[MacPerl] PerlSlinger Alpha 2.0 Released!

[Chilton Webb <chilton@tca.net>]

PerlSlinger version Alpha 2.0 is now available. It fixes all known bugs 
and adds a ton of new features.

For more info, read the readme which follows, or check out screenshots 
and download PerlSlinger at the PerlSlinger web site:
http://www.webbtoys.com/perlslinger/

Thanks,
-Chilton



------------------------------------

>From the ReadMe:


PerlSlinger Alpha 2
By Chilton Webb
chilton@tca.net 
www.devhq.com 
www.isp-resource.com 
www.webbtoys.com

This software might not work at all. Who knows. It's the second 
generation of alpha. It's been floating around the web in various 
incarnations for about a year now, and has improved greatly over the 
original. But it still has bugs.
This version is still an Alpha version, so be cautious. I'm not 
responsible for any (mis)use of this product. And it's entirely possible 
that it will stomp all over itself so again be cautious.
PerlSlinger is now a standalone app and doesn't need the SC Player, etc.
This version has some limitations, please see below.
This version requires the folders that come with it. A future version 
will build them as needed.
Use at your own risk.

This version does have 'developer access' to its internal workings. If 
you're a SuperCard programmer, you'll be able to figure it out. 
Otherwise, you'll probably damage something trying to peek around.

Lastly, I haven't included code to detect the status of your Internet 
connection, so don't run this program with extensions off if you want to 
use the Internet software. It will crash and you'll lose your unsaved 
work. I guarantee it.


That being said, here's 
What PerlSlinger can do for you:
1. Color the comments red, color the subroutines light blue, spotlight a 
certain piece of text, dim another piece of text. Currently, you can't 
pick the colors, and you must keep comments on separate lines if you want 
them colored. And it's not automatic, but it's there if you need it.
2. Drop-in code. If you want to, you can place your own code snippets
in the 'Custom' or 'Building Blocks' folders, and the toolbar will allow 
you
to select and drop that code into the current document.  Or you can use 
the File:Import function.
3. Templates for 'For', 'While', 'Foreach' , and Substring make it easy 
to just fill in the
blanks. Templates for all Perl functions will be added in the future, but 
I always end up
using these four, so it's all I bothered to add.
4. A running tally of all variables, arrays, and subroutines makes it 
easy to wire your perl script together without typos, capitalization 
errors, etc. An obvious omission is hash tables, which I just forgot to 
include.
5. The Find engine will display all found instances of any string, in a 
separate floating palette window. Alternatively, you can search the 
Internet if you have OS8 and Internet Config.
6. Undo -- Obviously, this undoes the last thing you did. I disabled this 
feature for this release because it was just too buggy.
7. Line numbers to illuminate your way.
8. Jump To... allows you to jump to a particular line. Jump to 
Subroutine... allows you to jump to a particular subroutine. I may turn 
this into a drop-down menu at some point in the future.
9. Multi-line select. Want to make sure you're grabbing only the correct 
lines?
Shift+clicking on a line number will do it.
10. Comment/Uncomment allows you to instantly comment out portions of your
code for debugging, or uncomment other portions.
11. HTML Helpers can be added that will simply print the line number. 
This is for debugging only, and don't forget that you'll need to print 
the header info before you can print anything.
12. Run in MacPerl. PerlSlinger is just the authoring environment, it is 
not a full
Perl compiler/debugger by any means. I have left the hard part (the Perl 
engine) to 
MacPerl. However, you can run your perl scripts via MacPerl from 
PerlSlinger. 
12. Run this selection. This will take the selected portion of your code 
and run it in MacPerl. Good for figuring out where you screwed up.
13. Open the MacPerl folder. Hey, sometimes you want to do this, and you 
can't remember where you put it.
14. Look this up in Shuck. You can now reference things from the POD 
reader, Shuck.
15. Reliance on raw AppleEvents means that you can run both MacPerl and 
PerlSlinger at the same time, on a Mac with extensions OFF, and the two 
work just as well as when extensions are on. Had I used on AppleScript, 
this would not be possible. But who does this?
16. The "Slinger" will allow you to create scripts without using the 
keyboard. Actually, you should use the keyboard, but if you just use the 
arrowkeys, you can build a lot of scripts. You'll be able to build more 
as I increase the number of templates for Slinger.
17. The HTML Form Builder will make short order of building HTML forms 
and their corresponding perl engines.
18. An embedded FTP engine allows you to upload and download your html 
and your perl scripts. Don't forget to use the 'Convert Linefeeds button 
(default is on), or your script will choke once it's on the server. Now 
you don't have to use two programs (editor and ftp).
19. Open Recent Documents will allow you to open the recent documents 
folder from within PerlSlinger. Ditto with launching programs via the 
Recent Applications button. These are both on the Recent window.
20. ToolTips show you what the various tips do. Just pass the cursor over 
them and a little yellow box will appear.
21. Look For Trouble is a window that allows you to quickly check the 
number of parenthesis, quotes, brackets, and single quotes in your 
document, search for unprintable characters that you may have 
inadvertently typed in, and more.
22. Self-contained Notepad allows you to keep all of your Perl notes in 
one place.
23. File Sculptor. If you've ever tried to paste raw html into your Perl 
script, then realized that all of those stupid quotes are making your 
script trip over its feet, this is for you. One simple click of a button 
and your html code will be converted to a Perl-friendly format. (The 
interface for this obviously isn't ready. Right now, it closely resembles 
the 'Find' window, but it does work properly.)
 24. Full-Screen Mode. Why, if I'm working on an ultra-imporant Perl 
script, am I forced to look at icons and other things surrounding my 
window? Now there's an option to extend the size of the window in such a 
way that you can't accidentally move the window or click out of the 
program. It's cool!
25. Expanded HTML Helpers. Now you can have it automatically place 
helpers in subroutines and more. A really big help when debugging on a 
system where you don't have access to the error logs.

