Codewright Failure

[rickman]

Newsgroups are my last ditch resource for bugs with old software. I
know Codewright is old and no longer supported. But I have it and I'm
not ready to switch. Meanwhile, something happend while I was running
in safe mode and now Codewright is messed up when running in standard
windows mode.

I can open files, but I can't select anything in them or do any edits.
I can't even position the cursor with the mouse. All the great chroma
formatting is gone.

Any ideas? Is it finally time to bail on Codewright and switch to
Emacs? I tried that once and the initial Emacs screen scared me! It
was totally non-intuitive.

--

Rick C

[John Speth]

I'm a CW user too. My version is 4.0e from 1996 (Win95 days). Over the
past year, I've seen my version having problems starting in 64-bit
windows. Occasionally it will self corrupt some of its binaries. I
keep a zip file of my entire CW32 tree, basically a known good restore
archive. When I suspect a corruption problem, I save the cwright.ini
file somewhere else. Then I delete the CW32 directory tree (safer to
rename and delete later). Then I unzip my restore archive and copy in
the saved cwright.ini file only after I've verified that it's not
corrupted too (which hasn't happened yet). Then things always work.

Of course, you might be experiencing a different set of problems. I
hope I was able to help.

Now I digress:

My CW seems to have some problem starting with 64 bit windows. It will
just freeze on the splash screen. I'd love to know why that happens.
Experimenting with various compatibility modes doesn't solve the problem.

CW hates long directory paths and very long file names. I am certain
that long names cause internal memory corruption. When it happens, CW
reports an out-of-memory error and then disappears. Sometimes after the
same stressing, the edit windows show garbage and I need to restart it.
I find I need to treat her gently occasionally.

I have a bunch of custom DLLs that I use that makes it hard to switch
editors. I haven't found an editor yet that gives me the same
productivity I get with CW. A 20 year relationship with an editor is
hard to walk away from.

I acknowledge that there are many great editors with many advanced
features. But my productivity in keyboard-to-code is always way better
with CW.

JJS

[rickman]

I've got the latest, 7.5. You used to be able to find it on the web
because it was orphaned. But it seems someone bought the rights and is
selling it for $300+. Not sure who would be buying it, but it was
popular with mainframe support people (meaning it was sold with their
other tools so they just bought it too) and maybe there are still those
who just buy the package in order to support some ancient systems
(meaning 20 years old).

If you'd like to update to 7.5, contact me offline. re...@yahoo.com.
I'm in the middle of a web site port... a terrible time for my editor to
be down. I may need to dig out my backups.

--

Rick C

[John Speth]

> If you'd like to update to 7.5, contact me offline. re...@yahoo.com.
> I'm in the middle of a web site port... a terrible time for my editor to
> be down. I may need to dig out my backups.

I tried 7.5 when it came out. Premia changed the API that custom DLLs
would use in that version. It made upgrading impossible for me.

I'm glad to finally find out that somebody else is using ancient CW. I
thought I was the only person in the world.

JJS

[David Eather]

On Sat, 18 Feb 2017 23:12:16 +1000, David Eather <eat...@tpg.com.au> wrote:

> use oracle's virtual machine software and set up any version of OS you
> like. If you can get a video card drive for your graphics software it
> works well.
>


--
Using Opera's mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

[David Eather]

On Sat, 18 Feb 2017 23:13:23 +1000, David Eather <eat...@tpg.com.au> wrote:

> On Fri, 17 Feb 2017 08:17:44 +1000, rickman <gnu...@gmail.com> wrote:
>

[mrfirmware]

I still have my CW CD. Memories... I switched to Eclipse CDT a few years back. Works the same on Linux/Windows/Mac. Good enough. Slick Edit is more like CW if you want to pay for it.

[rickman]

Things aren't looking so good for Codewright. I figured my issue was
file corruption, so I finally dug up my old laptop disk. I copied the
CW directory over to the new laptop and it runs the same. So I guess
the problem is in the registry maybe? Anyone know how to figure that out?

