FlowStone Version History and Release Notes

Below you will find the release notes for each version of the software.

Version 3.0.9 BETA2 (not available to download)

This is the second and final beta before release of 3.0.9.

As there have been so many significant changes we've had to take some time to make sure this version has sufficient real world testing to turn up any unforseen issues. Thanks to everyone who has helped with this - your bug reports and comments have been invaluable.

Mostly this release contains fixes but there are a couple of new features. You can now add separators in pop-up menus in Ruby by entering 5 dashes ("-----") as the item name. A separator will be created instead of the text.

In the first beta We had to change the file format in order to accommodate the new editor features. This meant that you could almost never take files created by the beta and load them into version 3.0.8 or earlier, even if none of the new components had been used. To get round this there's a new 'Save As Version 3.0.8' option on the file menu.

IMPROVEMENTS

New option to add separators in pop-up menus in Ruby by using the string "-----" as the item name
New save as 3.0.8 option under the File Menu allows you to save a file in a form that may be load into earlier versions of the software

FIXES

Fixed the issue with edit boxes not being clickable under certain conditions
Fixed a problem with the Ruby gridStep method appearing to show the wrong value
Fixed a crash that can occur if one or more modules get out of sync
Fixed the array to mem component so that it no longer causes crashing and errors when deleting it from a module
Fixed the colour of local datatypes so that they show as green instead of purple in ASM
Fixed the mechanism for loading schematics created in more recent versions of the software
Fixed an issue where stream inputs switch to doubles when the same module has a stream output
Fixed a problem with some oscillators where a negative input value would cause glitches
Fixed the Midi to Voices component so that MIDI notes no longer get stuck when using the Sustain pedal
Fixed a resource leak in the code and text editors
Fixed a problem with the Delay primitive not working
Fixed an issue with touch screen right-click simulation not working
Fixed mousewheel support which wasn't working in exported VST plugins
Fixed the edit component so that after editing it doesn't show the text when in password mode
Fixed the mouse handler methods in Ruby so they now pass the View input index
Fixed mousewheel support in Focus Mode and exported EXEs
Fixed a crash in the Poly To Mono component
Fixed a problem with the dimensions of exported VST plugins not being correct
Fixed a crash that can occur when dragging a module from the toolbox

Version 3.0.9 BETA1 (not available to download)

For the first time we've decided to release a public beta for the next version of FlowStone. The software has undergone some quite significant restructuring under the hood so we really need your help to give it a thorough test.

The biggest change has been to the assembler and DSP code compilers. These have had a complete overhaul and there are loads of new features and addition that we hope you will find really useful.

In addition to the compiler changes we've added some neat features to the editor components. These cover the Assembler, DSP Code, Ruby and Text primitives. You can now add bookmarks for easy jumping between sections of code. If you make the component wider you'll now see line numbers and these can be used in the new Goto Line feature.

We now have mouse wheel support in the form of a new Mouse Wheel component and also in Ruby as well. This is something that has been requested for some time so we're really pleased to finally be able to bring this to you.

On top of that there are a load of other niceties, fixes and enhancements which we hope will make your FlowStone experience even better.

Due to the new assembler, there might be some issues with stream primitives or old assembler code that you have written. We couldn't check all of these, so please just report the issues if you find any and we'll take a look.

IMPROVEMENTS

New line number display when a Ruby, Code, Assembler or Text component is made wide enough
New bookmarks support in code and text editors. Use: [CTRL+F2 to set, F2/SHIFT+F2 to find next/prev] [CTRL + 0/1/2/... to set label, ALT + 0/1/2…. to find label]
New Goto Line Number support n code and text editors. Use: [CTRL+G]
New error line highlighting for DSP Code and Assembler components
New Mousewheel primitive for handling mouse wheel input in your GUIs
New support for mouse wheel input in Ruby using def mouseWheel x,y,w
New password mode for Edit controls made using the createEdit Ruby method. Usage: createEdit input, id, area, [startText [,font [,textColour [,backColour [,multiline] [,passwd]]]]] where passwd is a boolean
New global ID output on Voices To Poly primitive provides a unique ID for every voice over the schematics lifetime
New Double Stream connector type
New Packed Double connector type
New optimised Poly To Mono component
New Max Poly to Mono primitive outputs the highest value of all Poly streams
New Min Poly to Mono primitive outputs the lowest value of all Poly streams
Improved sawtooth and triangle oscillators so they use bigger wavetables by adding more harmonics at lower base frequency
Improved speed of generating sawtooth and triangle wavetables resulting in faster load times for VST plugins and EXEs
Improved CPU usage readout now takes into account the number of processor cores
Improved launch time by optimising the update check

