Aztec Engine Future Plans
Well it might take years...
To see through all these tears.
- Randy Meisner
The Aztec Engine is a single executable which contains the Aztec Compiler, Aztec Virtual Machine, Aztec Class Framework and Aztec UI Display Server. The Aztec Engine currently runs only in a Windows environment (Windows 7, 8 and 10).
♦ 95% of the entire Aztec Engine code base is written in ANSI C++.
♦ The Compiler code, Virtual Machine code and underlying VM instruction set are already optimized internally for 64 bit systems.
Aztec Development Group's first priority is to port the Aztec Engine C++ source code to Linux, and create a relatively portable code base between Windows and Linux.
♦ The UI Class Framework will likely lag behind, with the first Linux release having no UI framework.
♦ Remote UI capabilities from Linux to Windows machines will be supported, however.
The Aztec Class Framework is very usable today and it provides a nice set of features in a consistent and uncluttered fashion. But there are many areas in the class framework that need to be beefed up, with the following as current standouts.
♦ Database Server Connectivity
♦ New Database Connection classes for several key databases (MySQL, Oracle and MS SQL Server)
♦ New classes and methodology to create and execute SQL on DB server, and tie both sides of the process to Aztec objects
♦ Collections
♦ Need new collection class, including hashed map tables, binary tree, general purpose hash tree, linked lists and other collections
♦ Aztec Arrays will be modified internally to be derived from the Collection class
♦ Cloud Savvy
♦ More research is needed to develop solid development plans in this area.
♦ Sockets
♦ Blocking, byte order differences and multi-byte character support will be added
♦ The UI Class Framework is not complete
♦ New window/control types and associated events need to be added
♦ Most existing classes also could be fleshed out with more methods, events and other functionality
♦ Need a simple yet flexible "Form" UI Control to manage and automate the placement of child controls with smart resizing (a smart GroupBox )
♦ A math/scientific plotting package
♦ Data compression and encryption
♦ Publish a public API to create Aztec classes and methods using C++ plug-in technology
The Language Definition will also see some changes in the future.
♦ Better support for bytecode executables, with ability to load in multiple .azcode libraries at execution time
♦ Jagged array support, with a multi-dimensional rectangular array at each level of the jagged array
♦ Support for general collections in the 'iterate' statement, including arrays
♦ Virtual data support
♦ Ability to join base classes in a multiple inheritance hierarchy
We also plan to add support for Eclipse, with context sensitive editing and longer term with debugger support.
