Obsydian Release 2.x
Highlights & Considerations

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Obsydian 2.14 Release Highlights

In this release you will notice several features which were added as a direct result of input received through the focus groups. Obsydian 2.14 follows on the heels of 2.1 (released in May) providing you with the 3^rd upgrade in functionality in the space of just 8 months.

Obsydian 2.14 Considerations

Please note that it is possible to upgrade to new Obsydian releases e.g. Obsydian 2.14 and use existing Class Libraries by setting your model configuration (Class Library versions and levels) appropriately. This way you can determine exactly when you take advantage of updates to Synon shipped Class libraries.

• To use server-side filtering in user-defined calls to the OBASE Get Sequential function requires mapping an additional variable on each of the calls. If the parameters in the variable are left unmapped, generation warnings will be issued. These can safely be ignored.

• If you have added a lot of direct function calls to "Get Sequential"'s in any of your functions, that function may not compile because the generated parameter structures can exceed a 16bit compiler limit of 64K. (One function we tested had 8 calls to "Get Sequential"'s and setting the occurs over 16 made it fail to compile).
• If this happens, add triples, as above, using a smaller number until the function compiles. Alternatively, you could consider wrapping the calls to the "Get Sequential"'s in a separate function. This will often reduce the size of code segments and structures, allowing compiles to complete.
• The "Get Sequential"'s returns the number of occurrences it loaded into the Output variable in the 'Instances fetched' field in the output 'Control' variable.
• For any call to "Get Sequential"'s you have added, you will either have to add a loop to your code to process each of the returned occurrences, before making another call to the GS (otherwise you will only process the first row returned), or you can set the number of occurrences (see triples above) to one. It will then behave as it used to.

  An example of the code you could use is as follows (both the fields used exist in OBASE) :

  Set Base<Current occurrence> = *One
  While Base<Current occurrence> <= GS/Output/Control<Instances fetched>
                 Use GS/Output/Output , Base<Current occurrence>
                 Set Base<Current occurrence> = Base<Current occurrence> + *One
                 ... your processing of the fetched row
  End While
  

If you don't want, or are not in a position, to take advantage to these changes, select the V2.10 version in the class library configuration. The functions will behave as they did at V2.10.

• The following previously empty function edit points have been used in the class library:

         Two parent child.Create child user interface
                        Edit point 0 Description
                       Edit point 0 Post update
         Two parent child.Real attributes.Create instance
                       Edit point 0 Description
                      Edit point 0 Instance created
         User maintained entity.Maintenance suite.Print entity listing
                     Edit point 0 Description

If you have added code into any function that inherits from these, you need to remove the code before extracting the new class libraries, and add it in the new edit equivalent edit points with the same name but a number 1 replacing the number 0.

Obsydian 2.2 Release Highlights

This release will be available Nov 18th, 1996 in North America (please consult the local representative in your region for specific dates) and will ship on CD-ROM, it will contain all of the fixes and modifications contained in Obsydian 2.14

Obsydian 2.2 Considerations

• The following previously empty function edit points have been used in the class library:

          User maintained entity.Maintenance suite.Change user interface
                      Edit point 0 Description
                      Edit point 0 Function options
                     Edit point 0 Additional events
         User maintained entity.Maintenance suite.Delete user interface
                     Edit point 0 Function options
                    Edit point 0 Additional events

If you have added code into any function that inherits from these, you need to move the code from the 'orphan' code section of the action diagram into the new equivalent edit points.

Obsydian 2.5 Release Highlights

This release will be available April, 1997 in North America (please consult the local representative in your region for specific dates). Note: Updated feature information added Feb 10th 1997 are in italics.

Obsydian 2.5 Considerations

OBSYDIAN and Visual C++

Update: 20^th March, 1997

With Obsydian 2.5, you now have the option to create 16-bit or 32-bit MSVC (Microsoft Visual C++) Windows client applications. And with the Windows NT/BackOffice generator you can create 32-bit MSVC server applications.

Recently (19^th March 1997), Microsoft announced the availability of MSVC 5.0.

Obsydian 2.5 currently requires MSVC 4.2 to create 32-bit applications. Synon will upgrade Obsydian to support MSVC 5.0 in the upcoming 2.51 release scheduled for June 1997. Thereafter Obsydian 2.51 and future releases will not support previous versions of MSVC. For instance you will not be able to create Obsydian applications for MSVC 4.2 using Obsydian 2.51 or 3.0.

The following table lists upcoming Obsydian releases and the supported versions of MSVC:

Obtaining the right version of MSVC:

• If you have a copy of MSVC you can request from Microsoft an upgrade to 5.0. You can then request a downgrade to MSVC 4.2.
• If you purchase MSVC 5.0 or already have a copy, you can request a downgrade to 4.2.