[ANN] Release 9.0.0 DP-11

[panagiotis merakos]

Dear list members,

We are pleased to announce the release of LiveCode 9.0.0 DP-11.

Developer Preview Release
=========================
Warning: this is not a stable release.  Please ensure that you back up your
stacks before testing them.


Getting the Release
===================
You can get the release at https://downloads.livecode.com/livecode/ or via
the automatic updater.


Release Contents
================
LiveCode 9.0.0 DP-11 comes with more than 40 bugfixes. Moreover, more than
90 bugfixes that were fixed in LiveCode 8.1.x and 8.2.x, are now merged
into LiveCode 9.0.0 DP-11.

In addition, LiveCode 9.0.0 DP-11 includes several amazing new features:

- Great progress on Obj-C FFI: support for dynamic instance binding,
dynamic property binding and delegate support is added. With LCB, you can
easily wrap an API of your choice and use it from LiveCode Script. For
example, see the code in http://quality.livecode.com/show_bug.cgi?id=20733,
which wraps NSUserNotification, used to send a notification.
- Target folder variant of the detailed files and the detailed folders: The
files() and folders() function now have a second optional argument,
allowing “detailed” to be specified.
- Image Object SVG support: Include high quality SVG images at a very small
cost on the standalone size
- HTML5 windowing: This allows tooltips, dialogs, and pop-up menus to work
within the HTML5 engine. This also allows multiple stacks to be opened on
the HTML5 page.
- Windows cameraControl enhancements: Support to the windows camera control
for exposure, focus and white balance mode properties has been added.
- Data Grid 2 visual / interactive elements: datagrid edit mode swipe
actions / drag reordering
- New LCB syntax: added support for "the architecture", "trigger all" and
access to system error
- Android AAR support: Add support for AAR files as extension dependencies
- Android manifest merging: An android manifest merging mechanism has been
added to the android standalone builder. This enables manifests to be
included in extension jvm-android code folders which are then merged into
the main
manifest at build time.
- Android Toast Notification Library
- Extension code library support: Extensions can now include compiled
libraries on which they depend.
- New Native Map Widget for Android, iOS and Mac 64 bit (Indy+)
- New Signature Widget for all platforms (Indy+)
- New SecureKey Library for Android, iOS and Mac (Business): The SecureKey
library provides a way to encrypt data with a private key which is held
securely on the device and tied to the application owning it.
- New Media Foundation External (Business): A new external has been
implemented to allow transcoding and basic editing of videos on Windows.
The external supports Windows 8.1+.
- Browser Widget now works again in 64 bit Linux
- Browser Widget now works in 32 bit Linux as well :)

Last, but not least, LC 9.0.0 DP-11 includes a new version of our prebuilt
OpenSSL library, new versions of tsNet and mergExt* externals, as well as
support for the latest version of Xcode (9.2).

For more details on this release, read Ali's exciting blogpost:

https://livecode.com/livecode-9-the-final-preview/

Important Note: The shortcuts for Autocomplete have changed, since they
were conflicting with existing shortcuts in some platforms. So, now:

- The F1 key (or Fn+F1 in some keyboards) is now used for presenting
autocomplete when the user has the live autocomplete preference off. If the
completions pane is already presented, the F1 key will launch the
dictionary if the chosen completion is documented.
- The tab key is now used to apply the completion, or to move to the next
placeholder.


Known issues
================
- The Browser widget's native layer is not shown in some Linux distros with
Cinnamon window manager.
- DataGrid swipe (and drag-reorder) actions seem to interfere with the
scroller on Android, requiring an additional swipe (and drag-reorder)
action to make it work. This will be fixed in next release.
- You might not be able to run HTML5 standalones locally using the most
recent version of Safari or Chrome (Firefox is OK). This is due to those
browsers now prohibiting cross-origin-requests. To test out standalones
locally using these browser, we suggest using a local HTTP server as
described in the HTML5 deployment guide. However, this will not be a
problem if you use the new HTML5 deployment library, which does this for
you: You just have to choose one of the installed browsers (click on the
"Development -> Test Target" menu item), and then click on the "Test"
button.
- Although the Mac MapKit API is supported from OS X 10.9 onwards, Apple
restricts use of the API on 10.9 and 10.10 to apps which are distributed
from the Mac AppStore with an appropriate entitlement. Due to this, general
use of the Map widget only supports OS X 10.11 onwards.
- Setting the text of an image to a SVG file *dynamically* in a
*standalone* does not work on Windows. Probably a path-related issue, which
will be fixed in the next release. It does work in the IDE, as well as in
standalones for the other desktop platforms.
- In the release notes, the SecureKey library, as well as the Script
Profiler library, are in the section "LiveCode Indy Extension changes".
This is incorrect, as these features are only available in the Business
edition.

The full release notes are available from:

http://downloads.livecode.com/livecode/9_0_0/LiveCodeNotes-9_0_0_dp_11.pdf


Feedback
========
Please report any bugs encountered on our BugZilla at
http://quality.livecode.com/

We have a forum available for discussing LiveCode Builder at
http://forums.livecode.com/viewforum.php?f=93

Have fun!
The LiveCode Team
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