CPIde - Component Pascal IDE

Version 2.1.1
Copyright © 2006-2008 CFB Software
Portions Copyright © 1998-2007 Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
Last Updated 11 Jul 2008

E-Mail:		info@cfbsoftware.com
Website:		http://www.cfbsoftware.com/cpide

Introduction
Component Pascal Examples
System Requirements
Installation
List of Files
Update History
Licence Agreement

1. Introduction

CPIde is a lightweight integrated development environment for Windows which enables you to write software for the Microsoft Windows .NET platform. The programming language supported by CPIde is Component Pascal. If you don't have Visual Studio .NET, or find it too cumbersome to use, but don't like the idea of using command-line compilers with DOS batch files etc. CPIde is a useful alternative .NET development environment.

The Component Pascal Language

Component Pascal (CP), a small superset of Oberon-2, is a general-purpose, procedural and object-oriented, programming language. Oberon-2 is a refinement of Modula-2 which, in turn, was an improved version of Pascal. Programmers with experience of any of these languages will find many aspects of Component Pascal very familiar.

Component Pascal was developed by Oberon microsystems, Inc. who distribute a Win32 implementation of the language as part of the open-source BlackBox Component Builder.

The version of Component Pascal used by CPIde is Gardens Point Component Pascal (GPCP) - an implementation of the language which targets both the Microsoft .NET Framework and the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). The .NET version is available as a command-line compiler and as a beta version integrated into Visual Studio .NET. The .NET version of Component Pascal can be used to develop applications to run on the Windows desktop, webservers and Pocket PCs.

CPIde Features

CPIde has the following features:

General Windows, programmer-oriented, text-editing features
Fast and responsive interactive operation
Create and run Console and WinForms applications
Tabbed multi-document interface for editing multiple source files
Auto-indexing of procedures and imports of each source file for code navigation
Auto-capitalisation of Component Pascal keywords when typing source code
Generate and view interface definition files of .NET or 3rd-party assemblies
Control the complete Edit, Compile, Make, Run and Debug cycle from the menu
Capture compile errors and console application output in a separate window
Click on an error line to take you to the actual line in the source

How CPIde was developed

CPIde has been implemented in Component Pascal for .NET and C#. The C# contribution is less than 10% of the total lines of code and is mostly related to the printing functions. As such, it is a good indication of the kind of .NET WinForms application development that is possible using GPCP.

The prototype of CPIde was developed with just a text editor and GPCP. Once the prototype was operational, the remainder of CPIde was developed using CPIde itself.

Back to Contents

2. Component Pascal Examples

A number of simple example programs are installed in your Documents\CPIde Projects\Examples directory when you install CPIde. These are primarily intended to help newcomers to Component Pascal to get started, but they should also be useful if you have limited experience developing software for the .NET framework.

The Console Applications display their output in a separate pane in the main CPIde Window where the compilation error messages are also displayed. The WinForms programs are executed as a separate Windows application.

Both types of programs can be run independently of CPIde, if preferred, without any modifications. The source files included are:

