New Interactive Development Environment

SAS/AF provides an intuitive, interactive development environment for applications development. The new BUILD window enables you to drop components onto a frame and then to manipulate the layout and appearance of your application's user interface. Menu commands enable you to compile SCL programs that are associated with the frame and to access other tools in the development environment.

The new design-time development environment uses property sheets for setting attribute values and provides a palette of classes that you can use in your frames. Also supported are multiple active resource entries that enable you to select classes from any available source.

Class Editor

SAS/AF software provides an updated and improved Class Editor for creating new classes or editing existing classes. When you create or edit a class, you can modify or add properties, including attributes, methods, events, event handlers, and interfaces.

There is also a corresponding Interface Editor and a Resource Editor.

Components Window

The Components window enables you to view and select components that you can add to a frame. You can now add a component to a frame simply by selecting the component from the Components window and dropping it onto the frame. With the Components window, you can also manage RESOURCE entries for maintaining class libraries, add or remove classes from a resource, or get help on classes and resources.

Properties Window

You can use the new Properties window to set component properties at build time. You can view, edit, or add attributes, methods, events, and event handlers through this window. For Version 6 classes, the Properties window provides access to both Object Attributes and Region Attributes.

Development Tools

SAS/AF software provides several tools to add applications development efforts.

Class Browser: enables a developer to browse through the class hierarchy, create subclasses, edit classes, copy or delete classes, and view online Help for a selected class.
SCL Analysis Tools: help developers optimize the performance of SAS Component Language (SCL) code in their applications. Tools include a Coverage Analyzer, a List Diagnostic Utility, a Performance Analyzer, and a Static Analyzer.
Cource Control Manager: provides source management for applications development with SAS software. SCM is a full-featured source manager.
GenDoc Utility (experimental): enables developers to generate HTML files that document CLASS, INTRFACE, RESOURCE, and FRAME entries.

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