Release 10 addresses many different areas of the development system from data dictionary maintenance to internal runtime handling in the event of missing program files (whether physically missing or temporarily unavailable to network connection or pathing issues).
Of note however are the many enhancements relating to reporting and printing. A vexing issue that has only occasionally been reported (not just in TAS Premier 7i but also in the TAS Professional 6.x series before it) is a report image (whether actually attached or loaded "on the fly") which while appearing perfectly in order on the preview screen, randomly prints out to the printer as either blank (i.e. leaves white space) or is outlined in black. One user thought the problem started with Windows 10 but in fact it is unrelated to any particular operating system. Some users have thought it related to a printer driver issue. Others suspected that the size or type of the graphic file was the issue.
In fact, it was none of these. And it also had nothing to do with anything in the TAS Premier 4GL development system itself but rather with an underlying third party component that had in turn based its image handling code on the 3GL language used to create modern versions of TAS.
The use of components is a necessary part of Windows programming, but this also shows how a problem with one procedure in one underlying component has a rippling impact on everything that is then built on top of it. Finding an appropriate patch was difficult, but was something we accomplished several months ago.
For the first time, report emulation text files are supported in release 10 and appears as the first option in the print to file drop down box:
(for more about printing to a file, see Printing to a file in Advanced Accounting)
A "Text" option was originally provided by the original publisher of the TAS language and IDE starting with version 6, but its purpose was actually to export specific fields/columns of information in a report, and requires a special setup that is essentially report specific. Its selection would therefore result in a blank page. The RET files instead produce the text (no graphics) equivalent of any existing report including spacing (but no printer specific codes). This is no doubt what was originally intended and provides users with a quick way to output text from a report somewhat similar to what was available in legacy (5.1 and prior) versions most which did not support graphic reports (with the exception of one private label version). Note though that if a report layout relies on auto-sized fields and/or its column spacing is cramped or relies on a variety of differently sized proportional fonts, you should expect that some text may overlap or be truncated, and the resolution for that, if critical, is with the design of the report layout itself, i.e. its RTM.
Also included is support for the first time of report archive files (RAF). We decided against including these in the drop down box (but might add that in the future) associated with "Print to file" since end users would typically not know what they were for, plus they would no have a way to preview/print them without an appropriate viewer and there could be issues with security/confidentiality (although that is certainly true with other types as well). Instead we decided to put this powerful capability into the hands of the developer to create them when needed and we have also provided a new function that allows them to be previewed/printed exactly like any report. Report archive files have many potential uses for storing a report exactly the way it was initially generated, and also for generating reports after hours and then previewing/printing them later. Developers will be in the best position to implement their use.
For the short explanation of other updates including in release 10, see TAS Premier 7i updates. For a detailed explanation, see the help (CHM) file that is included with the update or full download. A PDF equivalent is also separately available and now exceeds 720 pages.
Occasionally there has been more than one TAS Premier release in a single year as there was in 2012 and there was one two year+ period between 2009 and 2011 without an official release. Updates however are made frequently and our goal remains to provide at least one official TAS Premier release per year.
The TAS Premier 7i development system is still completely free as it has been for the last ten years. End user deployment does require an inexpensive runtime license. As future more advanced capabilities are provided, there may be charges for use of those features.
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