Bugs in 8.5.1 LotusScript editor that most urgently need fixing

HCL Domino Domino Forum
1

Hi,

I think there are many good things in Eclipse LS editor. The best thing is that custom Classes are finally properly supported.

But there are still quite many bugs which I hope will be fixed soon:

  1. Erl is not reporting the correct line in case of error (could be because I have 8.5 server, we’ll know soon)

  2. When typing, quite often the cursor jumps one character backwards.

  3. In Designer 7 you could reuse ForAll variable name. Now the editor complains about it even when I don’t have the same name in the whole agent (probably it is in some script library!)

  4. If there are many errors, the error icons get messed up after a couple of saves, showing errors in the middle of comments etc.

  5. Trying to paste in code sometimes fails with NullPointerException. The same has happened also with Save and then the only possibility is to copy the code to Notepad or similar.

  6. Often the suggest list of methods and properties does not open when I type “.” after an object var name. And also often it shows list of a wrong variable!

  7. The methods and properties selected from suggest list are added with capital letter and everything else lowercase making them hard to read. Examples: Iscurrentaccesspublicwriter, Unprocessedftsearchrange. These were all in proper case in Designer 7.

thanks,

  • Panu
2

Subject: Erl and line numbers.

Hi,

I’ve seen a PMR on this before and ERL does actually report the correct line number. However the ERL line number is based on the context of the method it is in. This is what previous releases did.

In 8.5.1 the default view is all code, if you click to the related method on the left you can get the related line.

3

Subject: I’ve seen it report correct lines too

But at least once it was all the time (also after multiple saves and additions of msgboxes) reporting +1 or -1 (don’t remember which) one line from the correct one.

4

Subject: Thanks for the clarification

If you have a reproducible scenario please let us have and we will create an SPR for it. Thanks.

5

Subject: “Go to Erl line…”

Hi,

as Roberto instructed I can go to the correct line using Navigate → Go to Erl line… The line seems to be always incorrect in custom LotusScript classes. Having to use “Go to Erl line…” is a pain but of course much better than nothing.

  • Panu
6

Subject: 4 years on… and this error is still occuring…

I checked the SPR for this, and it has disappeared (http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21430623)…Suffice to say it’s still occuring in 9.0.1. Even “goto ERL line” is not accurate.

Eclipse is a brilliant IDE, but I don’t know what you guys have done, to turn it into this. An IDE that cannot accurately report the error line, seriously ?? So, it’s been 4 years now…4 years!!!

I write software, I appreciate what challenges you face. But, if the reason the development on this fix is delayed due to “stability issues”, it usually means you are doing it wrong…

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Subject: Re: Bugs in 8.5.1 LotusScript editor that most urgently need fixing

Hi Panu,

  1. Erl is not reporting the correct line in case of error (could be because I have 8.5 server, we’ll know soon)

This problem is documented in the product’s release notes. Due to architectural issues we encountered with the original LotusScript compiler codebase, it was decided that fixing this problem would need to be deferred. Attempting to fix it in 8.51 would have endangered the stability of the editor, as well as pushed back the editor’s release. We are very aware of the problem and have included the “Go to Erl line…” menu action as a workaround until we can fix this properly.

  1. When typing, quite often the cursor jumps one character backwards.

We haven’t seen this issue. Could you please provide the exact steps and source that reproduce this?

  1. In Designer 7 you could reuse ForAll variable name. Now the editor complains about it even when I don’t have the same name in the whole agent (probably it is in some script library!)

Could you provide the code and a screenshot of the error in the problems view and in the section view, as well as how to reproduce?

  1. If there are many errors, the error icons get messed up after a couple of saves, showing errors in the middle of comments etc.

Could you provide a screenshot and the source that reproduces this?

  1. Trying to paste in code sometimes fails with NullPointerException. The same has happened also with Save and then the only possibility is to copy the code to Notepad or similar.

There are existing customer reports of this problem. We understand how important copy/cut/paste functionality is to developers (being developers ourselves) and have plans in place to fix them for 8.52. Fixes might be available before 8.52 (via hotfix) by contacting support and we will post if so.

  1. Often the suggest list of methods and properties does not open when I type “.” after an object var name. And also often it shows list of a wrong variable!

Content assist works only with information from the last error-free compile. If there are errors in your codebase, the information may no longer be accurate or updated. It is best to clean up the errors in order to keep the compiled information used by content assist up to date.

  1. The methods and properties selected from suggest list are added with capital letter and everything else lowercase making them hard to read. Examples: Iscurrentaccesspublicwriter, Unprocessedftsearchrange. These were all in proper case in Designer 7.

This annoys us too, and the reason for it is rather technical and complicated. In short, LotusScript is a caseless language and the information provided by the compiler (and used by Content Assist) is caseless as well. The old editor had a very large codebase to reparse information on the fly and match caseless identifiers to the cased identifiers. However, porting or rewriting that codebase is a very time intensive task and would have pushed back the editor’s release. We are investigating an appropriate fix for this and hope to have it available soon.

Thank you,

Roberto Olivares

IBM / Lotus Domino Designer Development

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Subject: Thanks, Roberto. Are there SPR #s for these? Can we add our weight to them?

9

Subject: Thanks and here is some info

Hi,

thanks for replying. Here is some info:

  1. I don’t think it’s related to the source. I’m in an empty line typing stuff and suddenly the curson jumps before the last char of the line. I can try to remember to post the line when that happens next time.

  2. I tried to reproduce this and came to conclusion that this was most likely my mistake: probably I had declared the var I was trying to use in ForAll.

  3. Don’t have an exaple now, maybe will post later if I see this again.

  4. Currently I’m not able to reproduce the most strange cases but again If I get them again I try to remember to post them. One reproducable thing is for example this line:

’ doc is a NotesDocument

doc.ReplaceItemValue “Item”, value$

When I place my curson after the dot and type one letter I’d expect to see the suggest list but I don’t. Even if I add space after the dot and try again I still don’t get the suggest list.

Thanks for your efforts to fix everything and make Designer better.

  • Panu
10

Subject: Example of 2.

Here is an example of cursor jumping that just happened:

	Me.doc.ComputeWithForm False, False

	

	im sender_id$D

			

	'Some comments.

	'More comments.

In the second line I started typing with “Dim” and the the D ended up as the last char of the line. This is a Sub in custom class in a script library.

11

Subject: I can confirm this, too

It happend quite often that 2 letteres are swapped. e.g when you want to declare a NotesDocument

Dim Doc as NtoesDocument '<- I really typed N_o_t_e_s…

Sometimes the write direction is changed at all:

tnemucoDsetoN sa coD miD

This happens mostly after I get the Error

“Delete” Operation did not complete sucessfully.

(like it is described here Full Text Bug Listing

or here

212987 – Threading problems in GenericPositionManager)

best regards

12

Subject: I can confirm this your Exmaple 2

But I always thought this was me and the touchpad on my laptop. This happens a lot.