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The last installment went through all the other tabs on PrimalScript 2012’s new ribbon interface. Today we explore some really small new feature. But sometimes it is the small things that make a difference. Many versions ago we added a “Go to Declaration” to the editor’s context menu. Right click on any function or variable and select that and PrimalScript will take you there. So this time around we added the corresponding function going the other way: “Find all references”. This will search your current file for all occurrences and list them in the search results window. Unless your script…   More »

Mike, one of our long time PrimalScript users, gave us this nice comment when I asked him why he keeps upgrading even though his company doesn’t pay for tools:   I've been using PrimalScript since version 2.1.  I've always enjoyed it and have appreciated its continuing advances and refinements. Two things stand out in its feature set: the ability to make stand alone .exe's from vbscript source and PrimalScript's "code awareness". The ability to create a single executable utility from VBScript source package makes distribution and deployment of my scripts a breeze. I particularly like PrimalScript's "code awareness." This includes,…   More »

When working with GUIs you may have noticed that the Form can freeze when running long scripts. Previously I discussed how to make your loops more responsive in this article, but not every long script comes in the form of a loop. If you truly want to make your forms responsive, you will need to move these slow scripts into another thread and in the PowerShell world this means using jobs. For those of you who aren’t familiar with PowerShell Jobs, they allow you to run scripts while freeing up the console to perform other tasks. In this case it…   More »

Last time we looked at the new code navigator on top of the source code views in PrimalScript 2012. Today we’ll have a look at the other tabs on the new ribbon interface. There are four additional tabs that are always available: View This is the place where you can show or hide all the secondary windows, or things you switched of by accident. Most items are pretty self-explanatory. The Debug console only applies to PowerShell, so don’t expect that to be available when  you are debugging VBScript. ‘Call Stack’, ‘Variables’ and ‘Watch’ become visible automatically when you start debugging,…   More »

New versions of PrimalScript, PowerShell Studio, PrimalSQL, PrimalXML, PrimalForms and ChangeVue are available. Registered users can download the latest service builds from MySAPIEN. Release Notes: 2012 Versions: PrimalScript 2012 v6.5.125 - VBScript debugger fails on 32 bit only machines- "Search again" renamed to "Repeat last search"- Encoding displayed for embedded VBScript file in WSF- Erroneous SaveAs dialog when closing embedded script without saving- "Toggle outline" not available or functional  on last line of region- Cursor moves to a wrong place when inserting a multi-line snippet- Change marker is moving with inserted empty lines- Opening an embedded file shows all lines…   More »

Last time we told you about some new debugger features in PrimalScript 2012. And you already know all about the new Ribbon user interface this new version sports. One thing that we were really focused about in this version was to make navigating your code easier. Since there is no “PrimalSense” toolbar anymore the method combo box that enabled you to jump between functions needed to find a new home. If you load a file into PrimalScript 2012 you will notice the two new combo boxes on top of the edit window: The right-hand combo box serves as an indicator…   More »

The “Spotlight on Controls” series focuses on a single WinForms control in PowerShell Studio 2012, details the important Properties, Methods, and Events of the control and demonstrates how to utilize the control. Most of the information about the controls is still applicable to previous versions of PrimalForms. Last time we took a look at the ListView control. This time we will look at the NotifyIcon control: NotifyIcon [System.Windows.Forms.NotifyIcon] Specifies a component that creates an icon in the notification area of the Window’s taskbar. Default Event: MouseDoubleClick Why use a NotifyIcon control? Use the NotifyIcon control, to alert users of special…   More »

VBScript users have told me on occasion that they are really jealous of one feature of PowerShell: Write-Debug Depending on the value of $DebugPreference this produces output when needed but makes it easy to silence diagnostic output once a script moves to production. VBScript and JScript developers have to sprinkle WScript.Echo calls through their code and then go and comment them out before handing the script off. In a large script with hundreds or even thousands of lines that can be a daunting and error prone task. You don't want to disable real output and not forget any diagnostic output.…   More »

Last time we looked at the new script editor features. Now we will take a look at the new Function Explorer as well as other additions. Function Explorer The new Function Explorer displays a list of all the functions and events within the current script file: If you are working within a Project, the available functions declared in other files will also be displayed. Navigating with the Function Explorer: Just by a simple double click on the function or event, it will take you directly to the declaration of the function. This becomes invaluable when dealing with scripts with a…   More »

As promised last time we take a look at the new version of the Object Browser in PrimalScript 2012. As soon as you click on the PowerShell node you will notice two things: It opens a LOT faster. PrimalScript 2012 loads its information from a cache rather than instantiating a slow starting copy of PowerShell. This will actually come in handy in other aspects, which we will cover later. You see a 32 bit and a 64 bit node. While PrimalScript 2011 already supported both platforms in almost every aspect, the PowerShell browser was a strictly 32 bit affair. Not…   More »