Alpha Five, version 5 is nothing short of a stunning achievement! There are so many new features and improved features it is hard to get a handle on the thing. From the developer's standpoint, ver. 5 is a dream. The expression builder has a big new window and you can set the font type & size as you can within most of the system entities such as the code editor, trace window, etc. Now you can actually see what you are coding in your expressions! You can insert field values as well as the usual field names, functions and so forth. There are handy buttons below the expression window that allow you to click in numbers as well as the commonly used arithmetic and logical operators, quotes, spaces and backspaces. You can evaluate your expression on the first/last and in-between records and you can travel sequentially backwards and forwards between records to test your expression.

The code editor displays xbasic in color - e.g. blue for comments, green for functions, dim variable statements in dark magenta, code in black, etc. There is an auto complete capability built into the code editor that completes expressions for you and allows you to fill in fields and values from a pick list. You can automatically comment or un-comment code by simply highlighting it and clicking an icon; you can format code (i.e. properly indent if...then, case…select, while…wend, etc.) in similar fashion. If you wish, Alpha will scan your code and offer to dimension un-dimmed variables for you and allow you to paste them into your code - perfect for lazy programmers like me! There is a code library that allows you to save & retrieve your favorite code snippets for reuse in your current or other application. Since the code library is an Alpha system feature, you won't have to open one application to retrieve valuable code in order to insert it into another application - it's all right there at your fingertips! You can print or e-mail code directly with a click of the mouse and more. All of these features are extremely valuable and real time savers for development and troubleshooting. As for new functions and xbasic commands, there are literally hundreds. Alpha will have a challenge just to document them all.

When editing forms and reports, etc. the editing toolbars remain open or closed as you left them in your previous session. I for one, would forever be closing the ruler, and displaying the arrange and text toolbars, with each edit of a form or report. This handy little feature is much appreciated and cuts down on the tedium. You can now copy & paste the "appearance" of objects with a click of the mouse. There is a code explorer, which lists all the coded objects on the form along with the code itself, and an object explorer that lists all the object properties and allows you to change them on the fly as well as find a particular object on a form or report by clicking a button. Forms can now sport three different frames - normal (what was up until now the only choice), dialog and tool. Color & font equations now appear in a totally cool spreadsheet like format allowing you to select foreground & background colors/fonts by the click of the mouse. There is much much more.

These are just some of the new powerful features available to the Alpha developer. In short the developer now has expanded and very powerful new tools at his or her command to greatly speed up, control and improve the development process. As for the end user, I have not even attempted to touch upon the massive array of new features. Simply stunning!