--

Rick C

[John Speth]

> Things aren't looking so good for Codewright. I figured my issue was
> file corruption, so I finally dug up my old laptop disk. I copied the
> CW directory over to the new laptop and it runs the same. So I guess
> the problem is in the registry maybe? Anyone know how to figure that out?

I wonder if the registry is even used with CW 7.5. I know for certain
that my older 4.0e version does not touch the registry.

JJS

[rickman]

Then what else could it be? I found a number of web pages telling you
how to uninstall CW including deleting registry entries. But then when
I bring up Programs and Features I don't see it at all. Maybe my
problem is it has been removed from the registry?

I don't think it is an .ini file problem as it still opens all the files
it had open before the problem started.

I would like to work with Emacs, but it seems so hard to learn. I'll
give it another go today.

--

Rick C

[George Neuner]

On Fri, 24 Mar 2017 16:10:12 -0400, rickman <gnu...@gmail.com> wrote:

>On 3/24/2017 3:54 PM, John Speth wrote:
>>> Things aren't looking so good for Codewright. I figured my issue was
>>> file corruption, so I finally dug up my old laptop disk. I copied the
>>> CW directory over to the new laptop and it runs the same. So I guess
>>> the problem is in the registry maybe? Anyone know how to figure that
>>> out?
>>
>> I wonder if the registry is even used with CW 7.5. I know for certain
>> that my older 4.0e version does not touch the registry.
>
>Then what else could it be?

If the problem is on 64-bit, it could be address space randomization -
particularly if you use any home-grown extensions.


You might try turning it off:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory
Management\MoveImages=dword:00000000.

and reboot.

But be aware that doing so lessens overall system security and could
cause kittens to be harmed.

>I found a number of web pages telling you
>how to uninstall CW including deleting registry entries. But then when
>I bring up Programs and Features I don't see it at all. Maybe my
>problem is it has been removed from the registry?

The latest CW I had was 5.0d. I haven't used it since switching to
Win7, but AFAI recall, by default the only use of the registry is for
file associations.

I also recall there being an option to put INI settings into the
registry rather than a file - but if you didn't do that the CW key was
empty (or nearly so - some useless empty subkey).

>I don't think it is an .ini file problem as it still opens all the files
>it had open before the problem started.
>
>I would like to work with Emacs, but it seems so hard to learn. I'll
>give it another go today.

SlickEdit is [intentionally] very like CW and even has tools to
convert CW projects. https://www.slickedit.com/

UltraEdit also is quite similar to CW functionally, though its
keyboard bindings are different. http://www.ultraedit.com/


If you are willing to go to Emacs - that is learn a new IDE:

Microsoft has released the Visual Studio editor as a stand-alone
product. It's cross platform too: available for Windows, Mac or
Linux. https://code.visualstudio.com/download
IMHO, it's much more usable than Eclipse - but take with salt because
I often use VisualStudio on Windows anyway.


YMMV,
George

[rickman]

On 3/24/2017 10:50 PM, George Neuner wrote:
> On Fri, 24 Mar 2017 16:10:12 -0400, rickman <gnu...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On 3/24/2017 3:54 PM, John Speth wrote:
>>>> Things aren't looking so good for Codewright. I figured my issue was
>>>> file corruption, so I finally dug up my old laptop disk. I copied the
>>>> CW directory over to the new laptop and it runs the same. So I guess
>>>> the problem is in the registry maybe? Anyone know how to figure that
>>>> out?
>>>
>>> I wonder if the registry is even used with CW 7.5. I know for certain
>>> that my older 4.0e version does not touch the registry.
>>
>> Then what else could it be?
>
> If the problem is on 64-bit, it could be address space randomization -
> particularly if you use any home-grown extensions.
>
>
> You might try turning it off:
>
> HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory
> Management\MoveImages=dword:00000000.
>
> and reboot.
>
> But be aware that doing so lessens overall system security and could
> cause kittens to be harmed.

I'm not big on lessening system security, I would *never* do anything to
harm a kitten and I'm not sure what "turning it off" would mean exactly.

