May 15, 2003 In This Issue Updated support documents   Last call before release freeze   ISDK/C 5.00f Errata   ISDK/C 4.40f Errata   ISDK/C 4.30g Errata   ISDK/Java 5.00f Errata Other Newsletters DevSpace Developer Support For more information and resources, visit ScriptEase: ISDK DevSpace online. Download Center For latest updates and extensions, visit the ISDK Download Center.

Updated support documents A few documents have been updated recently that pertain to many users of the ScriptEase ISDK: Maximizing performance of small scripts on many threads - This item on the support site, which began as a comparison of Mozilla and ScriptEase performance, discusses the options available for maximizing the performance of many small event-driven scripts sharing global configurations and running in multiple threads. This document provides more understanding of how the jseopt.h settings affect performance, how to use seShareReadObject, and how to inherit standard libraries and scripts via global._prototype. ECMAScript for Python developers - This document will help your fellow developers, who may be coming from a Python background, ease into use of our ECMAScript engine. Implementing VoiceXML (VXML) for ScriptEase v5 - This document, which has helped many developers implement the ECMAScript portion of VoiceXML, has now been updated for the version 5 ScriptEase API. Even if you're not doing VXML you may want to read it for some interesting ideas about using ._prototyp vs .__parent__ for inheritance? Last call before release freeze We will soon be freezing code for the next release (5.00g). We will then enter a phase of testing, testing, and more testing; this usually takes a few weeks to get through all platforms and build options. Over the last few months we have received some very good suggestions on improving the ScriptEase ISDK and supporting tools. If there is some area that has been giving you difficulty, or any suggestions that would help with your use of the ISDK, then now is the last chance to let us know before we freeze the code. Send your last-call suggestions to http://support.nombasxxx.com/. Have a question about how to use ScriptEase:ISDK? Let Dr. Scripter know at http://support.nombasxxx.com/

 Errata

   ISDK/C 5.00f

• The #ifdef and #ifndef preprocessor directives behave incorrectly: The #ifdef and #ifndef directives rely on comparisons against the ECMAScript undefined value to determine if a symbol is defined. This behavior causes errors when the directive is applied to an empty macro. [Details]

• Empty #defines can cause errors on expansion: If a preprocessor macro is defined without a body, then errors can occur when that macro is expanded in the script. [Details]

• #define prevents rest of script from being interpreted: When interpreting a script from text, the #define directive causes the rest of the script to be ignored. [Details]

• COMOBJ leaks resources: COMOBJ can leaks resources when working with type libraries and pass-by-ref COM objects. Over time total memory use will grow. [Details]

• seCreateFiber() with JSE_SECURE uses unreleased memory: If compiling with JSE_SECURE defined, then each call to seCreateFiber() allocates about 32 bytes that are not released until the top-level context is destroyed. [Details]

• try/catch grows internal stack: Each try/catch will leave one element on the internal stack. The stack space is restored whenever the containing function returns. But if the function does not return then many try/catch blocks will eventually throw an out-of-stack error. [Details]

• cached prototypes (Array, Function, Object, String) miss __parent__ inheritance: When inheriting through the __parent__ chain, auto-conversion references to Array, Function, Object, and String maybe lost.. [Details]

• "goto" is not standard EcmaScript: ScriptEase implements the "goto" statement, but most other EcmaScript implementations do not recognize the keyword. [Details]

• bad error message, or crash, when "goto" statement is not followed by a label: If a goto is compiled, but is not followed by a proper label, then the error message will be invalid, may display garbage, and may crash. [Details]

• SElib.dynamicLink() expects string lengths to remain constant: If a DLL (or shared object or code fragment) receives a string datum from SElib.dynamicLink() and changes the data in that string so that its length is shorter than the original string, we will assume the length has not changed and store data beyond the end of the string into the passed parameter. [Details]

• seContinueFunc callback does not remove temporaries: If temporary objects or strings are created in your seContinueFunc callback (e.g. via seMakeObject, seGetString, etc...) then those temporaries are not automatically cleaned up when your the seContinueFunc callback returns. [Details]

• eval("var x = 100") returns undefined: Most implementations will return undefined from this eval, but that does not match the ECMAScript documentation. [Details]

