang/ring/blob/master/applications/formdesigner/tests/indexstart/indexstartView.ring
2. https://github.com/ring-lang/ring/blob/master/applications/formdesigner/tests/indexstart/indexstartController.ring

Better Ring Notepad

1. Using QPlainTextEdit instead of QTextEdit
2. Displaying the line number for each line in the source code file.

Screen Shot:

3. Auto-Complete for Ring functions names, classes and words in the opened file.

4. Functions and Methods List

5. Output Window

6. Classes List

7. Change the Current Style

Ring mode for Emacs Editor

Ring 1.3 comes with Ring mode for Emacs Editor

Screen Shot:

Better StdLib

The StdLib is updated to include the next functions

• SplitMany()
• JustFilePath()
• JustFileName()

Better Loop|Exit Command

The Loop|Exit command is updated to accept Expressions after the command (not only numbers).

The syntax:

Loop|Exit [Number]

Changed to

Loop|Exit [Expression]

Example

XLoop = 2       # The outer loop
YLoop = 1       # The first inner loop
for x = 1 to 10
        for y = 1 to 10
                see "x=" + x + " y=" + y + nl
                if x = 3 and y = 5
                        exit XLoop
                ok
        next
next

New Functions

• PackageName() function
• Swap() function

Example:

aList = [:one,:two,:four,:three]
see aList
see copy("*",50) + nl
swap(aList,3,4)
see aList

Output

one
two
four
three
**************************************************
one
two
three
four

Return Self by Reference

In this release, using Return Self in class methods will return the object by reference.

Example:

mylist = [new mytest() {
        see self
        x = 20
        see self
}]

see mylist

class mytest
        x = 15
        func init
                return self     # Return by reference

Output

x: 15.000000
x: 20.000000
x: 20.000000

Using ‘<’ and ‘:’ operators as ‘from’ keyword

In this release of the Ring language we can use the ‘<’ and ‘:’ operators as the ‘from’ keyword

Syntax (1):

class Cat from Animal

Syntax (2):

class Cat < Animal

Syntax (3):

class Cat : Animal

Embedding Ring in Ring without sharing the State

From Ring 1.0 we already have functions for embedding Ring in the C language. Also we can execute Ring code inside Ring programs using the eval() function. In this release we provide functions for embedding Ring in Ring programs without sharing the state.

Advantages:

1. Quick integration for Ring programs and applications together without conflicts.
2. Execute and run Ring code in safe environments that we can trace.

Example:

pState = ring_state_init()
ring_state_runcode(pState,"See 'Hello, World!'+nl")
ring_state_runcode(pState,"x = 10")

pState2 = ring_state_init()
ring_state_runcode(pState2,"See 'Hello, World!'+nl")
ring_state_runcode(pState2,"x = 20")

ring_state_runcode(pState,"see x +nl")
ring_state_runcode(pState2,"see x +nl")

v1 = ring_state_findvar(pState,"x")
v2 = ring_state_findvar(pState2,"x")

see v1[3] + nl
see V2[3] + nl

ring_state_delete(pState)
ring_state_delete(pState2)

Output:

Hello, World!
Hello, World!
10
20
10
20

RingZip Library

Ring 1.3 comes with the RingZip library for creating, modifying and extracting *.zip files.

Example (1): Create myfile.zip contains 4 files

load "ziplib.ring"
oZip = zip_openfile("myfile.zip",'w')
zip_addfile(oZip,"test.c")
zip_addfile(oZip,"zip.c")
zip_addfile(oZip,"zip.h")
zip_addfile(oZip,"miniz.h")
zip_close(oZip)

Example (2): Extract myfile.zip to myfolder folder.

load "ziplib.ring"
zip_extract_allfiles("myfile.zip","myfolder")

Example (3): Print file names in the myfile.zip

load "ziplib.ring"
oZip = zip_openfile("myfile.zip",'r')
for x=1 to zip_filescount(oZip)
       see zip_getfilenamebyindex(oZip,x) + nl
next
zip_close(oZip)

Example (4) : Using Classes instead of Functions

load "ziplib.ring"

new Zip {
        SetFileName("myfile.zip")
        Open("w")
        AddFile("test.c")
        AddFile("zip.c")
        AddFile("zip.h")
        AddFile("miniz.h")
        Close()
}

Form Designer

Ring 1.3 comes with the Form Designer to quickly design your GUI application windows/forms and generate the Ring source code.

It’s written in Ring (Around 8000 Lines of code) using Object-Oriented Programming and Meta-Programming.

We can run the From Designer from Ring Notepad

Also we can run the Form Designer in another window.