Notable New REALbasic Features

Posted by paul on Dec 1, 2008 in Uncategorized | 2 comments

Someone on the LinkedIn REALbasic group asked a question last week: “All new features of RB – anyone using them?” In it, the user said they still use REALbasic 2007 Release 5 and were wondering if the new features that have been added since then were worthwhile.

I responded with a few that I thought were important, but I thought it would be worth getting into more detail in a blog post. So far, there have been 4 releases in 2008 and I suspect a fifth will arrive before the end of the year.

So here is my list of the most notable (in my opinion) new features from the REALbasic releases in 2008:

REALbasic 2008 Release 1

• Introspection module
• Variants can now hold even more data types including arrays, structures, Ptr, CString, WString, PString, CFStringRef, WindowPtr and OSTYpe
• TabIndex property for controls
• OLEObject improvements

REALbasic 2008 Release 2

• Windows build changes
• Pairs class

REALbasic 2008 Release 3.1

• Profiler
• Listbox.Border property
• Warning System
• IsA now works in Case statements
• Types (structures, enumerations and delegates) can now be included in classes
• Attributes
• FolderItem.SaveAsPicture now supports BMP, PNG and JPG on all platforms
• Can now export modules containing other classes and objects
• Auto-converting of old-style constructors

REALbasic 2008 Release 4.2

• Lock Controls in window editor
• Right-click to convert selected text to a constant
• RectControl.TabStop property
• Can now create your own compiler warnings and errors
• Group warnings by type
• Auto-adjust tabindexes
• RunTime.ObjectIterator
• It’s now possible to hide modules from the debugger
• Improved Language Reference searching

REALbasic 2008 Release 5

• Top Secret. I’ll update this when it is released.

When REALbasic 2008 Release 3 came out, I felt it was stable enough that I switched all my projects to it. I immediately upgraded to REALbasic 2008 Release 4 when it was released and I suspect I’ll be doing the same when Release 5 ships.

Compared to any 2007 version of REALbasic, I find that REALbasic 2008 Release 4.2 is faster, uses less memory and is more reliable. Keep in mind that I’ve only noted the new features. The 2008 releases have had way more bug fixes than new features, which is something the community has been clamoring for.

And now for shameless plug time. If you haven’t already joined ARBP, then you ought to consider doing so. Not only will you join a community of professional developers who specialize in REALbasic, but you’ll also get more than $700 in discounts on REALbasic-related products. If you’re looking to get the most out of your REALbasic investment, an ARBP membership makes a lot of sense.