Changes between GExperts 1.3.12 and 1.3.13

I had to look them up myself, so it took a while but here they are, the changes, bugfixes and improvements between the GExperts 1.3.12 (released 2018-12-22) and 1.3.13 (released yesterday, 2019-03-30):

  • Bugfix (#105): Set Tab Order expert no longer worked with Delphi 6, 7 and 2005 (Remember what I wrote about testing these versions?)
  • Improvements to the Uses Clause Manager:
    • New configuration setting “GExperts caching directory”, used to store the cached identifiers per unit
    • Additional configuration options for the expert: Caching can now be disabled and the cache can be cleared. (Bug report #104)
    • It is now possible to use the project’s map file rather than the dpr for getting a list of used units. This includes the VCL/RTL and possibly any 3rd party units and makes the Project tab much more useful.
    • Bugfix (#110): Entries in the VCL/RTL list were clipped / overlapped.
  • Bugfix (#109): When loading a form’s position only, Width and Height no longer change every time.
  • Added additional Delphi 10.2 and 10.3 warnings to the Insert Warn Directive editor expert
  • Bugfix: The number of entries for the Favourite Files expert in the registry doubled every time the list was saved.
  • Improvements to the Grep expert:
    • Hint about separating multiple directories with semicolon.
    • It can now use the project’s map file rather than the dpr for getting the list of used units. This includes all units compiled in the project not just those explicitly added to it. There is a configuration option for enabling that.
    • Ensure that the RTL and all existing subsystem Paths (VLC, FMX, CLX) are in the drop down menu.
    • Searching DFM files can now handle strings split into multiple lines and containing special characters stored as #<number>. (Note: This is not quite finished. The display in the Results window is broken.) (Bug report #112)
  • Custom beep as a WAV file for the Proof Reader expert (Suggested by Philip Rayment, Patch by Achim Kalwa, Bug report #111).
  • Bugfix (#113): Added another check for duplicate GExperts DLLs being loaded into the same IDE to prevent error message “PrivateGXMenuActionManager is not nil upon creation”
  • Project Dependency expert:
    • Dramatically improved performance for the indirect dependencies tab. The strings and string lists are no longer stored in and read from the UI. Also string lists are now sorted so look ups are much faster.
    • Units in the project (root node of the tree view are now also listed)
    • New configuration option to search for units in the library path and also in the browsing path.
  • Bugfix (#114): Disabled editor experts still blocked the associated keyboard shortcut and could be called with this shortcut.
  • Bugfix (#117): Editor experts could be executed even if not the code editor but the form editor was active.

As you can see above, I am looking into bugs reported on Sourceforge and also feature suggestions posted there. That is my preferred way of users to report bugs and request features because it is easy for me to manage them in one place. The other channels (email via the GExperts “Send a Bug Report / Suggestion” button and the GExperts subforum in the international Delphi Praxis forum) work too, but they are much less convenient for me and some reports / requests may get lost. Also, please remember that I am working on this project in my spare time, so any additional work, e.g. creating bug reports on Sourceforge from emails I receive, takes time in which I am not working on the actual software. It’s also boring work which might discourage me from doing it and if it is getting out of hand might even make me stop working on GExperts at all.

Let me close this post by thanking all those people who have worked on GExperts before me and on whose work I have been building over the years (and whose work I have also been using as a GExperts user for more than two decades as a professional software developer). And also those who continue to contribute their work and some money to this project.

Discussion about this post in the international Delphi Praxis forum.