Simple Console Output Examples
Evens.cp	FOR Loop Display the even numbers from 2 to 10.
Out.cp	Console Output Functions Basic output library module used by some of the following programs. Useful if porting simple examples from an Oberon environment.
CountChars1.cp	WHILE Loop Count, one by one, the number of characters in a string array.
CountChars2.cp	ARRAY OF CHAR / Strings Count the number of characters in a string using the standard Component Pascal LEN function.
CountChars3.cp	IF THEN ELSE Statement Count the number of letters and digits in a string using IF THEN ELSE statements.
CountChars4.cp	IF THEN ELSIF Statement Count the number of occurrences of different categories of characters in a string using IF THEN ELSIF statements.
CountChars5.cp	CASE Statement Count the number of occurrences of different categories of characters in a string using a CASE statement.
CountChars6.cp	Performance Timing Count the number of occurrences of different categories of characters in a huge string (1 million characters) using two different techniques. One uses a CASE statement and the other uses IF THEN ELSE statements. To compare the relative efficiencies, the processing time of each technique is measured using .NET timing procedures which have microsecond resolution.
FileCountChars.cp	Text File Input Count the number of occurrences of different categories of characters in a text file using a StreamReader, Command-line arguments and a CASE statement.
CopyText.cp	Text File IO When you run the program it creates a duplicate (called Copy of CopyText.cp) of its source. Uses StreamReader and StreamWriter functions to copy an entire text file to / from a string.
SplitText.cp SplitLines.txt	Text File IO Uses StreamReader and StreamWriter functions to read the contents of the text file SplitText.txt line by line, creating a set of subfiles SplitLines.001, SplitLines.002 etc. each with a maximum of 100 lines.
MergeText.cp	Text File IO Uses StreamReader and StreamWriter text file IO functions to join the set of files SplitLines.001, SplitLines.002 etc. into a single file MergeLines.txt
EnvironmentVars.cp	Environment Variables Display the contents of the system's PATH and CPSYM environment variables.
Registry.cp	Windows Registry Display the current values of the CPIde options' registry keys read from the Windows Registry.
Directory.cp	Directory Listing Display the list of files and their attributes in the current directory. Uses the SET data type to conveniently process System.IO.AttributeFlags.

WinFormsExamples
BouncingBall.cp	Simple Animated Graphics A ball bouncing off the borders of a resizable form.
BouncingBalls.cp	Simple Animated Graphics Two independent balls bouncing off the walls of a resizable form. It is designed to be easily modified to add extra balls of different size, colour and speed.
Graphics.cp	Graphic Shapes, Text and Lines Draws squares, circles, text with different fonts and lines of different colours on a .NET PictureBox.
ImageFromFile.cp	Display an Image Enter the filename of a jpg or bmp format file when prompted by a standard File Open dialog. The image is displayed on a resizable form.
MouseMove.cp	Event Handling Move the mouse over the resizable form. The Mouse Move events are registered and the corresponding mouse co-ordinates are displayed in the Status Bar.
MenuStrip.cp	MenuStrip Select a menu item and the menu caption is displayed on the StatusBar. Includes a function to strip non-alphabetic characters from a string using a StringBuilder.
SecondsTimer.cp	Seconds Timer A minutes and seconds timer. Uses Timer control, Timer.Tick event and DateTime data type.
Countdown.cp	Countdown Timer A minutes and seconds countdown timer. Uses NumericUpDown and Timer controls, Form.Activated and Timer.Tick events and DateTime data type.
Mailer.cp	Send an Email Functions of the System.Net.Mail assembly are used to create and send emails. Uses a MenuStrip, a Panel, Labels, TextBoxes and a RichTextBox control.
Birthdays.cp birthdays.tsv	Birthday Reminder Read a list of birthdays from a tab-separated (tsv) text file and display it in a DataGridView component. The fields, current age and date of next birthday, are read-only. They are automatically calculated from the date of birth. The display is sorted by 'Next Birthday, Last Name' so that, by default, the next occurring birthday is at the top of the list.

Library Module Examples
NetLibs.cp	Interface Definitions for Commonly Used .NET Modules Open this file in the Component Pascal IDE (CPIde version 2.0 or later) then double-click on the name of one of the listed imported modules in the CPI Imports Window to view the definition of the module's interface.
Maths.cp TestMaths.cp	Additional Maths Functions Sum, Mean, Variance, Standard Deviation and Random functions are implemented.
Find.cp TestFind.cp	A Non-modal FindText dialog Uses the following Windows Forms controls: CheckBoxes, Buttons, a Label, and a ComboBox. A multi-line TextBox is used to log any user actions.

Back to Contents

3. System Requirements

To use this version of CPIde you will need to have v1.3.9 of the Gardens Point Component Pascal (GPCP) for .NET compiler for .NET 2.0 installed on your system:

http://plas.fit.qut.edu.au/gpcp/Downloads.aspx

GPCP requirements include:

The Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 Redistributable Package
The Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Software Development Kit (SDK)

If you do not already have both of these, they can be downloaded from Microsoft's website:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/aa731542.aspx

If this URL has been superseded try the more general download link:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/

Back to Contents

4. Installation

CPIde is distributed as a self-installing file CPISetup.exe

Install CPIde as follows:

Login using an Administrator Account on your system.
Make sure that the prerequisite software (see System Requirements above) is installed on your system.
Press the Windows Start button and select Run from the Start Menu.
Type the full name of the file (for example, C:\temp\CPISetup.exe)
Press the Enter key, and follow the prompts.
When the installation program has completed, run CPIde by selecting it from the Windows Start menu.