FIXES

Fixed a problem with voices getting stolen unnecessarily during voice management
Fixed a bug in the MIdi To Multi Voice so that the oldest releasing voice is now stolen first
Fixed an aliasing bug in the triangle oscillator
Fixed a crash that could occur on schematic close or when switching between schematics
Fixed a problem with networking not working when multiple network adapters are installed
Fixed a bug with the connector type selector when using multiple monitors
Fixed a bug in Ruby where @x could not be used as a variable
Fixed some incorrect trigger behaviour in the Signal Analyser
Fixed a small bug on the toolbox where hovering to the left of the search bar was showing the tooltip for the tag open/close button
Fixed a small glitch with caption graphics

NEW ASSEMBLER COMPILER

Improved support for nearly all SSE/SSE2 instructions
Improved support for all 32bit registers are now supported in all instructions that use them
New double inputs and outputs . Use: streamdoublein or streamdoubleout
New float and int array inputs. These work in the same way as memin. Usage: floatarrayin x[n]; or intarrayin x[n]; where n is the maximum array size
New mem reference input that can give you direct access to the memory of a mem. Usage: memrefin in;
The variable is then a packed int with the channels set up as follows:
ch1 = absolute address, ch2 = size in bytes, ch3 = size in floats, ch4 = number of channels (for wave memory only)
New support for double precision local variables. Usage: double x=1.234;
Improved variable declarations so you no longer need to specify an initial value
New channel specific initialisation allows you to set a different value for each channel. Usage: float x = {1,2,3,4};
New all variable types (float/double/int) can be initialised with bitmasks using hex notation. Usage: float ABSMASK = 0x7FFFFFFF;
New all variable types (float/double/int) support arrays
New disassembler for audio outputs, signal analyser and poly to mono, to support the new assembler opcodes
New disassembler outputs opcodes as comments (this is mainly for debugging)
Improved stability by adding more crash proof construction: when there is a bug in the code, we don't allow to run a single line of it
Fixed a problem with syntax highlighting in the editor
New support for indirect addressing on all memory accessing instructions. For example:

movaps xmm0,var[1];
movaps xmm0,var[eax];
movaps xmm0,var[eax+ebx];
movaps xmm0,var[eax*4+ebx];
movaps xmm0,var[eax*4+ebx+1234];
movaps xmm0,[1234];
movaps xmm0,[eax];
movaps xmm0,[eax+ebx];
movaps xmm0,[eax*4+ebx];
movaps xmm0,[eax*4+ebx+1234];

NEW DSP CODE COMPILER

New float array input. This works in the same way as memin. Usage: floatarrayin x[n]; where n is the maximum array size
New channel specific initialisation allows you to set a different value for each channel. Usage: float x = {1,2,3,4};
New float variables can be initialised with bitmasks using hex notation. Useage: float ABSMASK = 0x7FFFFFFF;
Improved tracking of used registers to increase speed of generate assembler output
Improved and optimised some builtin methods so that they execute much more quickly. For example, the abs() function uses a bitmask now
New ternary operator. Usage: y = (x > 0) ? 1 : 2;
New support for nested loops ie. a loop section inside another loop
New x to the power of y operator. Usage: x^y
New binary not operators. Usage: ! or ~
New channel specific addressing allows you to read from or write to particular SSE channels. Usage: y{1,2} = x{0,3};
New channel specific broadcasting allows you to send a value from one SSE channel of a result to all the others. Example: z(1) = x+y; will copy the value of x+y channel 1 to all channels of z
New broadcasting and channel addressing can be combined. Example: y{1,2}(1) = x;
Full list of supported functions: pow,sign,abs,exp,sqrt,log10,log2,ln,rndint,int,sin1,cos1,tan1,max,min
Improved performance due to use of enhanced caching