>> I found a number of web pages telling you
>> how to uninstall CW including deleting registry entries. But then when
>> I bring up Programs and Features I don't see it at all. Maybe my
>> problem is it has been removed from the registry?
>
> The latest CW I had was 5.0d. I haven't used it since switching to
> Win7, but AFAI recall, by default the only use of the registry is for
> file associations.
>
> I also recall there being an option to put INI settings into the
> registry rather than a file - but if you didn't do that the CW key was
> empty (or nearly so - some useless empty subkey).
>
>
>> I don't think it is an .ini file problem as it still opens all the files
>> it had open before the problem started.
>>
>> I would like to work with Emacs, but it seems so hard to learn. I'll
>> give it another go today.
>
>
> SlickEdit is [intentionally] very like CW and even has tools to
> convert CW projects. https://www.slickedit.com/
>
> UltraEdit also is quite similar to CW functionally, though its
> keyboard bindings are different. http://www.ultraedit.com/
>
>
> If you are willing to go to Emacs - that is learn a new IDE:
>
> Microsoft has released the Visual Studio editor as a stand-alone
> product. It's cross platform too: available for Windows, Mac or
> Linux. https://code.visualstudio.com/download
> IMHO, it's much more usable than Eclipse - but take with salt because
> I often use VisualStudio on Windows anyway.

I want to work with Linux, even if only on the Raspberry Pi. So I
really should get a new editor that runs on both platforms. It's just
such a painful thing to do though. It's almost like having body parts
replaced (and I did that last summer).

--

Rick C

[George Neuner]

On Sat, 25 Mar 2017 15:39:58 -0400, rickman <gnu...@gmail.com> wrote:

>On 3/24/2017 10:50 PM, George Neuner wrote:
>> On Fri, 24 Mar 2017 16:10:12 -0400, rickman <gnu...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> If the problem is on 64-bit, it could be address space randomization -
>> particularly if you use any home-grown extensions.
>>
>>
>> You might try turning it off:
>>
>> HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory
>> Management\MoveImages=dword:00000000.
>>
>> and reboot.
>>
>> But be aware that doing so lessens overall system security and could
>> cause kittens to be harmed.
>
>I'm not big on lessening system security, I would *never* do anything to
>harm a kitten and I'm not sure what "turning it off" would mean exactly.

Address space layout randomization (ASLR) is a guard against some
types of memory based exploits - particularly certain types of buffer
overruns.

When a process is executed under ASLR, the various segments of the
executable - code, data, stack, etc. - are placed at randomly selected
locations within the virtual address space of the process.
[i.e. 2 (or 3) GB for 32-bit, 2**52 bytes for 64-bit].

Note that ASLR affects only the *virtual* addresses used by program
code - physical addresses used by the CPU still are at the whim of VMM
page mapping.

If you disable ALSR globally, or an executable doesn't support it
(more below), then the OS falls back on contiguous placement of the
load segments.
[On Windows, ASLR requires that all the program's load segments must
be placed dynamically. If any segment needs an absolute address, the
program can't use ASLR. If you require ASLR globally (as a policy)
then such programs can't be run.]


ASLR makes it unlikely that any two runs of a program will use the
same addresses, so the locations of exploitable code (if any) with
respect to something a hacker can access - like an I/O buffer - will
be different every time the program executes.

On Windows, unless you enable ASLR globally, it affects only those
executables that were specifically compiled for it. However, it is
the default for 64-bit compilers, and has been available as an option
for 32-bit compilers for a long time [since 2002, IIRC]. Most
commercial 32-bit software uses it.


The problem with ASLR is that a program may depend on assumptions such
as "all heap addresses will be lower than any stack addresses". Under
ASLR, these assumptions may be violated: program segments may be
located anywhere in the address space.

Or a program may have a bug that is normally hidden, but if by chance
ASLR reorders its load segments in a particular way, the seemingly
innocuous bug turns into something fatal.

For 32-bit programs, ASLR also can impact sharing memory among
multiple processes because a particular needed address range may not
always be available. This can affect 64-bit programs too, but the
vastly larger address space makes it much more likely that a
reasonably sized block can be placed wherever you need it.


On the whole, ASLR is a good thing - but it isn't without warts.

