Modernising Uniface - part 3

Over the past couple of weeks I have posted about Modernising Uniface (and here), and this is the third and final post in this series.

The third post from Theo Neeskens was primarily concerning the new flat buttons, which look like this...

As you can see, the new flat blue buttons, on a white background, are on top of the old grey/grey.

The first thing they needed to do was categorise the different painted button types, and they came up with five...

1. IDFButtonBottom - for the big buttons at the bottom of dialogs
2. IDFButtonSide - for the big buttons at the right-hand side of dialogs
3. IDFButtonSpecial - for the other buttons
4. IDFButtonImage - for the small buttons without labels (eg. ">>")
5. IDFButtonHeader - for the buttons which make up the header on simulated grids

So then there are a few jobs that needed to be done...

• Change the properties in the configuration file for these widget types
• Match modelled widgets with painted widgets
• Set the properties on the painted buttons
• Set the properties on the modelled buttons

Again, many of the these jobs were achieved with tools, and all of these have been provided in a zip file, to be downloaded and modified if you wish, but not supported by Uniface and used at your own risk.

The full blog post is definitely worth checking out, including the "Wishes" section at the end... Modernizing Uniface 9.7: The buttons

Summary: Uniface has successfully (in my opinion!) modernised it's IDE in version 9.7, meaning we don't have to wait for Uniface 10.

Modernising Uniface - part 2

I posted last week about Modernising Uniface, which included my comments about Theo Neeskens post on UnifaceInfo.com.  I received some comments that I was talking purely about the IDE, and not the language itself.  So let me start by stating that this post of about the modernisation of the IDE, and not the language itself.

This time the post is all about the effort it took to make the seemingly simple move from grey backgrounds (which psychologically make software feel outdated) white clean, clear, white backgrounds, like this...

For both of these dialogs, the older grey version sits behind the newer white version.  You can also see the buttons have changed, but we've been promised more about those in the next blog post.

The main problems they hand with this change included...

• Forms having index, foreground or background colour set
• Painted entities having index, foreground or background colour set (and being painted at least 3 characters wide)
• Entities having foreground or background colour set in the model
• Grids not having borders
• Multi-occurrence entities not having borders

A couple of these have been resolved by making new properties available, but all of them required fix programs to find the affected items and update them to the new properties.  All of the tools have been provided in a zip file, to be downloaded and modified if you wish, but not supported by Uniface and used at your own risk.

I've had my hands on Uniface 9.7 now (which I hadn't when I wrote the first post) and I can say that it definitely feels more up-to-date, and I agree that the white backgrounds and blue buttons are a large part of that.  We've actually been changing our web offering to a similar colour scheme over the past few months, so I can't disagree with their choice!

Again, the full blog post is definitely worth checking out... Modernizing Uniface 9.7, Part 2.

Summary: Uniface is modernising it's IDE, and we're not going to have to wait for Uniface 10 to get in on the action.

Modernising Uniface

Uniface have been putting a lot of work into the new Uniface 10 IDE, and this is something I'm looking forwards to getting my hands on, but it could be a while yet.  Good things come to those who wait, they say.

Well the good news is that the delays in Uniface 10 have led to the decision to release a Uniface 9.7.  Whilst they may be planning to put limited time into this, whilst focusing their efforts on Uniface 10, it looks like they have big plans to modernise.

In the first of a 10 part series, Theo Neeskens has outlined the objectives and the first set of changes - the start screen.

The objectives were straightforward enough...

1. New start page - Windows 10-esque - big change.
2. Change grey backgrounds to white backgrounds.
3. Use trendy flat buttons.
4. Fresh look and new colour scheme - something different.

Looks like they met the objectives, based on these screenshots...

Now that's a radical change!  I think changes like this will be very well received, and help stop people getting such a negative first impression of Uniface as a language.

The full blog post is definitely worth checking out... Modernizing Uniface 9.7 in 10 easy steps.

Summary: Uniface is modernising, and we're not going to have to wait for Uniface 10 to get in on the action.