Version 3.0.8 SKYLARK

The focus of this release is coding! First off we've given the Assembler component a bit of a spring clean and fixed some of the anomalies that were ruining the syntax highlighting when using certain opcodes. We've also thrown in a bunch of new opcodes which we hope will open up many new possibilities for all you DSP coders out there. The User Guide now contains a section on the Assembler component as well as a list of supported opcodes.

On the Ruby programming side we have a new feature called Code Snippets. This allows you to organise all those handy bits of code you use often into one place so you can access them easily whenever you need them. We've included some commonly used code snippets as standard which will hopefully mean that this feature is useful for learning Ruby too. Check out the section on Code Snippets in the updated User Guide for more on this. We hope you'll find it really useful.

We've been working on trying to improve the Ruby timeout. This is the failsafe that kicks in if any Ruby code starts to take too long to complete or enters an infinite loop. Unfortunately the existing system often ended up creating a waterfall effect, whereby one component times out while waiting for another, the end result being that all Ruby components end up being shut down.

In Skylark we've found a way to implement the timeout so that this waterfall effect never happens. Also, as well as the global timeout (in the Settings) you now have control of the timeout for each individual Ruby component should you want to change this. Use the timeout method to see what this is currently set to (in millisecs) and setTimeout to change it. Timeouts are not saved so make sure that put your setTimeout call inside your init method.

IMPROVEMENTS

New opcodes for the Assembler component
New Code Snippets for Ruby Component
New per Ruby component timeout and enhanced timeout handling
New LED Strip Claw component allows you to connect to 5V addressable 60 LED strips from your FlowPaw
Improved the Mem Create component so that it now sends out a trigger after loading

FIXES

Fixed an issue where the software could crash when switching Direct Sound on and off
Fixed a problem with clicking when stopping all notes for a VST plugin in a host
Fixed a the connector description labels which were drawing at too large a size
Fixed a problem with the Mem Address component so it now gives a zero value for address and size if there is no valid Mem connected
Fixed a number of issues with syntax highlighting failing on various Assembler opcodes
Fixed an issue with the Mem Create component so it now zeroes all values initially

LIST OF NEW OPCODES

psrld xmm, xmm / xmm, var
pmuludq xmm, xmm / xmm, var
paddd xmm, xmm
sub reg, reg / reg, var
psubd xmm, xmm / xmm, var
jmp label / int
mulpd xmm, xmm / xmm, var
xorps xmm, xmm / xmm, var
andnps xmm, xmm
movd xmm, reg / xmm, var / var, xmm
movss xmm, var / var, xmm / xmm, xmm
cvttps2dq xmm, xmm / xmm, var

You can also now use ebx, ecx and edx in the following opcodes:

add reg, reg
add reg, var
sub reg, reg

Version 3.0.7 CHERRY

This update fixes a few bugs and also introduces more click board support for FlowPaw.

We have added support for two new click boards: RFID, which reads RFID tags and Gyro which is a 3-axis gyroscope. There's also a new BalanceBot component which makes it easier to create self balancing robots.

There were a few bugs we wanted to clear up which came as a result of the last release so these have now been rectified.

IMPROVEMENTS

New FlowPaw support for RFID and Gyro click boards
New BalanceBot component for making self balancing robots using FlowPaw
New getViewPos method in Ruby allows you to find the position of the view in the parent panel

FIXES

Fixed a bug in the Indexer component that caused it to fail when you connected multiple links from the same output
Fixed a problem with the new bitmap saving in Ruby components being too slow and using too much disk space
Fixed an issue with File|Open not working in FlowStone STEM on Windows XP
Fixed a bug that was causing Ruby errors to appear on loading when the Ruby code has no 'event' method

Version 3.0.6 PEBBLE

This release fully supports our new FlowPaw board. There are 11 new components to alow you to connect to both the board and our initial set of click boards. We already have support for several more click boards in the works and we'll be adding them in the near future.

