One of the great things we can do safely in plugins is to put work in extra preemptive threads. This way your GUI in Xojo stays running responsive while you keep all CPUs in a computer busy. This works by calling the plugin method in a Xojo thread. Now the plugin starts processing on a preemptive thread which can run on another CPU. The plugin function on the xojo thread yields time, so your other xojo threads can do their work. Now in total with 8 xojo threads doing work, you can get 8 CPUs at nearly 100% usage each. And that with a total number of 17 threads running: Your main thread, 8 Xojo threads and 8 threads run by plugin.
Now we recently added functions
CipherMBS.ProcessFile,
DigestMBS.ProcessFile,
MD5DigestMBS.HashFile,
SHA1MBS.HashFile,
SHA256MBS.HashFile and
SHA512MBS.HashFile to process encryption or hashing in background. If you schedule threads correctly, you get the full speed up until hard disk is the bottleneck.
New in this prerelease of the 14.2 plugins:
- Added new functions to hash classes to process a whole file multithreaded in background to MD5DigestMBS, SHA1MBS, SHA256MBS and SHA512MBS classes.
- Added DigestMBS.FinalText and DigestMBS.Process.
- Added CipherMBS.ProcessFile.
- Added console support for zxingBinaryBitmapMBS.CreateWithPicture.
- Reduced dependencies of AVFoundation plugin.
- Updated DynaPDF library to version 3.0.33.92.
- Added more NSButtonMBS and NSButtonCellMBS properties.
- Deprecated ATS classes. Please move to CoreText.
- Deprecated CURLMBS class. Please move to CURLSMBS.
- Added CGContextMBS.SetFont.
- Added functions to NetworkInterfaceMBS for interface index (needed for Bonjour).
- Added more checks and exceptions for LCMS2BitmapMBS picture constructor.
Download:
macsw.de/plugin/Prerelease. Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.
xDev Magazine is having a special one-day sale. On May 26 only, everything on the xDev Store is 20% off with coupon code MEMORIALDAY!
To get the discount, just use the coupon code MEMORIALDAY when placing your order on our store. It's good on any orders of at least $25 (including subscription renewals). But please hurry -- this special offer is only good for the one day!
Main Store:
xdevmag.com/orders.shtml
Renewals Page:
xdevmag.com/renewals/
The voting is done and we have final results:
Wednesday, 11th June,
Xojo Developer Meeting
Thursday, 12th June,
FileMaker Developer Meeting
Please save the date and we'll look for a room.
If you are interested in joining, please email me, so we know how many seats we need.
Meeting will be probably in a beer garden or restaurant somewhere near Vienna.
New in this prerelease of the 14.2 plugins:
- Fixed DynaPDFMBS.GetInBBox function.
- Fixed problem with DynaPDFParseInterfaceMBS class.
- Fixed an issue with Picture.SobelMBS function.
- Added CoreText clases.
- Added CGFontMBS class.
- Added ChromiumBrowserMBS and ChromiumFrameMBS classes.
- Added more AUPlayerMBS properties and methods.
Download:
macsw.de/plugin/Prerelease. Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.
I just got notice that one of our clients here in Germany, Mr. Daniel Fritzsche, is looking for a xojo developer.
you can find details on their website:
varcess.com/index.php/blog/9-vcblog-20140518-xojo-developer-gesucht
On Windows you can use WebKit for the htmlviewer. And with next plugin prerelease, we'll add new functions for using Chromium there.
Some functions like getting source code, text or image from browser.
In June, I travel to vienna and I think this is great opportunity to have some parties.
So I plan to organize a FileMaker and a Xojo developer meeting.
I started two surveys to find the best days in the week:
Xojo Developer Meeting FileMaker Developer Meeting
If you like, please vote for a day if you like to come.
New in this prerelease of the 14.2 plugins:
- Updated DynaPDF library to version 3.0.33.91.
- Fixed a couple of text encoding issues with DynaPDF.
- Fixed an issue with AVAssetWriterInput.appendSampleBuffer causing in exception.
- Added CalCalendarStoreMBS.calendarWithTitle.
- Added gesture events to MapKitViewControlMBS.
- For strings with no encoding the plugin will now mark them as ASCII string if the content allows it.
Download:
macsw.de/plugin/Prerelease. Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.
We plan a local Xojo meeting in
Wiesbaden:
14th May 2014, from 19 to 22 o'clock
4D Consulting, Scharnhorststrasse 36, 65195 Wiesbaden.
Topics are current Xojo version and last Xojo conference.
We'd be happy to meet you there if you have time to join us.
Thanks everyone for the great meeting!
New in this prerelease of the 14.2 plugins:
- Added functions to WinNotificationMBS to listen for any windows message.
- Updated DynaPDF library to version 3.0.33.90.
- Fixed more than 50 classes to have same data size on all platforms.
- Added AUPlayerMBS class for playing sound on Mac with pitch, rate, pan, equalizer and other features.
- Added NSMenu commands to show a popup menu.
- Updated Nikon plugin for newer SDKs.
- Fixed a problem with TWAIN plugin crashing on HP scanner (especially with a Deskjet 2540 where it now works).
- Added TesseractMBS.RecognizeMT method for background OCR.
- Fixed OverlayMBS issue on Cocoa where we got much to much mouse enter/exit events.
- Added stack trace capture functions to SignalHandlerMBS class.
- Improved AuthorizationMBS class.
- Added more commands for ServiceManagementMBS module.
- Improved MKOverlayViewMBS.Constructor so it works better.
- Fixed a bug in MKPolylineViewMBS class.
- Added DaylightName and StandardName properties to TimeZoneMBS class.
- Fixed crash with passing empty string to CountOccurancesMBS function.
- Added Picture.ChangeCustomMBS for three components.
- Added back the help menu entry for the IDE.
- Enabled PictureReaderMBS class for console.
Download:
macsw.de/plugin/Prerelease. Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.
Due to the FileMaker Developer Conference, I will visit San Antonio end of July.
As there are a lot of Xojo users out there in the area, I'd like to offer to meet for dinner in a restaurant.
In order to define which days are best for the meetings, I have setup doodle surveys:
San Antonio and
Austin
If you like to join us, please vote for a date. And if I may not know you before, maybe you also email me, so I have your contact details.
We have for some time now support for the
Dash application as a help browser.
And there is also available for Windows and Linux here:
Zeal
So here you can click to launch Dash or Zeal and install our plugin help:
MBS Xojo Plugin and
MBS FileMaker Plugin
The May/June 2014 (12.3) issue of xDev Magazine is now available. Here's aquick preview of what's inside:
*
Updating Xojo * by Marc Zeedar
If you missed what happend at the Xojo Developers' Conference (XDC) in Las Vegas in March, here's a quick recap of the major news.
*
Pretty Print Dialog * by Sam Rowlands
Mac OS includes some nifty tools that allow you to make a much more elaborate print dialog box. Sam shares the code for how to make that happen.
*
XDC 2014 * by Marc Zeedar
This is a comprehensive report of XDC in Las Vegas in March -- if you didn't get to go, read this epic report to find out what it was like. Marc shares his experiences, as well as key tips from the sessions he attended, along with plenty of photos.
*
App Sandbox Guide * by Sam Rowlands
Apple has instituted security "sandboxing" rules for apps on the Mac App Store, which means your Xojo apps are restricted in what they can do. If you're new to sandboxing, here's a guide to get you out of the sand trap.
Plus columns on class interfaces, threads, RegEx groups, Xojo developer profiles, database design, and much more!
