I just installed Fresh v2.0.5 alpha, but have several issues (hopefully minor).

1) As installed, Help is unavailable. And I could not get it to work, even after using IDE Options (Helps and Manuals) to point to the FreshGuide.chm file.

2) The program expected %TargetOS% to be set, but it was not initialized as installed. It worked after I modified the .ini file (and then I realized it could be set via the IDE Options, which wasn't clear from the help).

3) I've tried to compile Mandelbrod.asm, then Arrays.asm, then Main.asm (in CharCount example) but each time the compiler would end with "Error: out of memory." Then, after a couple more attempts to compile, the program quickly exited.

Since I can't compile, I can't really test any more.

BTW, I'm using 64-bit Vista Home.

- Eric

1. About the help - As a rule, Fresh IDE supports .hlp and .chm files. The common set (for me) is "FreshGuide.chm" and "win32.hlp" set in "Options|IDE settings|Helps and manuals"
The help is only context - i.e. you have to press F1 from inside some edited text, positioning the text caret on some word.
The FreshGuide.chm is the best I can provide for the moment - unfortunately it is very-very old. Is actually not my work. The author is Decard, who is not in the team anymore. Win32.hlp is product of Microsoft and as such can't be distributed with FreshIDE package. It can be downloaded from Internet.

2. The setting of the environment variables is new feature and as such it is not explained in the documentation. It is briefly explained in the article "Fresh IDE tips and tricks."
There is also another article "How to setup Fresh IDE in Linux and Windows" that explains how to install and setup Fresh IDE.

3. You should load in Fresh IDE not the .asm files, but the related projects (with .fpr extension). In your case Mandelbrod.fpr, Arrays.fpr, etc. The needed memory for compilation is per-project setting and it is properly set in these projects.
For every project you can set different properties from the project options - "Project|Project options".
Of course you can directly compile .asm files as well, but in this case, you must set more memory from "Project|Project options" menu (even without project file loaded). In this case, the setting is valid only until the restart of the IDE.

Regards.

John,

Thank you for responding quickly. That makes a difference, to load the .fpr file for the project (please add that to the manual).

The link you gave for setting up Fresh IDE in Linux and Windows doesn't explain how to set it up for Windows, but rather how to set it up for Linux inside Windows. The first time I saw that (a few weeks ago), I was turned off because I don't have Linux. Others might also be turned off, and I think it would be great if you could describe how to set it up for Windows as a separate option.

As to the help files, please make the F1 key always work. It should pull up the help file no matter what, especially when a dumb user (like me!) presses it to see what help is available -- and when I see nothing, I think it doesn't work. Being context-sensitive is a plus, but please always show something.

I look forward to using this more.

Regards,

Eric

P.S. Several times, within just a few minutes (as I'm loading projects and compiling and running them), Fresh will lock up and quit. That's now happened about three times in the last fifteen minutes for me.

Unfortunately even nearly full documentation is not planed because of my lack of free time, but mainly, because there are many changes planed in the future versions - so any documentation will obsolete very fast.

About the crashes - Fresh was never tested under Vista, so such behavior is pretty normal.
Some more details on this crashes (at least the address where the crash happens) will be useful for the debugging.

Regards.

BTW: Fresh IDE project constantly is looking for developers. The project is open and everyone can help with testing, suggestions or writing new code.
The focus currently is on the portability. The goal is to have one source, compilable natively for different OSes. I mean both - the Fresh IDE itself and the programs created using FreshLib.