We're also introducing a feature that's been on our hit list for some time and that's Find and Replace for Code, Ruby and Text components. Click in any of these components then use CTRL+F to find text. Press F3 to find again. To replace text use CTRL+H. You can Find and Replace within the whole text or a defined selection. Once you've tried it, you'll wonder how you ever managed without it.

To make timers and callbacks much easier with Ruby, we've added a new 'scheduleMethod' method. You pass this the name of the method you want to call (as a string) and then any arguments that the method needs, followed by the time at which you want the method to be executed. It's dead easy to use and makes code much more readable compared to using the 'input' method. Have a look inside the updated 'Ticker - Custom' module for an example of how to use this. See the Scheduling Events section of the updated user guide for more information.

As well as all this we have a many more smaller enhancements and some important fixes for audio and midi stability that were making a nusiance of themselves. See the summary below for full details.

IMPROVEMENTS

New FlowPaw component plus associated claw components to support the click boards
New Find and Replace in all edit components
New Indexer component for translating a set of triggers into an integer result
New Ruby method 'scheduleMethod' allows you to call a method at some fixed time in the future
New clicking stop for a second time in your host will now stop all playing audio
New Ruby 'schematicLocation' method gives you the folder that the schematic currently resides in
New Bitmaps are now stored at Ruby component inputs and bitmaps stored at outputs are now saved with the schematic
New the Ruby playSound method so it looks in the folder containing the schematic file and use relative paths to this as well
New support for 'runas' in Shell Execute component allows you to run exes that need elevated User Access Control
New option to change the Ruby timeout limit on Settings|Advanced page
Updated the 'Ticker - Custom' module to use the new scheduleMethod method

FIXES

Fixed a problem with local toolboxes reappearing after being removed
Fixed a problem which was causing intermittent crashing when using MIDI in Ruby components
Fixed a problem with crashing when changing preset while playing a note and other general audio instability
Fixed a problem with voice tags being reversed when reinstating stolen notes
Fixed copy and paste of non-curved links which were changing to curved after pasting
Fixed a problem with the Ruby component so that the init method is now called after loading the input values
Fixed a bug in the HID component which could sometimes lead to crashing

Version 3.0.5 AMBER

This release adds a new feature for education which allows teachers to create schematics that have a built in set of goals for a student to achieve. The progress can be shown as the student works with the schematic and progress is saved with the schematic as well. Teachers can then use FlowStone to scan a set of schematics and summarise the progress for each student, class or year group.

For audio users we now have mem inputs for the Code and Assembler components which allows you to use data from Mem components just like arrays in your code. Also on the audio side there's a new channel id output on the Voices to Poly which gives each channel on each sound process a unique id and can be used to achieve a number of different effects.

To make building your GUI even easier, we've added sub level editing for front panels. Simply double-click on a module on the front panel and you can then edit that module's front panel right there in-place without having to switch up and down through the module hierarchy. Double-click on an area outside of the sub module to go back up a level. Clicking on the schematic will reset back to the top level. If you press X while editing a panel you can hide all the selection adornments and sub-level masking. This can make it easier to see how your GUI will look after editing. You can still make adjustments to elements with the adornments hidden.

Individual links can now be made curved or straight. Right-click on a link to togle between the two or to make a link have straight line segments hold SHIFT + CTRL when adding the first control point. We've also made it much easier to pick out control points on links that overlap. Previously, if you had links whose control points were near each other it could sometimes be impossible to select the point you wanted to move. Now all you do is hover on the link you want and as long as that link stays highlighted you get to edit the points on that link alone.

Another improvement on the GUI building side is the ability to position, move and hide a module's panel from within Ruby. This makes it easy to create expanding pop-up windows and such like. You can also animate parts of your interface more easily. See p170 of the update user guide to learn how this works.

There are several other new features and a whole bunch of fixes as well, see below for details.