Back to Contents

5. List of Files

The CPIde package installation program is a single file called CPISetup.exe

After running CPISetup the following files are created in the directory that you specified:

CPIde.exe		Main program
CPIde.chm		Help file
ReadMe.htm		This file
UnistallCPIde.exe		Uninstall program
UnistallCPIde.log		Uninstall support file

A subdirectory called CPIde/Examples is created in your Windows Documents directory. This contains the example Component Pascal source files supplied with CPIde.

Back to Contents

6. Update History

v2.1.1

Enhancements

The Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete and Select All commands can also be used on the text in the compile errors / application output window by first positioning the cursor in that text

Problems fixed

Prevented null entries in the PATH environment variable from raising an index out of range exception
Clicking on a compiler output line which does not have an error line number no longer raises an exception

v2.1.0

Enhancements

Supports the new GPCP optional import name syntax introduced in GPCP v1.3.6 e.g. "[mscorlib]System" instead of mscorlib_System
Added Find First button to the Replace dialog
The Replace Next (i.e. Find and Replace) function has been replaced with Replace & Find so you can see in advance what is to be changed
Additional examples, Directory, showing how to process FileAttribute flags as Sets, and SecondsTimer are included. EnvironmentVars has been enhanced.

Problems fixed

Prevented String not found warning from being displayed twice at the end of Replace All / Replace Next operations
File-modified indicator (*) on filename tab is set correctly after Replace All operations
Fixed problems associated with an undefined CPSYM environment variable
If a compiler error message is double-clicked, but the related source file is not already open, the cursor is now correctly positioned on the source line containing the error

v2.0.2

Enhancements

The full pathname of the file is shown on a tooltip when you hover the mouse over a tab
Additional Graphics and text file IO examples

Problems fixed

Fixed date-format problem in Birthdays example
Cancelling a Save File operation while exiting CPIde prevents CPIde from closing
All operations that cause a new file to be saved for the first time, display a Save File dialog
Default directory used when opening files is updated when saving files
Fixed intermittent problems with unmodified files behaving as if modified

v2.0.1

Problems fixed

Installer additionally allows Windows 2000 and Server 2003
Fixed problem when attempting to reopen a now non-existent file

v2.0.0

First public release of version 2 - see the What's New file for a summary of the new features.

v1.1.0

Enhancements

If CPIde is started without specifying any filenames it automatically reopens the set of files that were open when CPIde was last closed
The .NET interactive visual runtime debugger can be launched by the Project > Debug command
The Run command allows program path name, parameters, working folder and whether or not the program is a console application, to be specified
The Run Again command repeats the previous Run command with the same details
The scope of Replace All can optionally be restricted to the current text selection
The source editor window has a popup context menu containing the Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete and Close commands
The contents of the compiler error output / Run output window can be copied to the Windows clipboard
The compile error output / Run output Window has a popup context menu containing the Copy and Close commands

Back to Contents

7. Licence Agreement

You should carefully read the following terms and conditions before using this software. Your use of this software indicates your acceptance of this licence agreement and disclaimer

This version of the software is distributed, and may be used, free of charge. It may be given away to anyone, included on CD-ROM libraries, magazine cover CDs and DVDs, uploaded to websites, ftp sites and bulletin boards, etc. as long as:

a) It is distributed in its complete original unmodified form, including this 'readme' file.

b) No direct profit is made from its distribution.

DISCLAIMER

CPIde is used entirely at the risk of the user. Although great care has been taken to eliminate defects during the development of CPIde, it is not claimed to be fault-free. No claims are made regarding its correctness, reliability or fitness for any particular purpose. The Author shall not be liable for errors contained herein or for incidental or consequential damages, loss of data or personal injury in connection with furnishing, performance, or use of this material.

Back to Contents