There are many new facilities with this release. The major ones are ...

• Customisation of the initial state of !Reporter is now handled (transparently) by !ConfiX, rather than by editing the Choices file manually.
• The Boot Logging facilities can now be specified using the new !ConfiX customisation, with !Boot files being automatically added, removed or updated, rather than using obey files and the Installer module.
• A new facility for a Basic BackTrace. This enables a trace to be specified in a Basic program, but not displayed. However, if there is an error and *ReportError is used, it will then display the latest lines of the Trace up to the error.
• Major re-write of SWI Vector intercept code, so RMA Monitoring and TaskInitialisation and Close are now available on the Iyonix.
• Major re-write of Redraw window code. Now faster, particularly with larger Text Area sizes (reductions from 30% up to 60%). Also protected against stray control characters corrupting the screen when Reported.
• The Report Log facility has had a significant performance improvement. It is about 5 times faster than before, and the disc does not sound demented!
• Added Command submenu for Time, Source, and Obey.
• A new option to open the Reporter window at startup.
• Added Pause/Update facility for display.
• Added new ReportStack command (see !Help)
• Added *ReportObeyOn/Off option, and highlit Obey commands.
• Added new *ReportPush & Pull commands to save/restore Status.
• Ctrl-Up and Ctrl-Down now act just as Home and End.

• Basic programs can display text, values of variables, evaluated expressions, and storage, just with commands - NO additional Basic PROCs or FNs.
• All OS Commands executed can be displayed, including any error messages, and optional Time and Source.
• Any Error or WimpError messages and codes can be displayed.
• ReportDump command for displaying storage.
• ReportTrace command for displaying Basic TRACE output (on Iyonix indents and reports ENDPROC/ENDFN.)
• ReportPoll command for easy displays of WimpPoll reason codes.
• ReportWhere command for displaying information about the latest abort.
• ReportBreak procedure to set up Breakpoints, where variables can be displayed and changed.
• ReportRma commands to display arr RMA storage Claims, Frees and Extends.
• ReportTask commands to display all Wimp Task Inits and Closes.
• Anything written to file system Report will be displayed.
• Anything output after VDU 4 from a task will be displayed.
• The text and background can be coloured in many of the Wimp colours.
• Reporting can be turned On or Off, from the program or externally.
• The display can be saved to a file, with an automatic numeric suffix.
• Basic memory usage summary can be displayed.
• Basic Errors can be displayed, and Throwback invoked to display the line in error.
• Obey files can display text, and values of OS Variables.
• Assembled code can display text, and values of registers.
• Ada95 code can display text, and values of OS variables.
• Help information in StrongHelp format for ease of use.
• All Reporter commands can be used during the whole RISC OS !Boot sequence.
• Choices file to set initial startup customisation.
• Will run on RISC OS v3, v4, and Iyonix v5 in 32 bit mode.

• This takes any text passed to it and displays it in the Reporter window.
• If an OS variable is found it will display <variable>=value.
• If \t is found, it will display the time.
• If a Basic variable name is found, it will display name=value.
• If a Basic expression is found in brackets (), it will display (expr)=value.
• If a numeric Basic variable or expression is preceeded by a ~ sign the output is in Hexadecimal.

• Turns Reporting On for all RISC OS Commands executed - including Aliases, Comments and empty lines.
• Each Reported command line can start with a optional timestamp.
• If a command returns an error message, it will be displayed with a Red Background.
• Reporter can be started in !Boot.!Run, enabling all commands run during Boot to be seen.

• Turns Reporting On for any Errors, which will then display giving the time, the Error Number and the Error Message, all with a Red background. This can be useful if you want to look back over the exact error messages, or copy them for a bug report.
• If it was a Wimp Error, displayed in an error box, any Task Name is also displayed. (RISC OS v3.50+)

• Clears the Reporter window, then displays any text.
• It can also be used from the Reporter menu.

• These commands will turn all reporting Off/On.
• They enable easy control over which reports are produced without adding/removing many other commands.
• They can also be used from the Reporter menu.

• Displays the storage from the expression (start) for (length) bytes, with display width of (width), in Hexadecimal and Character format, with the address of each line and the offset of the line from the beginning.

• Displays the output from a Basic TRACE command, which can help detailed investigation of small parts of a program.
• The normal Basic TRACE cannot be displayed to the screen from a Wimp program in realtime, without splatting it all over the screen, so it is not much use. *ReportTrace enables it to be easily used.

• This command is intended to be placed in an Basic error handling routine.
• It will display the error and error line in the Reporter window.
• If Throwback was specified, a Throwback window will open with the filename, and the error line and message. Clicking on this line will load the program into Zap (or another suitable Throwback Handler) if not already loaded, then display the program in error at the line in error.

A simple Basic program ...

... and the Reporter display

!ReportTA

!ReportRMA

Note that they are both included in the Reporter archive, but also need ArmSort to run.

If you already have v2.62 or v2.63, you can download a smaller update archive by clicking on !Reporter (56 kByte Zip Archive) which will bring v2.62 or v2.63 up to v2.64b. This archive was updated on 2nd April to include module v2.64b, which is a small bug-fix of v2.64a.

If you already have v2.64 or v2.64a, you can download an even smaller update archive by clicking on !Reporter (17 kByte Zip Archive) which just includes module v2.64b, which is a small bug-fix of v2.64a.

If you are running on an A9home, AND you already have v2.64, v2.64a, or v2.64b, you can download an small update archive by clicking on !Reporter (17 kByte Zip Archive) which just includes module v2.64d, which is a small bug-fix of v2.64b to avoid problems when trying to use SWI Report_Regs on an A9home.