RELEASE LiveCode 7.0 DP6

[Fraser Gordon]

Dear List Members.

We are pleased to announce the release of LiveCode 7.0 DP6.

*Warning, this is a pre-release with new features which have the potential to cause issues. Please ensure you backup your stacks before testing this release.*

Important Changes
- The file format has changed for this release to accommodate Unicode. Old stacks will still work in 7.0, but stacks saved in 7.0 format will not open in previous versions of LiveCode. Therefore it is doubly critical to backup your stacks.

Release Focus
The focus of DP5 and DP6 has been bugs reported during the Global Jam.

A new string class was written for LiveCode with both native and unicode string storage. The addition of the native storage means that users not using any unicode text should find their stacks run at the same speed as LiveCode 6.6.2. If you experience any performance degradation in this release when NOT using unicode strings, please report this as a bug and we’ll look at way of optimising the native string performance further. 

Release Contents
Unicode support
Arbitrary string delimiters
Tab alignments
145 bug fixes:
12544 -  send command with a parameter which contains a quote breaks param parsing
12530 -  embedded wav sound crashes Project Browser and Properties inspector in LC 7 dp5 
12527 -  paragraph chunk returns empty when string does not include end of paragraph mark
12521 -  Fix highlights for non-left-aligned lines in fields 
12517 -  Quicktime using stacks crash on open 
12514 -  dragData with a private content extracted from a string by using a chunk keyword (word, char, etc)
12511 -  charIndex property missing
12510 -  setting stack decoration errors
12509 -  fullscreenMode "showAll" breaks IDE
12493 -  open file for binary read/write erroneously converting line endings
12477 -  Native mobile controls created with mobGui do not seem to function under LiveCode
12502 -  Fix a null-pointer deref in PDF printing
12499 -  trueWord n + m of tText for n the number of trueWords of tText always returns trueWord n
12497 -  pageRanges property missing from LiveCode 7.0
12496 -  Set the clipping rectangle for text blocks correctly
12494 -  Setting the randomSeed to large number fails in 7.0 
12491 -  "Go to Definition" doesn't work in script editor 
12489 -  filter/replace difference in 7.0
12486 -  Add missing MovieControllerID property to the Player property table
12483 -  Graphic effects not working in 7.0 DP4 
12482 -  replace does not work
12074 -  Answer dialog messages should be aligned to the right
12459 -  Setting any graphic effects to "none" crashes LC 7 dp3 
12457 -  sorting marked cards with single unmarked card crashes LiveCode
12432 -  clickchunk and click text are not identical
12428 -  Lc 7.0 DP3 does not sanitize data when setting points of polygon
12423 -  If you choose the browse tool (run) after Editing a group - Livecode crashes.
12422 -  Sort puts a "p" after the last character and foreign letters is not sorted correct
12409 -  Fields in LC 7 fail to display binfile url imagesource
12407 -   'Garbage' with read from socket
12360 -   open file as utf-8 mode doesn't work exactly as documented
12351 -  Crash on write then read until EOF on driver
12350 -  The fontStyles is incorrect on iOS
12345 -  AVD's appear in the list but can't be selected for testing.
12344 -  Can't open recent file
12309 -  Build for Windows fails with i/o error
12294 -  Crash and flaky behavior at certain points.
12288 -  Prevent User Samples stack hanging due to resize error
12286 -  Maximizing a window where only the title-bar is on-screen causes a crash on Mac.
12265 -  Rounded rects are drawn incorrectly when using the image editing tools with a linesize 1
12246 -  Serial I/O fails on write
12239 -  Magnification window shows corrupted image.
12237 -  Attempt to attach to the launching console on Windows (if any) in standalones.
12236 -  Dropdown menus are clipped on Windows when text scale > 100%
12235 -  Tooltips clipped on Windows when text scaling > 100%
12227 -  When Windows screen display is set to 125% popups sometimes break
12223 -  Windows backdrop doesn't cover the full desktop area when displayed on a high-dpi screen.
12210 -  revBrowserSnapshot not working on Windows with IE9+
12206 -  Buttons of menu type can't be inspected if first created object
12200 -  Some filesystem entries in the root of a volume on Mac report as files when they are really folders.
12192 -  linux uninstaller needs execute permission
12185 -  Standalone engine crashes when -ui specified on Linux.
12183 -  Clicking in the scrollbar well doesn't work if the click is too short.
12182 -  'the pageRanges' doesn't work on fields with more than 64K chars.
12175 -  Setting the usePixelScaling property doesn't update all windows on Mac.
12173 -  Styling does not work for certain iOS fonts
12170 -  Non-existant command line parameter variables ($<n>) behave strangely with split.
12146 -  setting tabstops to 2 equal numbers and then turning vGrid on hangs LC
12125 -  put the executionContexts crashes LiveCode server
12107 -  exit causes livecode server to crash
12105 -  Livecode server crashed if you call paramCount() 
12101 -  Graphics missing from imported Hypercard stack