• JSE_ALWAYS_IMPLICIT_* flags are not applied to global code: The descriptions for JSE_ALWAYS_IMLICIT_THIS and JSE_ALWAYS_IMPLICIT_PARENTS say that all functions will act is if they had the SE_IMPLICIT_THIS and SE_IMPLICIT_PARENTS flag set. But this is not happening with the global script code. [Details]

• Clib.strtok() fails with seShareReadObject(): If the Clib object is shared in multiple thread via seShareReadObject() and the Clib.strtok() method is called then data will be corrupted. [Details]

• seInternalizeString("###") returns wrong value if ### is not null-terminated: If seInternalizeString is called on a string that represents an integer, and that string is not null-terminated, then the returned sestring may be wrong. [Details]

• Memory corruption on %s error messages: If an error messages is generated with a format string containing the "%s" formatting type, and if the string that %s refers to is very long, then an assert will be generated (in debug mode), or a memory-overwrite will likely cause a crash (in release mode). [Details]

 Errata

   ISDK/C 4.40f

• COMOBJ leaks resources: COMOBJ can leaks resources when working with type libraries and pass-by-ref COM objects. [Details]

• "goto" is not standard EcmaScript: ScriptEase implements the "goto" statement, but most other EcmaScript implementations do not recognize the keyword. [Details]

• bad error message, or crash, when "goto" statement is not followed by a label: If a goto is compiled, but is not followed by a proper label, then the error message will be invalid, may display garbage, and may crash. [Details]

• SElib.dynamicLink() expects string lengths to remain constant: If a DLL (or shared object or code fragment) receives a string datum from SElib.dynamicLink() and changes the data in that string so that its length is shorter than the original string, we will assume the length has not changed and store data beyond the end of the string into the passed parameter. [Details]

• Memory corruption on %s error messages: If an error messages is generated with a format string containing the "%s" formatting type, and if the string that %s refers to is very long, then an assert will be generated (in debug mode), or a memory-overwrite will likely cause a crash (in release mode). [Details]

 Errata

   ISDK/C 4.30g

• COMOBJ leaks resources: COMOBJ can leaks resources when working with type libraries and pass-by-ref COM objects. [Details]

• "goto" is not standard EcmaScript: ScriptEase implements the "goto" statement, but most other EcmaScript implementations do not recognize the keyword. [Details]

• bad error message, or crash, when "goto" statement is not followed by a label: If a goto is compiled, but is not followed by a proper label, then the error message will be invalid, may display garbage, and may crash. [Details]

• SElib.dynamicLink() expects string lengths to remain constant: If a DLL (or shared object or code fragment) receives a string datum from SElib.dynamicLink() and changes the data in that string so that its length is shorter than the original string, we will assume the length has not changed and store data beyond the end of the string into the passed parameter. [Details]

• Stack corruption on %s error messages: If an error messages is generated with a format string containing the "%s" formatting type, and if the string that %s refers to is very long, then an assert will be generated (in debug mode), or a stack-overwrite will likely cause a crash (in release mode). [Details]

 Errata

   ISDK/Java 5.00f

• The #ifdef and #ifndef preprocessor directives behave incorrectly: The #ifdef and #ifndef directives rely on comparisons against the ECMAScript undefined value to determine if a symbol is defined. This behavior causes errors when the directive is applied to an empty macro. [Details]

• Empty #defines ignored: If a preprocessor macro is defined without a body the engine will not consider it 'defined'. [Details]

• Null Pointer Exceptions when working with fibers: Destroying a fiber with seDestroyContext() causes Null Pointer Exceptions to be thrown when interpreting in sibling contexts. [Details]

• seCreateFiber() with JSE_SECURE uses unreleased memory: If compiling with JSE_SECURE defined, then each call to seCreateFiber() creates objects that are not released until the top-level context is destroyed. [Details]

• try/catch grows internal stack: Each try/catch will leave one element on the internal stack. The stack space is restored whenever the containing function returns. [Details]

• cached prototypes (Array, Function, Object, String) miss __parent__ inheritance: When inheriting through the __parent__ chain, auto-conversion references to Array, Function, Object, and String maybe lost.. [Details]