Changes from Nutshell 1.0.214 to 1.0.251

• Console and Output windows

  In the console window the user can type and run VBScript commands. Right next to it is the output window and the output window receives output from both print and write commands These commands can be typed in from the console but can also be used in scripts outside Nutshell. So, print "hello world!" will result in a 'hello world!' text in the output window. The output window can be cleared with the cls command.

• Paradigm bar upgraded

  The walnut commands of the active workspace are visible in the paradigm bar. Clicking on them will run those commands or give a dialog in which the user can enter the arguments needed for the command.

• Paradigm names

  Most of the paradigm files now have different names. These names have changed to make them more readable, so the user is immediately aware of what type of paradigm he is dealing with.

  For example: ParHopfield.np changed to Hopfield.np and ParBackProp.np changed to BackPropagation.np

• Single way of parameter access

  In earlier version of Nutshell it was possible to use two notation types when accessing parameters, for example Node1.Parameter("Act") and Node1.Act and these two notation worked exactly the same. The first type of notation has now been removed from Nutshell because of its inconsistency with other types of notation and because it's rather ugly. Nonetheless, it will return in the next version (Nutshell 1.0.252) as Parameters("Act") or Parameters(0) because of some problems with some types of COM interfaces.

• Parameter Object in COM

  Layers, Nodes, Tracts and Modules all have parameters and to read their values in COM it used to be possible to use the Parameter property. This property has been replaced with the Parameter object, which functions quite similar but has some advantages.

  The default property of the Parameter object is Value and as a result of this there is little change in the way of using parameters. But some other properties have been added been as well, so more information can be extracted from them from now on. Here is a list of the new properties:

  • Application - object

    The main application object of Nutshell

  • DefaultValue - variant

    The default value of the object.

  • Help - string

    A string with short help text about the parameter.

  • ExtendedHelp - string

    A string with extended help text about the parameter.

  • Index - long

    The index number of the parameter. In the next version of Nutshell parameters can be accessed by this index too.

  • Levels - short

    Applies only to discrete variables. Returns the number of values which a discrete variable can have. For example: a discrete variable Act has a maximum of 1 and a minimum of -1, the numbers of levels are 3, so the parameter can have 3 values (-1, 0, 1).

  • Max - double

    The maximum value of the parameter.

  • Min - double

    The minimum value of the parameter.

  • Name - string

    The name of the parameter (as found in Walnut, with spaces and all)

  • ReadOnly - boolean

    Indicates wether a parameter is read only or not. True if it is, obviously.

  • Type - long

    Not yet implemented. This property will indicate the type of the parameter.

  • Value - variant

    The actual value of the parameter. The type of value depends on the type of parameter. This can be read from the Type property in the future.

• Some new commands

  Some new commands have been added (apart from the ones mentioned above) to the Application object and I will describe some of them here briefly:

  • Beep

    Makes your computer go beep. (the SystemExclamation sound actually)

  • Cls

    Clears the output window.

  • Wait <milliseconds>

    Nutshell will do nothing for a couple of milliseconds.

  • Print <text>
    Write <text>

    These two commands function both exactly the same. They print text to the output window. The text can be either a variable or a string of text or almost anything. Example:
    Print "Hello world!"
    Print 2 + 3
    Write 16
    

  • Echo <text>
    

    Like Print and Write but now the text is written to the console window.