Release notes for Sirius Mods V8.1

These release notes list the enhancements and other changes contained in Sirius Mods version 8.1, which is still in development. Until the the commercial release of the software, Sirius reserves the right to remove or change anything described herein.

The immediately preceding version of the Sirius Mods is:

• Version 8.0, available in April, 2012 — Release notes

Changes to classes and methods

Daemon class changes

New subroutine: ReturnToMaster

ReturnToMaster returns control from a daemon thread to its master thread inside a User Language request.

New functions to continue processing in a daemon

• Continue tells a daemon that did a ReturnToMaster Daemon class call to continue processing at the point of the call.
• ContinueAsynchronously tells a daemon to continue processing asynchronously.
• ContinueIndependently tells a daemon to continue processing independently.

New property: State

State returns the state (the new DaemonState enumeration) of the specified daemon thread.

New exception class: IncorrectDaemonState

The IncorrectDaemonState exception class indicates that the state of the daemon thread was not correct for a method.

New option for New constructor

The New method's optional, named parameter, OpenAll opens in the daemon thread all the files and groups that are open on the master thread.

New class: ScreenReadError

The ScreenReadError class ??

New exception class: RecordLockingConflict

The RecordLockingConflict exception class catches record locking conflict errors thrown by methods in the file classes.

New enumeration methods: FromOrdinal and NumberOfValues

The FromOrdinal and NumberOfValues methods make it easy to enumerate all the values in an enumeration class without having to maintain code that has a list of all the values.

Other feature changes

User Language enhancements

Implicit concatenation supported for $functions

$functions not preceded by an operator are now concatenated with the preceding expression. This is known as implicit concatenation. For example the following concatenates the value of two global variables returned by $getg with the string "and" in the middle:

%foo = $getg('GLOBALA') " and " $getg('GLOBALB')

Model 204 command and parameter changes

New system parameter: RECLOCKO

The RECLOCKO (RECord LOCKing Options) parameter specifies the information messages that are issued for some or all record locking conflicts. The messages always include user, file, and record number, and they optionally include locking level, time lock obtained, original user number, whether its a pending update lock, etc.

New system parameter: SNAPLIMD

The SNAPLIMD parameter specifies the maximum number of snaps to generate for any particular zap title. The default is 3. The purpose of this parameter is to allow SNAPLIM to be set to a higher value than previously, without concern that some bug might repeatedly cause snaps and consume output resources.

Compatibility and fixes

Model 204 support

Sirius Mods version 8.1 supports Model 204 V7R1, V7R2, and V7R4.

Backwards compatibility with Sirius Mods 8.0 and Sirius Mods 8.1

This section lists any differences in processing that result from execution with Sirius Mods version 8.1, as compared with the same inputs to Sirius Mods version 8.0 at current maintenance levels. In some cases zaps have been delivered to change the behavior to be the same as the version 8.1 behavior; these cases are explicitly listed.

In general, backwards incompatibility means that an operation which was previously performed without any indication of error, now operates, given the same inputs and conditions, in a different manner. We may not list as backwards incompatibilities those cases in which the previous behaviour, although not indicating an error, was "clearly and obviously" incorrect, and which are introduced as normal bug fixes (whether or not they had been fixed with previous maintenance).

StringTokenizer incompatibilities

As noted below in "StringTokenizer bug fixes", fixes to some StringTokenizer methods have resulted in compatibiliy issues. Also note that the documentation of the StringTokenizer class and StringTokenizer methods now assumes usage with Sirius Mods version 8.0 or later.

Fixes in Sirius Mods 8.1 but not in 8.0

This section lists fixes to functionality existing in the Sirius Mods version 8.0 but which, due to the absence of customer problems, have not, as of the date of the release, been fixed in that version.

UnicodeReplace if no replacement table

The UnicodeReplace function can produce unpredictable results (snap, clobber storage, etc.) if called and there is no Unicode replacement table, that is, there are no replacements as specified by the Rep subcommand of the UNICODE command.

UnicodeUntranslatablePosition unpredictable results

The UnicodeUntranslatablePosition function formerly could produce unpredictable results.

Stringtokenizer bug fixes

This section describes fixes to some StringTokenizer methods; they were also delivered in version 8.0 of the Sirius Mods as ZAP80G4. The first of these, "driving OutOfBounds handling", represents an incompatibility previous to the introduction of this fix (that is, with version 7.9 of the Sirius Mods), and although it is perhaps an "edge case", it corrects behavior which is central to the StringTokenizer semantics. Therefore, the documentation of the StringTokenizer class and StringTokenizer methods now assumes usage with Sirius Mods version 8.0 or later.

• Skip processing should drive OutOfBounds handling, either causing an exception or returning the Default value. For example:

  %t:string = 'foo bar' %t:separators = ',' printText {~=%t:nextToken(skip=2, default='qqq')} %t:string = 'foo bar' printText {~=%t:nextToken(skip=2)}

  Prior to this fix, the result of the above fragment was:

  %t:nextToken(skip=2, default='qqq')= %t:nextToken(skip=2)=

  Now, with the fix, the result is:

  %t:nextToken(skip=2, default='qqq')=qqq %t:nextToken(skip=2)= *** 1 CANCELLING REQUEST: ... function NextToken: OutOfBounds exception: Past end of string ...

  The new result is correct: the Default value is returned by the first NextToken, and the second NextToken throws an exception.

  As another exmple:

  %t:string = %t:skipTokens(1) print 'Should not be here'

  Prior to this fix, the result of the above fragment was:

  Should not be here

  Now, with the fix, the result is:

  *** 1 CANCELLING REQUEST: ... subroutine SkipTokens: OutOfBounds exception: Past end of string ...

  The new result is correct: SkipTokens throws an exception here.

  All of the above changes, strictly speaking, represent incompatibilities with the previous behavior of the StringTokenizer.

• If a self-delimited token is immediately followed by a trailing separator, there is still another remaining token (that being the null string). For example:

  %t:string = '"asdf",' %t:quotes = '"' printText {~=%t:nextToken} {~=%t:nextToken}

  Prior to this fix, the result of the above fragment was:

  %t:nextToken=asdf %t:nextToken= *** 1 CANCELLING REQUEST: ... function NextToken: OutOfBounds exception: Past end of string ...

  Now, with the fix, the result is:

  %t:nextToken=asdf %t:nextToken=

  The new result is correct: NextToken does not throw an exception here.