The Future
Obviously, this tool isn't completely finished. Well, it is if you go by 
some companies'
standards. But I don't think it's finished. So here's a list of 
improvements I intend on
adding in the near future, or which have been added but are temporarily 
disabled 
until I get them working right:

Integrated Web Browser - You'd be surprised at how close this is to being 
done. Simply put, why should you have to have a web browser open to test 
your server cgis, when your Perl development environment could do it 
faster, and with a much smaller RAM footprint? 
Improved FTP - The interface is done, I just have to wire this up. Check 
the FTP item under the Window menu for more info.
Text-editing window for D&D files - Despite the fact that PS has its own 
text files, I don't have a mechanism in place to open them. I can only 
write them. Hmmm.
Drag & Drop - Quite easy with SuperCard, but I didn't put it in this 
version.
Speech Recognition Driven Slinger - Again quite easy with SuperCard, but 
I didn't put it in this version.
Web Sharing SlyServer Setup - You can use Web Sharing on an OS8.5 Mac to 
run and test your Perl cgis without even connecting to the Internet. The 
next version of PS will set it all up for you.
More Assistants - Banner ad creators, Sherlock Plug-in builders, message 
board builders, code libraries, email forms, search engines, and much 
more will be click-click simple in the next version. Only Minimal Perl 
experience required!
RegExp Builder - It's there, but it doesn't work. Suggestions welcome. I 
want to make this a simple, graphical tool for creating regular 
expressions. 
Strip Chars -  the ability to strip a certain character from every 
selected line.
RegExp mutations - I will incorporate the ability to perform regular 
expression mutations on the script itself
Find history - I hate not being able to perform the same search I did 
three seconds ago.
Customizable toolbar - I hate doing things the way other people want me 
to. You probably
  feel the same way.
Integration w/ObiWan - ObiWan has an awesome Perl database. I want to be 
able to invoke
  it, as well as search the database from PerlSlinger.
Print - It's easier to  proofread on paper. At least I think so.
Print Selection - There's no reason you should have to print all of 
anything.
No 32k limit - The next rev of SuperCard (3.6) has this built in, so I'll 
update PerlSlinger when the new rev ships.
Keypad Navigation and Voice Feedback - While developing this app I became 
temporarily over-sensitive to light. As a result, I forced myself to 
write an engine for navigating and writing Perl code without a monitor. 
It's fairly cool, but slows down everything, so I disabled it in this 
version. I might include it in a future version.
Much more MacOS Specific stuff - Like the idiots of olde, I deleted all 
of my new MacOS Specific stuff when I recently moved to a PowerBook. 
Archive->Transfer->Decompress->Delete. I don't think it's supposed to 
work like that. At any rate, hopefully I'll be able to rewrite that 
stufff before the next rev.
Q&A Machine - A form in PerlSlinger that would allow you to ask a 
plaintext question and receive an answer from a massive online database 
at DevHQ.com. Pipe-dream? No, it's easy with the... oh yeah, I didn't 
include that engine builder in PS yet. Maybe next time.



Competition?
Please understand that I am not in any way attempting to compete with 
MacPerl. My program actually
depends completely upon MacPerl in order to work at all. PerlSlinger is 
just a program I made to help
me build Perl scripts faster. I am also not attempting to overthrow the 
'evil stranglehold' that BBEdit has
cruelly imposed on the Mac development community, as I rely heavily on 
BBEdit for most of my C programming. (note the use of sarcasm. BBEdit is 
one of the best tools a programmer could have.)

However, there were a few features that I wanted closer to my fingertips 
for Perl than BBEdit allowed, and I haven't had time to look at the SDK. 
Who knows, I may port all of this to a BBEdit extension. Only time will 
tell. But for now, it's a separate app.

If you have an suggestions, let me know. My email address is 
chilton@tca.net.
Thanks, and let me know what you think.

Lastly, PerlSlinger is going to cost $50 per license when it's ready for 
prime time. But If you buy a license during the alpha stage, it will only 
cost you $25. Let me know if you want to buy your license before it goes 
up.

-Chilton Webb
DevHQ.com

===== Want to unsubscribe from this list?
===== Send mail with body "unsubscribe" to macperl-request@macperl.org