[These are notes from 4D Summit 2008]

Dot notation vs. the language - They've been working on a new language for 4D. They'll be following ECMAScript. It's too early to be specific.

SQL Views - not in v11, but should be in the next version.

Components will have data files in the next version - part of the concept of a project.

QuickReports - they're being actively discussed at 4D France. They're thinking about a web-based interface that also works offline, but nothing definite yet. Still, it's safe to say there's a major upgrade coming.

Array of blobs will come with the new language. The problem with the current version is that characters within blobs use array element notation, so it's confusing to the compiler. However, in 11.2 you can use an array of pictures and put blobs in them.

They will be going back and improving 4D Write.

List boxes can how have multiple lines of text per cell - just put a carriage return (v11.3).

Plugins will change substantially with the new language. DLLs will be directly supported. At the same time there will be backwards compatibility with v11 plugins.

4D Draw functionalities will be replaced with SVG-based tools. There will not be any 4D Draw command-compatible tools.

They're working on 4D Server to 4D Server replication. They're dealing with issues around unique IDs and tools to determine what has changed between two snapshots. The tools will be programmer-oriented, not end-user oriented.

There are plans to have dynamically created objects on a form, Laurent R. keeps asking Laurent E. to get it done and it keeps not getting done  ;)   (the next version)

There are plans to change the user environment - navigating tables, etc. They want the UI to be web-like.

No new features in v11, after v11.3. Bug fixes are the near-term priority.

No plans to provide jdbc driver for v11, but it shouldn't be too difficult to port what's done in 4D for Flex to Java since the languages are similar. They think it would take about a month, but they don't want to do it or support it.

No 4D Open for v11.

If you have several 4D Servers running on the same machine don't use the automatic memory management it will cause the 4D Servers to fight with each other.

They will reintroduce the ability to have data segments and say which tables are stored in which segment and where you want to store large objects (text, pictures, blobs). Maybe in the next version.

In the next version the server will be faceless and run as a service.

Can't promise 4D Server running on other platforms, but they have plans.

The application server port is the "old way" (cooperative). The DB4D port is the access to the multithreaded part of the application. The old port will remain for a long time since there are many lines of code written in the current language.

You can have too much cache on both v2004 and v11, but for different reasons. On v11 the reason is because you may starve other things running on the server because cache is forced into physical memory. Cache can be in virtual memory on standalone. On 2004 internally it can get so big that it gets more complicated to manage the cache than it's capable of doing quickly.

Categories: 4D