Send_Message and Exec_Method

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OK, so we deprecated the Send_Message function for OI 10…

… but before you worry about your apps being broken don’t despair because it still works as it ever has.  It has actually been replaced by a new function named Exec_Method which exposes the same interface as Send_Message, with the added bonus that it can support more than four parameters, so it’s basically a straight drop-in replacement when you need to use it.

Why did we do this?  Well, there’s a couple of reasons really:

  • When talking about object-based systems the usual jargon includes references to properties, methods and events. However, with OI we’ve always used the term “messages” when referring to an object’s methods because of the Send_Message function.  We thought it was about time to use more standard terminology, like we do with the Basic+ OleExecMethod function for example.
  • Send_Message is very close to the name of the core Windows API SendMessage function and sometimes it’s just too confusing (and annoying) trying to explain which one you actually mean when you’re discussing how to manipulate an object.

Actually Send_Message isn’t the only casualty, we’ve deprecated another well-known function too, but we’ll leave the details of that one for another post…

[Edit: 24 Apr 13 – Call_Method renamed to Exec_Method]

Welcome…

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… to the “Building OpenInsight 10” blog. As work progresses on the next version of OpenInsight this is where you’ll find the latest news and information on some of the new features and changes to the product taking place during the development process.

Right now work is well underway on the new Presentation Server (RevPS) so we’ll be taking a look at that in the coming months. Just to whet your appetite here’s a few things that we’re working on for version 10:

  • 64-bit version
  • High DPI aware
  • Full Windows Common Control support
  • Improved Edit Table
  • Some new controls (e.g. Panel, Property Grid)
  • Improved OLE support
  • Non visual object support (e.g. HTTP clients and servers)
  • Extensible architecture

Of course there’s more, but if we told you everything here there’d be nothing to cover at next year’s conference in Nashville!

Anyway, we’ll try and make regular postings but there’s still a lot of work to do before release, so if you don’t see a post for a week or two it’s not because we’ve given up – it’s because we’re really really really busy.