Welcome to Europa Release Notes Interim Builds

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New Features

• Helix Data Scripting goes native! All of the Helix Scripting Apple events for adding, retrieving, and deleting records are now handled directly by Helix. The Intel-native code runs 3 to 5 times faster than the old, external bridge product.
• Delete Data Dialog

  Delete Data command: This command instantly erases all of the data in a field from every record in the relation. In Classic Helix, you had to resort to tricks to do this, such as pretending to throw the icon away or toggling its ‘Inert’ property.

  • In the GUI, Delete Data is found on the Icon menu, with a keyboard shortcut of Command-Option-Delete. A dialog asks you to confirm the action before the data is deleted.
  • In AppleScript, the delete all data command is found in the ‘Helix Design Suite’

  This command is needed because macOS RADE does not allow a field icon’s datatype or inert status to be changed when there is data in the field. To change a field’s datatype or inert status, use this command to first erase the existing data; then you will be able to make the change.

• The ‘Where Used’ Window

  Used By (aka: Where Used) Window: This window shows every place an icon is used, improving on that feature of the Classic Get Info window.

  Each row shows the icon it is used in, that icon’s Name, Parent (Where it is found) and Content (summary information about that icon) The Usage column displays a message about how it is used in the case of obscure links. (This information was available thorough a Why? message in Classic RADE.)

  There are two ways to access the Used By Window for an icon:

  1. Select one or more icons, then choose Open Used By Window from the Icon menu. (Keyboard shortcut: Command-Option-I)
  2. Hold the Option key down while double clicking the icon.

Graphic User Interface

• Fix R7183: RADE appeared to hang up ‘Doing Routine Maintenance’ when opening large collections. This was not really a bug; the problem is that older versions of Update Collection neglected to clean up certain types of old code. For heavily used collections, these could number in the hundreds of thousands, and cleaning them up takes quite a while. RADE was not ‘hanging’ at all: it was just very busy. We added an additional progress dialog to the Structure Check code to reassure the user that something is going on.
• You can now edit the Name, Custom Name, and Comment fields in the Inspector.
• We moved the Inspector window to right side of main screen amd made it narrower.
• Changed button labels in the Inspector to read Commit instead of Save.
• The Collection, Relation, and Used By windows now support scroll wheels. Scrolling in both the X and Y axes are supported.
• The Preliminary Release Warning no longer prevents opening a collection by drag and drop on launch. We also added a “Don’t show this dialog again” option to the dialog, but bear in mind that if you check that option, you must still remember that preliminary releases are potentially buggy!
• Update Collection Required Dialog

  Added a dialog informing the user when a collection is too old. Helix 6.2 can only open collections already updated to 6.0 or higher. Use Update Collection to bring old collections up to date before opening them in Helix 6.2.

• Some menu command Key Equivalents have changed:
  • Show Collection: CMD-home
  • Delete Icon: CMD-delete (backspace)
• Repositioned and resized “Don’t show this dialog again” checkbox to meet GUI standards.
• Moved “Abandon Open Apple event Processes” (on Quit/Close Collection) dialog from Classic to macOS.
• Removed support for the Classic “CMD-Opt-Period” force quit. Use the macOS supplied function (CMD-Opt-Escape) instead.
• Removed dialog asking for permission to stop session data log when reopening a collection directly into Design Mode. Session Data logging is to be totally transparent.

AppleScript

• The Helix Suite is now the Helix Design Suite. The User Mode Suite is now the Helix Data Suite.
• The “open” AppleScript command now supports username, password, and user mode parameters.
• Improved descriptions of some AppleScript commands.
• Fixed terminology for index elements.
• Abacus icons are now identified by class.
• Fixed bugs in Novice validation.
• Fixed bugs in the rectangle format property.
• The Check Structure command now returns a list of errors.
• The Check Structure command can now suppress the progress dialog.
• Removed the check for open data processes when switching from User Mode to Design Mode. Helix now supports AppleScript in Design Mode, so there is no need to terminate open processes because of a mode switch.
• Fixed the definition of a rectangle to indicate correct order of list. The values returned are in {left, top, right, bottom} order, but the dictionary said it was {top, left, bottom, right}.

Other Bug Fixes

• Fixed a crash when modifying a popup in the Inspector.
• Fixed R7176: Static Popup Menu: garbage and crash when modifying a field definition
• Changing the name of an icon now works consistently.
• Fixed R7177: "Save Changes Before..." dialog appeared at inappropriate times.
• R7184: Sequences could hang if the Enter key is pressed at wrong time. A timing issue could cause sequences to pass spurious “Enter” keypresses through to open views, causing a conflict that resulted in Helix hanging. (the easiest way to see this bug is to open a view with a default button, then press and hold the Enter key.) Helix now blocks all Enter keypresses received by views when a sequence is running, except those simulated from “Keypress: Enter” commands.)
• Fixed a bug that caused new icons not to show, drag and drop to fail, etc.
• Fixed bugs in Document Import/Export progress dialog. The text is now correct, and the thermometer progresses along with the file transfer.

Europa remains backwards compatible with all versions of RADE from 6.0 forward.