PLEASE NOTE we have changed the install so it puts system modules in the FlowStone install folder and not in AppData. This is so that the system modules can be shared on multi user systems. If you have installed any of the module packs then you will need to install the new versions of the packs as well (or move the existing modules). Your own modules remain in AppData and will not be affected.

IMPROVEMENTS

New TeachingGoal and GoalProgress components allow educators to set students tasks and monitor progress
New Ruby extractGoalData method allows you to parse the schematics in a folder and extract all Teching Goal data
New sub level editing in front panels
New option to set whether an individual link is curved or has straight line segments
New Code and Assembler components can have Mem inputs via the memin declaration type
New Mem Address component gives you the address of the raw data in a Mem
New channel id output on VoicesToPoly component gives you a unique id for each channel across all active sound processes
New polyintin and polyintout declaration types in Code and Assembler components
New Ruby setViewSize method allows you to change a modules GUI size and position
New Ruby setShowInParent method allows you to hide a modules GUI in its parent front panel
New Ruby playSoundFile method allows you to play a sound from a file asynchronously
New Measurement Computing USB-TEMP component
New send queue size (in bytes) output for the COM Port component
Improved resolving of link control points so that it's easier to grab the point you want to move when many links overlap in a small area
Improved the COM Port component sending mechanism
Improved the software install so that system modules and initial tags are put in the FlowStone folder in Program Files allowing the software to work on multi user systems

FIXES

Fixed a bug in the Phidgets component which was causing them to lock on and prevent proper redraws
Fixed a bug where properties weren't showing when pasting property components or modules with properties inside a module with the properties panel open
Fixed a problem where the Swap Links option was missing from Schematic menu
Fixed the HID component which was only allowing 64 characters of hex when it should be 64 bytes (128 characters of hex)
Fixed an issue where double-clicking on some files would cause a crash but the same files would load normally from the File menu
Fixed a crash with in the Ruby component which would sometimes occur when adding or removing connectors
Fixed a major memory leak in all the I/O components including the COM Port component
Fixed a problem with rendering captions on some modules
Fixed a problem with crashing and hanging when switching between schematics that use DirectSound or ASIO
Fixed a bug in the ArrayBuilder components where removing more than one link at a time from an input and then undoing caused an error
Fixed Multiply and Divide weren't initially shown with the Maths tag
Fixed the embed dlls option when exporting was not being remembered between sessions
Fixed a problem with the Navigator and Toolbox resizing not working when running a schematic with lots of events being processed
Fixed a memory leak in exported VST plugins
Fixed an issue where the Stream version of the IsPlaying component won't work unless a Bool/Value version of the IsPlaying component is present
Fixed a problem with the software hanging sometimes when using AboutToClose components
Fixed a crash when, in the middle of following a wireless link you change the name or type of the currently followed item and then continue to the next one
Fixed a crash that can occasionally occur with the HID component
Fixed the ClearSends input on the COM Port component as it wasn't working before
Fixed a memory leak in the events system
Fixed a problem with some exported VST plugins hanging the host when closed if there were many instances open

Version 3.0.4 BLUEBIRD

In this update we are very pleased to present a feature that has been requested for a long time - the ability to make your own components using external dlls. This is a huge feature and it really opens up a whole new world of possibilities.

We've worked hard to try and make this as simple to use as possible. There is a whole section in the user guide on it (see DLL Component) and we will have examples on the support area. One cool aspect of this is the ability to embed dlls which allows you to make stand alone primitives. Whether you're a programmer or not, we think you're really going to like the benefits that this brings.

For educators we have introduced a feature called Local Toolboxes. This allows you to easily create a reduced toolbox so that students are only presented with the components they need to perform a particular task. The toolbox is local to a schematic and can be saved with it too. The feature may also be useful for power users who want to keep their own toolbox of favourite components to use with particular schematics.

We have a host of other improvements and fixes as well to make your experience even better, including enhancements to the COM Port component and improved VST preset file handling.