George

[David Brown]

If you want to work directly with a Pi, get a Pi 3 - the earlier ones
are a bit too slow for using as a desktop. (They are great for running
specific programs, but it gets painful when it takes a few seconds to
open a new large program.) I find it is easier to do most stuff from a
PC, and only occasionally edit things directly on a Pi. But that is
easier if the desktop is Linux, since it gives you several convenient
ways to swap files and work together with the Pi.

So for an editor that works on the Pi, I usually use nano. It is a
simple command-line editor - fine for making small fixes, and works well
over ssh even on very limited connections. Unlike other popular
command-line editors such as vi and emacs, it works as you would expect
it to.

As for an editor for Linux and/or Windows, I am afraid you are in
trouble - there are vast numbers of them, with a broad range from light
and simple to large and complex. They are all somewhat different from
Codewright - and it is always hard for a "power user" to switch editors.
No matter which editor you pick, you will go through a period where you
feel there are missing features, bad layouts, counter-intuitive
interfaces, etc., simply because it is not the editor you are so
familiar with.

Personally, I use eclipse as my main editor these days, on Linux and
Windows. It works well for what I need, I am used to it, and it is by
far the most common IDE delivered with microcontroller toolchains. But
I would not run it on a Pi, and I fully understand how some people don't
like it.

[Tauno Voipio]

Another vote for Eclipse, but it is large to huge, depending on
how many features are included.

Hardcore Unix people swear by Emacs. It seems to include everything
but a kitchen sink.

--

-TV

[David Brown]

Hardcore unix people are divided into three camps here. Those who live
entirely within emacs (including for email, and as their Usenet reader),
those who think emacs is the work of the devil and the only real editor
is vim, and those who believe there were perfectly usable gui desktops
for *nix by the late 1980's, and believe they can give you more
productive editors than a 80x40 terminal screen.

[Tauno Voipio]

The last group (like me) are indeed heretics, but I do not miss
Flexowriter, ASR-33 or any glass equivalent.

--

-TV

[roricka]

I'm sorry I can't contribute to helping with this specific problem, but
let me add my name to the list of loyal and satisfied CW users -- 28 years
and still going strong with V7.0c. Let me say on occasion I've had trouble
installing on a 64-bit machine, but after monkeying with it I always
manage to get it installed and then, after copying the relevant system
files that contain customization (cwright.ini,cwright.mac and cwright.pst,
as well as lexer.ini), I have had consistently excellent results over the
years. I will say I can no longer access any of the help files, and the
keystroke macro feature seems to have broken (which is a drag). But
everything else is great. I've considered buying SlickEdit and using their
CW emulator (I use CW in Brief (!!) mode but SE supports that), but while
SE has one cool feature I wish I had on CW (the ability to stick colors on
specific text), the trial versions I've used just don't treat multiple
documents with the speed and simplicity that CW has.

Roricka



---------------------------------------
Posted through http://www.EmbeddedRelated.com

[Rick C]

I've tried finding a source of a new install, but the Embarcadero web site doesn't have any mention of it and no support. It is still listed on third party web sites as being in stock, but I'm worried if I buy it and have trouble with the installation I'll be stuck.

Any chance you could share your installation? I would appreciate that.

--

Rick C.

- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

[John Speth]

I'm also a long time user of Codewright (version 4.0e from 1996). No
other editor has satisfied me in terms of getting the code written
quickly. I've carried it forward on all the windows versions since 1996.
Each version of windows made CW work a little worst but MS seemed to fix
the little oddities as windows did incremental updates. It works real
nicely with windows 10.

You don't need the installer if you have a prior installation. All you
need to do is copy the directory tree verbatim TO THE SAME DRIVE AS the
ORIGINAL. If you can't keep the same drive, you'll need to hand edit the
.ini files that refer to the drive letter before you run it on the new
computer.

Problems I've observed with the different windows versions are:
- It stalls loading during the splash screen. Sometimes it eventually
continues after 10 minutes or so, sometimes never. Killing it and
restarting it usually fixes that problem. I use Notepad++ as a backup in
case I can't get CW to load.
- It screws up key repeat timing sometimes when it loads. I have not
found a permanent fix to that but I think if you allow loading to happen
on a mostly inactive computer (very low CPU load), the timing will be
right. This problem is the most annoying because it's not always easy to
make it work right.
- The help system is dead. It relies on .hlp files which are now gone
forever. I never missed it.

