variableformatter_notes.txt

realview22.rar

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Variable Formatter Release Notes
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Version:  1.1

Date:     July 27, 2003
Author:   Ken Ryall

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About Variable Formatter
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Variable Formatter is an IDE plugin that customizes the display of
Variables based on format data it reads from a format file.

For specific types of variables the Variable Formatter will replace
the text shown next to the variable name to the results of an
expression.

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Example
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If you have a struct:

struct Rect {
  short               top;
  short               left;
  short               bottom;
  short               right;
};

normally a variable of that type would look like this in the debugger:

myRect	0x000DCEA8

If the Variable Formatter is given a format that looks like this:

<variableformat>
<typename>Rect</typename>
<expression>
"{T: " + ^var.top + 
" L: " + ^var.left + 
" B: " + ^var.bottom + 
" R: " + ^var.right +
 "}{H: " + (^var.bottom - ^var.top) + 
 " W: " + (^var.right - ^var.left) + "}"
 </expression>
</variableformat>

Then the variable will be displayed with the result of the expression:

myRect	{T: 30 L: 30 B: 120 R: 120}{H: 90 W: 90}

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Variable Format Data
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When the IDE starts the Variable Formatter plugin looks in the plugin's
Support folder for a "VariableFormats" folder. It scans this folder for
XML files and reads the variable formats for each one.

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Variable Format Tags
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variableformat - Identifies the start of a variable format record.

osName - Restricts the use of the format to the indicated
operating system. OS names are "osMac" and "osWin32"

runtimename - Restricts the use of the format to the indicated
runtime model. Runtime names are "runtimePPCCFM", "runtimePPCMacho" and "runtimeWin32"

cpuname - Restricts the use of the format to the indicated
CPU model. CPU names are "cpuPowerPCBig", "cpuJava" and "cpux86"

typename - Identifies the name of the Type this record will format.

condition - Specifies a condition that must be met for the format to
be used. This can be used to test for one element of data before
attempting to format another element.

typenamematch - Specified how to match type names to variable types.
Possible values are: "ExactMatch", "BeginsWith", "EndsWith", and "Contains".

expression - Specifies an expression string. The expression will be
evaluated and the result displayed next to the variable. Before
evaluation all instances of "^var" in the format string will be replaced
with the name of the variable.

expressionformat - Specifies the data format to use when formatting an
expression. The format names match the menu item names in the "Data"
menu: "Pascal String", "C String", "Character", "Unicode" etc.