FinalBuilder has used an xml file format since version 1, however a common complaint over the years, has been that it is difficult to diff file versions. FinalBuilder 8 has tackled this in two ways.
A new DSL style project file format (.fbp8) is now the default format, it is very easy to diff.
project
begin
projectid = {04710B72-066E-46E7-84C7-C04A0D8BFE18}
target
begin
name = Default
targetid = {E6DE94D6-5484-45E9-965A-DB69885AA5E2}
rootaction
begin
action.group
begin
id = {D860420B-DE46-4806-959F-8A92A0C86429}
end
end
end
end |
A new xml format (.fbx8), much less verbose than the old format.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<finalbuilder>
<project>
<projectid>{6A717C24-D00F-4983-9FD0-148B2C609634}</projectid>
<target>
<name>Default</name>
<targetid>{E6DE94D6-5484-45E9-965A-DB69885AA5E2}</targetid>
<rootaction>
<action.group>
<id>{D860420B-DE46-4806-959F-8A92A0C86429}</id>
</action.group>
</rootaction>
</target>
</project>
</finalbuilder> |
Compressed project files (.fbz8) use the dsl format internally (compressed projects are just a zip file with a project.fbp8 inside it).
The default project file encoding is now UTF-8, which is more version control friendly (some version control systems treat utf-16 as binaries),
One of the most asked for features now available in FinalBuilder 8, stepping into included projects. In FinalBuilder 7 and earlier, you could only step over included projects, and wait for them to return. In FinalBuilder 8, you can step into the included project, if it is not already opened the IDE will open the project and switch to it automatically. To make this possible, there are now "Step Into" and "Step Over" functions. The Step into/over now also applies to targets (see below).
ActionLists have been renamed to Targets. Targets can now also define dependencies, so you can for example define Clean, Build, Test, and have Test depend on Build. If you execute the Test target, and Build has not already been executed, it will be executed first before Test. Targets can be specified on the command line.
TODO: Insert image here once theme applied to grid control.
In FinalBuilder 7 and earlier, projects had a Main and an OnFailure (global error handler) actionlist. In FinalBuilder 8, projects just have a Default Target. Older projects will be imported such that the Main and OnFailure Targets are called from the Default Target inside a try/catch block.
The execution behavior of imported projects remains the same. If OnFailure has no actions, it is still imported however the Run Target action generated for it will be disabled.
You can now return values from Targets (ie out parameters) .
TODO : screenshot.
New light and dark visual themes (a work in progress).
The stepping engine was rewritten to enable stepping into included projects, and to enable target dependencies. This, work, together with the new variables architecture is where the bulk of effort/time was spent in the FinalBuilder 8 development cycle.
The variables architecture and the expression evaluator were rewritten to resolve several corner case issues that we were not able to resolve in FinalBuilder 7. The expression evaulator has a new parser that will allow us to more easily extend the syntax in the future.
Changes to the messaging has allowed us to improve the performance of the IDE, with much less thread switching.
The minimum CLR version is now .NET 4.0 (ie FinalBuilder requires .net 4.0 to be installed).
The command line parameters have changed to be more consistent and easier to specify. You can also specify one or more targets to execute (when not specified, the default target is executed).