[Rick C]

On Thursday, August 1, 2019 at 6:51:41 PM UTC-4, Rick C wrote:
>
> I've tried finding a source of a new install,

I did manage to get Codewright to run on my system again. I'm slowly getting it set up for the work I do.

I can't find the language specific codesense files for Forth or VHDL. Anyone have these?

[quant...@gmail.com]

On Thursday, February 16, 2017 at 5:17:49 PM UTC-5, rickman wrote:

Just to throw my hat in the ring too, but I am also a 4.0e user from 1996. It looks like you can't get 7.5 any more either now (not listed on Embarcadero, anyway). I was looking since I haven't been able to get it running on Windows 10 reliably (although the situation has improved since I first tried). I have decided that I will never be updating the Windows 7 machine I am using now specifically so I can continue to use CodeWright.

I've noticed corruption at times when syncing files with other applications such as Visual Studio. I've noticed that if I get the gray File Modified dialog, it's fine, but if I get the white background one, I need to close without saving and restart since something in memory has been corrupted. As long as I follow my habit to always save before switching applications I'm good.

To the person who was looking for an editor for the Raspberry Pi, I have used CodeWright on Windows and WinSCP to sync files between the two. vi and nano are ok, but...

It has been hard to rationalize $300 for an unsupported application after all these years, but of course, when I'm finally about to bite the bullet, it seems to be gone.

[Rick C]

Just thought I'd update my status here. I am back to banging out code and have Codewright working well enough that I'm using it. The main issue I have is the file dialog not working properly. It usually comes up with the files list blank but with some nudging it shows the contents. If there is a scrollbar moving that will do the job. Otherwise it takes a nudge with the right click or something similar. It also seems to default to icon view rather than details which is awkward.

Then there is the lack of project file management. I don't recall how it was supposed to work. Right now I have something open that lists a lot of projects. To make the file dialog work better I tried setting the compatibility under Windows to WinXP. On reopening CW I no longer had a project file and can't access the dialog to search for them. I expect there is a master file that points to all the project files, but I don't know how to find that or what the file extension is, even with the more functional setup.

The main lament is the lack of color coding for Forth. I used to have a chroma file or whatever they are called. But I can't find it any more and web searches are not fruitful.

Talking about google searches... I did manage to find a working phone number for someone I dated 20 years ago. Google isn't completely pointless.

--

Rick C.

++ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
++ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

[Chris]

Ide systems are ok, but I find a makefiles and gnu command line
tools get the job done, without added layers of complexity,
special file types etc. Also still using nedit editor, simple
clean and just edits files.

If a tool becomes hard work, time to sharpen it or move on :-)...

Chris

[Dave Nadler]

On Friday, October 2, 2020 at 2:52:29 PM UTC-4, Rick C wrote:
>...I did manage to find a working phone number for someone I dated 20 years ago.

Don't keep us in suspense Rick!
Was he happy to hear from you?

[Rick C]

You do realize your comments in newsgroups is immortal, right?

I guess we learn about each other here from every post.

--

Rick C.

[Rick C]

On Saturday, August 10, 2019 at 6:30:32 PM UTC-4, Rick C wrote:
> On Thursday, August 1, 2019 at 6:51:41 PM UTC-4, Rick C wrote:
> >
> > I've tried finding a source of a new install,
> I did manage to get Codewright to run on my system again. I'm slowly getting it set up for the work I do.
>
> I can't find the language specific codesense files for Forth or VHDL. Anyone have these?

I don't recall how, but the syntax coloring for VHDL is working. I think it was there all along and I didn't realize it. I have no idea what file it might be in. I got tired of trying to find syntax coloring for Forth, so I made my own. Now I'd like to back it up, but again, I have no idea where this is stored. I searched for an updated file in the installation directory - no luck, the Windows data directory for the app - no luck, the user directories - no luck. I have no idea where they keep the master file for projects either.

Codewright is very inscrutable!

--

Rick C.

-- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
-- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209