IMPROVEMENTS

New DLL component
New local toolboxes
New About To Close component
New launch file into focus mode option
Improved the preset system so you can load existing fxp/fxb files after you add or remove presets
Exported exes now embed the Ruby dll so it doesn't have to be extracted on launch
The Text Save, Bitmap Save, Preset Text File components all now create the folder path if it doesn't exist
Changed the MidiToVoices component so that we steal releasing notes in preference to held ones
Removed the splash screen from the software as it was sonetimes slowing startup and causing the odd crash too
Made some big improvements to the COM Port component to increase performance including running the connect in a separate thread
The Exe Zoom and Exe Full Screen components now work in Focus Mode

FIXES

Fixed the Schematic File Path component which wasn't initialising on loading
Fixed it so that timers do not fire during loading for exe and VST
Fixed a problem that was causing exported exes to show as using 100% cpu because the idle wasn't working correctly
Fixed a crashing problem with playing MIDI notes when changing preset or doing anything that might cause a redraw to occur
Fixed a crash when moving from focus mode back to editor and Ruby components are present
Fixed a problem that could occasionally cause a crash on launch
Fixed several issues that could cause thread locking in the events processing

Version 3.0.3 RAINDROP

In this release we have two new primitives for connecting to external hardware. The DMX primitive allows you to connect to a massive range of compatible lighting products. The HID primitive will interface with any Hardware Interface Device compatible hardware. Most input devices adhere to this standard but it's not just about games controllers, there is a wide range of hardware that uses HID. With this new primitive you can now create your own device using a PIC and use FlowStone to talk to it.

To enhance the UI building capabilities of Ruby in FlowStone even further we've now added the ability to create in place edit controls, drop lists and message boxes. Previously you would have had to use external primitives to handle these features. It was awkward and messy but now it is incredibly easy.

Toolbox scrolling using a mouse wheel has been vastly improved with the addition of a new Adaptive Scrolling feature. This makes the scroll speed change depending on how quickly you move the mouse wheel. You can now scroll slowly when you need precision or whizz through the toolbox in seconds when you want to get somewhere fast. There's a new Toolbox tab on the Options dialog where you can adjust the scrolling to your taste. There's also a new option here to determine how toolbox filters are combined.

For audio users we have finally found a solution to Ruby sharing for VST plugins. The ruby dll no longer needs to be distributed with exported plugins because we now link it directly with our code. As a result of this each plugin now has its own Ruby interpreter, no more worrying about potential conflicts with other people's plugins. This also solves a problem we were having with compatibility between plugins generated with different versions of FlowStone. As a result of this change VST plugins can't use Ruby extensions. We may be able to get this to work later down the line but it's not guaranteed. For now we think it's a small price to pay as the benefits of this solution massively outweigh this small downside.

As well as this there are a host of other fixes and improvements.

IMPROVEMENTS

New DMX primitive for controlling lighting devices
New HID primitive for connecting to a huge range of external controllers and boards
New In Place Edits from Ruby code
New Ruby Drop Lists from Ruby code
New Message Box handling in Ruby code
New Adaptive Scrolling feature in Toolbox (see new Toolbox page in Options to control this)
New way of handling exported VST plugins so there is no dependency on the ruby dll and no inter plugin Ruby sharing
New Ruby getInterpolationMode and setInterpolationMode methods for controlling bitmap rendering
New Follow Sync Modules feature
New Schematic File Path primitive
New Paste input on the Bitmap primitive allows you to paste a bitmap from the clipboard