12099 -  On awakening Android device from sleep, part of app is blacked out
12088 -  The script editor doesn't scroll horizontally as text is entered
12061 -  Can't test an app on Android
12058 -  The backdrop on Windows is always black
12044 -  Opaque groups do not completely draw their backgrounds when acceleratedRendering is enabled
12037 -  Slow-down in setting contents of fields on Windows since 6.1.3.
12027 -  On Retina Mac's scrollbars with small thumbs render smaller than they should.
12020 -  Caret is too thin on Retina displays.
12010 -  Windows engine hangs after multiple stack redraws.
12008 -  import screen snapshot on iOS creates image of incorrect size.
12006 -  HTTP (HTML) URLs encoded with anything other than a native character set are retunred incorrectly
11989 -  arrayDecode on a file containing the result of arrayEncode on an empty array causes execution error
11975 -  "import snapshot from rect ..." only imports part of the screen on Windows
11964 -  Spacing is incorrect for Windows scaled text
11933 -  effective textColor returns empty value for styled text
11920 -  Memory leak in bitmap effects with spread of non-zero radius (e.g. spread 100%, radius 1; spread 50%, radius 2).
11904 -  Italic characters with underhang are clipped on windows
11884 -  Stoked graphics clipped when printed
11860 -  uuid and randomBytes functions don't work on iOS when Encryption support is not included
11748 -  Crash when putting an empty string into an XML node using PutIntoXMLNode.
11708 -  Anroid apps only partially drawn after rotating device during lock sreen
11690 -  Once large scripts start scrolling the script editor, it won't stop for a long time on Windows.
11689 -  ResizeControl is not sent when resizing images
11662 -  Round buttons are drawn incorrectly
11603 -  Backdrop not displayed on Linux
11370 -  Anti-aliasing inconsistent for 1 pixel lines and curves
11072 -  magnify and edit image crashes LC
8041 -  Only allow interaction with scrollbars on groups in browse mode.
6400 -  On Mac, a tab button with a single item does not draw correctly.
2627 -  The machine() function returns "unknown" under Mac OSX
12290 -  saving 2.7 file format stack causes crash
12244 -  case sensitive does not work
12204 -  textEncode ASCII support is actually native
12195 -  equality testing is slow, even 2nd time
12194 -  'char/byte/codepoint 1 of s' is slow
12184 -  'repeat for each byte b in empty' crashes
12180 -  'the number of bytes of ...' is slow
12179 -  Fetching byte chunks does not clamp the range to the bounds of the input data.
12168 -  Sometimes length() and number or chars are wrong
12160 -  Put after/before on an uninitialised, by-reference parameter inserts the variable's name in it
12150 -  LiveCode crashes when changing the window kind
12147 -  create button in group command fails
12143 -  The mousechunk end index is one larger than it ought to be
12140 -  Erroneous Socket Timeout Error
12138 -  the drawer command crashes Livecode 7.0 when using '...at position' variant.
12123 -  Fix wrong application title displaying on Linux
12122 -  Update GTK icon cache post-install
12118 -  revExecuteSQL writes incomplete data into SQLite BLOB columns
12078 -  Scrambled word order for label field with Hebrew and English Text
12075 -  Buttons that contain Hebrew Text is in wrong order
12007 -  Linux Standalone does not run. Segmentation fault.
11993 -  "save stack" corrupt password protected stacks
11979 -  IDE fails to launch when installed to a Unicode path
11973 -  char 1 of (e + combining acute accent) returns e
11962 -  Split command causes IDE to stop responding
11961 -  IDE takes 8 seconds when adding a new line in Script Editor
11941 -  repeat loop is very slow in 7.0 DP1
11939 -  Opening the TestFramework stack crashes LiveCode
12104 -  Convert command fails with invalid date since 7.0
12097 -  setting acceleratorModifiers of button causes crash
12081 -  OSX picking wrong file extension for filenames with two '.' characters  
12071 -  hiliteColor and borderColor is not working in 7.0DP1
12070 -  hGrid, vGrid use showLines instead of grid
12067 -  Group with label can't be saved in 5.5 file format
12065 -  formatting hex string crashes LiveCode 7.0
12042 -  New chunk types (paragraph, trueWord, sentence) don't work with field property setting/getting
12038 -  'lock screen for visual effect in rect...' not working
11996 -  numToByte works differently form numToChar in 6.6
11985 -  put does not populate the result on iOS 
11981 -  calling mobileControlTarget () crashes the application
11971 -  Password protected stacks are corrupted by LiveCode 7
11963 -  Dotted border of selection in List control is incorrectly aligned
11960 -  LC crashes when selecting wrapped text in Contents pane
11958 -  Text wrapping improperly breaks text mid-word
11954 -  sort field does not work
11953 -  sort card of stack crashes
11950 -  mark card does not work
11949 -  find string in field does not work
11948 -  Export snaphot crashes LiveCode when it should return empty rect error 
11947 -  Vertical tabulation in a field causes the engine to hang
11945 -  The number of paragraphs reported value is incorrect
11943 -  Script Editor does not resize correctly with the resize handle
11940 -  Variables not being resolved in the script debugger.


