Things I would pay to see in FF4

[George Bleck]

Native Database Capabilities / Data aware controls (something along the lines of SQLTools based or SQLightning based)
"Dot" based form object access
FireProp - Native property control
Module Code formatter (rules based so can be customized to user preference)

[Jean-pierre Leroy]

Generation of PowerBASIC UNICODE sources

[Jim Dunn]

(no pressure)  A version of FireFly for PureBasic (I would've said FreeBasic, but PureBasic has cross-platform and 64-bit).

I know that FreeBasic includes the "source"... so that might be the better choice for you...

I don't care for the "exotic" syntax of PureBasic either... but...  : )

And, a VB6 form import would probably excite some people...

[Marc van Cauwenberghe]

OK, since you started George.

- Lua scripting support
- Control profiles

Best regards,
Marc

[Martin Foster]

Module Code formatter (rules based so can be customized to user preference)

I'd like to see this as well.

Martin

[Marc van Cauwenberghe]

Aah,

and this one, should't be so difficult: a treeview in the Project notes so one organize the project notes.

Best regards,
Marc

[Elias Montoya]

USB portability. Including carrying Projects, includes, application and configuration in a USB drive.
Feaature to automatically backup everything to local PC (Encrypted).

[Paul Squires]

Unicode
Debugger
Better Intellisense
Integration of a source code revision system (eg. Fossil   http://www.fossil-scm.org/index.html/doc/tip/www/index.wiki )
More comprehensive documentation
Project templates
... and about a hundred more things 

[Peter House]

Big second on the USB portability.

Can FireFly be made as a Portable App also

Peter House

[Paul Squires]

I use FireFly on an external USB connected hard drive, all day, every day. The only thing you need to do when you plug it into a computer you have never used before is to enter your FireFly registration information.

Install FireFly to your C: drive (eg. C:\FireFly3) using the "Local" option (not the "My Documents" option). Then, simply copy that folder to your USB drive. Everything should now work okay except for the need to enter your registration information the first time.

[Elias Montoya]

I do that as well Paul, with the exe that you kindly sent me. Except that USB drive not always  has the same drive letter, and sometimes configuration is not set and i have to reconfigure everything from scratch, compilers etc.

[Theo Gottwald]

Very simple things.

The code reordering is a problem for my private Libraries, so i have to put them in an folder "Private" and include them "away from FF".
Therefore i do not have them organized in the Project.
Even if there are Compiler-Errors, FF does not "Jump to the Error" currently.
If its in the "Private files". This is a systemic problem.
Such problems need to be addressed prior to new features.

There should be a directive like

Code Select Expand

REM FF: NO REORDER
...
REM FF: END NO REORDER
to geht the code reordering for a file under control.

Or better, a Sub-Tree in the Project Manager for "Private files"?
A way to have private includes in a project, fully integrated.

Also i need to be able to say "if my private includes should be included before or after the FF Includes".
But they will need to be after the inclusion of WinAPI32.

The code-reordering needs to be reordered, primarily.
Its not yet bullet-proof.

I would buy FF4 anyway, because FF3 was a good choice and so will be FF 4.

Its the same like with Phoenix VD. The previouse version was never ready, and the last version was also unfinished when it reached the market.
You know the programmer, you know whats coming out. Any new version of Phoenix just shows me how amazingly good the author is in programming and solving algorhytmical puzzles. But of course one person can not make such a project all alone and the result is just unfinished.
Its more like an application (to get a job as programmer in a company) then like a marketable program, at least that is my impression, especially for this last version. But again this was also the case for all previous versions of Phoenix as i see it. Chris Boss for example with EZ GUi, makes rather "down to earth" algorhytms, and designs. But they are always well tested, and work as documented. Let me say
"I do not want a artistic unfinished new car, i need one that >REALLY drives from A to B, and all switches and buttons should work, even if it rains".

Coming from there i would say "Do NOT try to include too many features - instead make it a SOLID WORKING program"
thats what i recommend anybody. This is what i want to have.

"Give it an extensive help so people will really understand how it works".
Writing help files is not a nice work for people who like programming. But its necessary, for those using the program.

Rather then making something compeltely NEW, take the "old" and evolute it.

Reason: The old is somehow near to bug free, you know all the places in your code.
Add features to the old, Rewrite parts. Do not start from scratch. Try to provide SOLID, bulletproof Software.

[Jean-pierre Leroy]

I do that as well Paul, with the exe that you kindly sent me. Except that USB drive not always  has the same drive letter, and sometimes configuration is not set and i have to reconfigure everything from scratch, compilers etc.

Hi Elias,

3 years ago I posted a FF project in order to update automatically PB and Firefly settings based on the current drive letters, see this post:

http://www.planetsquires.com/protect/forum/index.php?topic=2640.msg20028#msg20028

FireFly is a portable application, I use it only on a USB key on various PCs.

It works perfectly.

Regards,
Jean-Pierre

[Paul Squires]

Very simple things.

Some things are not as simple as they appear.    The "jump to error" problems are somewhat complex because FireFly needs to coordinate where the error occurs in the generated source code, to where that code is located in the FireFly editor. There is not a one-to-one correlation. The error could be locate at Line 200 in the code generation source file, but located in a different file and much different line number within the editor. FireFly does a much better job than it used to with resolving these discrepencies but I agree that more can be done to bullet-proof it.

The code reordering is a problem for my private Libraries, so i have to put them in an folder "Private" and include them "away from FF".

I entered this in my bug tracker as a new feature request back on 2012-05-24. Hey, you've only waiting 1.5 years for it!!!!    I'll see what I can do to make this happen.

[Nathan Durland]

Generation of PowerBASIC UNICODE sources

I thought this was worth a chuckle

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/04/verity_stob_unicode/