FIXES

Fixed a crash which can occur when deleting Float Array components that are fed from a Ruby component
Fixed the Changed component so it now saves state
Fixed a bug where Ruby components were not saving state when switched off
Fixed crash when closing an exported plugin if there is another one open
Fixed the conversion from Float Array to string so that it now uses the correct float representation
Fixed a problem which could cause crashes when calculating syntax colouring for Ruby code
Added refresh input to COM port component so that you can request a refresh of the port numbers
Added clear sends input to COM component so that you can clear the send buffer
Added a mouse cursor request on mouse button up
Fixed a problem where module tags were not being saved to .tag files
Fixed a bug in the COM port component where data was being sent out in first in last out order instead of first in first out
Fixed a the COM port component 'Out' output so that triggers are not sent when data is received only when data is sent
Fixed an issue with cursor setting in Ruby not passing through to other elements if no mouseCursor method was present
Fixed a bug when pasting modules which appear on a front panel so that these now all appear on top of existing elements
Fixed a problem in the Phidgets Stepper Controller component where the position was not being reset correctly
Fixed a bug in the Phidgets Stepper Controller where the Zero input trigger was not resetting the current position
Changed the Swap Links feature so it now deselects the components when finished
Changed the way that Mono to Frames and Frames to Mono work so that they can handle variable buffer sizes
Fixed a problem where the software could crash or hang on startup if MIDI events are generated during loading
Fixed the Ruby Draw method so it now uses EditConnector objects to refer to inputs
Added option to say whether tag bar, search and filter pane selections are combined or not
Fixed instabilities in the events system that could lead to crashes when the ruby interpreter is shared (mainly an issue for VST plugins)
Fixed the problem of the UAC dialogs disappearing behind the application window when exporting to VST or EXE
Fixed an issue with muting exported VST plugins in a host where Ruby events would stop being processed

Version 3.0.2 FIREFLY

The headline feature of this release is Follow Wireless. This has been on our target list for some time and now it's finally here. Just select a Wireless Component and press the TAB key.

We've also made some big improvements to the connector referencing in Ruby which allows you to use connector label strings as well as indexes to refer to connectors. By using labels it makes your code more readable and less prone to issues if you change the order of connectors.

On top of that there's a new feature for previewing applications called Focus Mode plus many other smaller improvements and fixes. The user guide has been updated to include details on all the new features and how to use them.

IMPROVEMENTS

New Follow Wireless feature allows you to easily trace the path of wireless links
New connector referencing in the Ruby component allows you to use an index or a label name to refer to a connector
New Focus Mode feature for previewing or using applications by hiding the FlowStone editing interface
New clearEvents method that removes all pending events posted for the Ruby component from which it is called
New exe export options (these were previously only available in SynthMaker)
New optional inputs for the drawCurve and addCurve methods allow you to draw sections of the curve and control the curvature
New setColor method for the Brush object
Improved tag system has improved handling for modules

FIXES

Fixed a problem with @outs and any defined output variable not being set if value sent are sent out immediately (with no time delay)
Fixed an issue with mouse cursor assignment not working for outputs with multiple links and Ruby components with a pass through
Fixed a Preset Manager issue with Cubase where presets were not being indexed correctly during automation
Fixed the sine oscillator bug introduced in the last version
FIxed a problem with the COM port not reading the NoNull setting on loading
Fixed an issue issue with the Ruby component redrawing when the mouse moves over a link during editing
Fixed the cursor updating when mousing over a link that crosses a module front panel or a component that edits text
Fixed a crash that could occur when using the dup method on a Pen object in Ruby
Fixed a problem with mouse cursor messages not working through a Multiplexer or Selector
Fixed the Navigator so that bookmark keypresses now register after you have clicked on it
Fixed the automatic update checking which was not working in previous versions. This will now work for future releases
The help text wasn't showing in the status bar for the create EXE button on the module action panel

Version 3.0.1 SNOWFLAKE

This release fixes many of the teething issues that were reported for version 3. We've also made some small enhancements in a number of areas and added a few more graphics methods.

IMPROVEMENTS

New getBounds method in GraphicsPath for getting the bounding rectangle of a path
New isVisible method in GraphicsPath for testing if a point is inside a path
New isOutlineVisible method in GraphicsPath for testing if a point lies on a path
New widen method in GraphicsPath for expanding a path
New getWidth method in Pen for finding out the thickness of a Pen object
New option to provide an area in the call to the redraw method
Clipping, text rendering hint and smoothing are now reset after the draw method is called so any changes are only applied within the draw method
The measureString method now has a "bounds" entry which is an array [x,y,w,h] for the bounding area of the string
Added pass through of View data to the Ruby component
Edit components now exit when you hit return
Edit Box modules were not redrawing correctly after clicking away
The Http Post component now removes the http:// part from any url automatically
Added optimisations to all the oscillators to reduce cpu consumption