Known issues / Outstanding bugs (21)
The following is a list of bugs that the team are currently working on for LiveCode 7.0 DP7. These are all confirmed 7.0 bugs that have been reproduced by the quality team but have not yet been fixed:
Outstanding bugs
11980 -  7.0 text rendering issues
12001 -  LiveCode 7.0 DP1 Check for Updates Fails
12343 -  Hebrew text is shown in reverse character order on Android
12444 -  Error while initializing development environment 
11977 -  LiveCode 7.0 externals don't support Unicode
12233 -  Cannot input Japanese text
12076 -  Answer Dialog title With Hebrew and English results in Mixed Order
11986 -  Typing numerals in Arabic text doesn't work
12446 -  "Sort international" crashes due to an internal libICU error
12166 -  Left arrow blocked by some code points
12548 -  error in revCreateXML Tree with livecode 7.0(dp5) in Windows standalone, but works in Android app
12539 -  Windows and Unicode and TAB
12507 -  Some right to left text not displaying correctly
12452 -  longFilePath prefixes with "/Applications"
12540 -  LiveCode 7.0 documentation - the clipboarddata
12532 -  Adding a new element to an array can be very slow
12336 -  simple repeat loop loop is 3.8x slower in LC7.0DP3 compared to LC6.7DP2
12195 -  equality testing is slow, even 2nd time
12171 -  Changing from "Shalom Old Style" to Unicode changes the order of text
12421 -  how the word of a text are numbered: from right to left or from left to right?
12162 -  Inconsistent handling of PS in 'put into' and 'put after'

Getting this release
LiveCode 7.0 is not yet part of the auto-update process. We'll add it once 7.0 because stable enough to be tested by all users. For the time being we're looking to our more experienced community members to help with initial testing by downloading directly at:
http://downloads.livecode.com/livecode/

Reporting Bugs
A release tag has been set up in our quality control center at quality.runrev.com where you can report possible problems you are having with this release.
Please ensure you use the correct version tag "7.0 DP6” in your report, so that we can track exactly where the issue you report originated from. This allows us to address your report as quickly and efficiently as possible.

As with any bug reported for LiveCode, we require a recipe with a simple sample stack that demonstrates the issue you are having, but in addition we also invite you to submit complete stacks that do not work the way they did in a previous version of LiveCode.

You can attach your sample stacks to your bug report or if you are experiencing the issue in a confidential stack, then please note this in your bug report and we will get back to you with an e-mail address where you can submit your confidential stack to.

Warm regards,

The LiveCode Team