FIXES

The getClip method wasn't returning a valid rectangle
MIDI wasn't being sent tout in a VST plugin unless there were MIDI components in the path
MIDI wasn't registering in String and Text components
The Mono to Frame component was causing a crash when if you added it to a schematic with Direct Sound or ASIO on
Visual muting was preventing modules from redrawing when they were shown in the schematic
Fixed a bug with the statistics calculating incorrectly when property panels are being used
Edit Box modules were not redrawing correctly after clicking away
The vertical slider no longer has it's value reversed when changing presets
Creating links to Value connectors was incorrectly sending nil each time
Boolean properties were incorrectly sending a trigger when the properties were opened
Font styles were not all working correctly
Fixed a potential crash on close with the COM Port component
Fixed an issue with the Ruby component not sending values out correctly to triggered data connectors during a loop
Fixed an issue with the Phidgets Motor Controller not setting the encoder position
Fixed a problem where modules with duplicate names were having their tags merged

Version 3.0 SYMPHONY

This new version merges all the features of SynthMaker with FlowStone. FlowStone users now have the benefit of exporting audio plugins. SynthMaker users now have the Ruby component. Both can make use of the new Frames feature which allows you to process Mono data inside the Ruby component - great for prototyping or non performance critical applications.

MIDI data can now be processed in the Ruby component and sent out with sample accurate timing. There are a host of new drawing commands for the Ruby component too.

We have a new toolbox feature called Tags which makes it easier to group components together and retrieve quicker. There are new Netvox and OWL compoonents for home automation, updated modules (now in downloadable packs) and many other fxes and enhancements

MAIN FEATURES

MIDI in Ruby
Mono to Frames
Export VST 2.4 Plugins
Tags
Netvox & OWL Components
Expanded Ruby Drawing Commands
Updated Modules
Smart Components
Many fixes and enhancements

IMPROVEMENTS

New smart components replace components for operations that are shared between different data types (eg Add, Switch and Select)
The Edit Control allows multi line editing and control over font size
Changed the terminator label and description ono the COM Port primitive to make it clearer that it's for received data
New input on the COM Port primitive to specify whether to remove the null terminator when sending a data string
In the Ruby Component Watches now show false values as ""false"" instead of blanks
The Direct Sound In component allows you to choose the input device independently of the output device
You can now change the type of the Boolean, Int, String and Float components by right-clicking on their connectors
A module output label and description can now be set independently the same way as it can for module inputs
The Ruby And DSP Code components now only require a single click to set the cursor position
New Swap Links feature allows you to replace a module with another one by exchanging links between the two
MIDI is all processed using the events system now
We no longer enforce the 0-127 range for sysex bytes
Improved redraw mechanism to prevent too many refreshes
Improved searching in the toolbox now only searches on name and in help

FIXES

Fixed a memory leak when sending through a COM Port
Fixed the random number generation for arrays in the DSP code component as it wasn't working properly
Stopped the HTTPPost component from producing an unwanted message showing the current port
Fixed a crash when using the SFZ component
Resolved an issue with the Colour Detect component not detecting some extreme levels of HSV correctly
Stopped the Ruby Edit from sometimes causing a crash when watching a variable while something was redrawing
Fixed the PresetSave so it doesn't crash when loading and saving files
Prevented Ruby components from remaining in a processing loop when deleted from a schematic as it was causing 'ghost' like behaviour
Addressed an issue with redraw flicker when mousing over links which cross redrawn areas
Fixed a potential crash when loading multiple schematics during the same session
Fixed an issue where the output pane would remain scrolled sometimes and obscure values from the output
Stopped the Web Url component from firing during copy and paste
Fixed a problem where the connectors of modules could be drawn incorrectly during a GUI refresh
Corrected an issue where a module could become locked
Fixed a problem where redraws were being processed for GUI elements that were set not to show on the front panel
Made the System Folders and Start Folder components update after loading when used un an export
Fixed a problem with the software starting up but the main window not appearing