delphidabbler / vied

Version Information Editor for Windows

Version Information Editor (VIEd)

Overview

Version Information Editor enables version information to be edited. It also creates version information resource source (.rc) files. The program stores details of the version information in its own project (.vi) files. Simple macros can be used to help automate the updating of version information files.

The program can also create binary resource (.res) files containing version information. To do this it needs to be configured to use a 3rd party resource compiler such as Embarcadero's BRCC32.

A command line switch, -makerc, is supported that silently creates a .rc file from a native .vi file passed on the command line. The program them exits without displaying a window. This option has been made available so that Version Information Editor can be used in automated build processes.

System Requirements

VIEd requires Windows XP and later.

Source Code

VIEd is written in Object Pascal and is compiled with Delphi XE, although any later Delphi compiler may suffice.

See Build.md in the repo root for information about how to build the program from source code.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome.

The GitFlow branching model is used.

To contribute please fork the project and create a new branch off develop that is named feature/your-feature-name. Create a pull request for your feature branch when you're ready. Pull requests must be configured to merge to the develop branch, not master.

Contributions should be licensed under either the Mozilla Public License v2.0 (without a "Incompatible with Secondary Licenses" notice) or under some other compatible license, preferably one in common use. Note that the GPL and its cousins are not compatible.

Executable Code

VIEd is distributed in a zip file containing a standard Windows installer. All releases from the latest back to v2.13.0 are available from the project's releases page.

Documentation

For help using the program the first port of call should be the program's comprehensive HTML help file.

Information on how to install the program is in Docs/ReadMe.txt.

The change log is in CHANGELOG.md in the repository root.

The program's .vi file format is documented in Docs/vi-file-format.md.

Finally, the program has a Web page at https://delphidabbler.com/software/vied.

Bugs and Feature Requests

Any bug reports and feature requests can be made via the project's issue tracker.

License

Most of the original source code is licensed under the terms of the Mozilla Public License 2.0. For full details of source code licensing, including that for 3rd party code and the program's images, see Docs/SourceCodeLicenses.md.

The license for the executable code can be found in Docs/License.rtf.

Note that versions prior to v2.13.0 had different licensing arrangements, so please check before using those versions.

vied's Issues

Update help file re changes

Help file needs updating re following:

• Change in main interface: new list view
• Change in minimum O/S requirements EDIT: O/S requirements not mentioned in help file
• Change to comments / string info editor: resizeable, caret position displayed
• New File | Clear Preferences menu option

Dots in version numbers are causing zero version numbers

If a macro uses a version number with dots in it then the version number is being parsed as 0.0.0.0.

This bug seems to have been introduced in hot fix v2.14.1

Bug in macro name validation

vied/Source/UVInfo.pas

Line 916 in 8b8ccd4

class function TVInfo.IsValidMacroName(const N: string): Boolean;

This method will accept an empty macro name as valid. It will also accept a digit to start the macro name. (EDIT: digits are permitted to start macro names according to docs)

Add fields for day, month etc.

There's a <YEAR> field in VIEd, but no corresponding day or month fields.

Some ideas:

• <MONTH> - Month number: 1..12
• <MONTH_0> - Month number, zero padded: 01..12
• <DAY> - Day of month 1..31
• <DAY_0> - Day of month, zero padded: 01..31
• <MONTH_NAME> - Full name of month in relevant translation's locale
• <MONTH_NAME_A> - Abbreviated name of relevant translation's locale
• <DOW> - One based number of day of week: 1..7 (1 = Sunday)
• <DOW_0> - Zero based number of day of week: 0..6 (0 = Sunday)
• <DOW_M> - One based number of day of week: 1..7 (1 = Monday)
• <DOW_M_0> - Zero based number of day of week: 0..6 (0 = Monday)
• <DOW_NAME> - Full name of day of week in relevant translation's locale
• <DOW_NAME_A> - Abbreviated name of day of week in relevant translation's locale

UTF-8 characters get corrupted by VI editor

Symbols like © get corrupted when displayed in the VIEd editor.

File reading/writing needs to be fixed to work with UTF-8.

Maybe this needs to either use the BOM or to be set as an option to avoid breaking backward compatibility.

Update `Docs/ReadMe.txt`

This read-me, that is distributed with the program installer, is out of date and needs a thorough overhaul before the next release.

Permit dash and underscore in macro names

The decision to limit macro names to alpha-numeric characters is quite limiting when using multi-word names.

I find the name my-macro or my_macro to be more readable than mymacro or even MyMacro.

So it would be good to allow one or both the dash and the underscore in macro names.

Re-license source code under MPL 2.0

Source code is currently using MPL 1.1. Update them all to GPL compatible version of MPL 2.0.

Bad HTML syntax in Build.html

code tag not closed on line 357.

Add source code section to ReadMe.txt

There is no section in ReadMe.txt that explains how to get hold of the source code.

VIEd crashes if there are circular fields references

In issue #49 it was said in a comment that:

There's a bug waiting in the form of circular references between string information fields (in fact it might already exist between the current string info fields).

The bug does indeed exist.

To reproduce set Original File Name equal to <PRODUCTNAME> and set Product Name to <SHORTFNAME>. Now press Ctrl+C to copy RC statements. The program will hang then crash. This is caused by circular references and leads to a stack overflow.

Code that writes resource `.rc` files uses ancient Pascal API

Code that writes .rc files uses the old style WriteLn etc to write the file.

This code really should be changed to use a more modern method that can control the file encoding appropriately.

Date missing from change log

The release date for v2.13.0 is missing from the change log: it was 23 February 2014.

Read version info from an executable and / or resource file

Enable VIEd to read version information directly from an existing executable or binary resource file.

This will make it easier to port version info into VIEd rather than having to type in all the info from scratch.

B/f from issue 9 of the old verinfo-tools tracker on GoogleCode.

Prettify VIEd interface

Make VIEd UI use modern fonts.

Make main display distinguish between headers and VI items visually.

B/f from issue 17 of the old verinfo-tools tracker on GoogleCode.

Add details of supported Windows versions to application manifest

The program's application manifest file has no compatibility section. One needs to be added.

See this documentation for information about what tags are required.

Optionally write `.rc` files in UTF-8

There could still be a problem with file encodings across different locales because, by default, resource compilers assume the local default ANSI encoding.

Additionally, even when the locale doesn't change, some characters that fall outside the default ANSI encoding won't render correctly.

Therefore it makes sense, when the .rc file output would contain anything except 7 bit ASCII text, to write the file in UTF-8.

Suitable pragmas (and possible command line options) will need to be used.

See this article for an explanation.

Update Fixed & Variable File Information per modern MS docs

Check the following version information vales against MS documentatiom;

• File OS: VOS_UNKNOWN flag isn't used in VIEd. Does it need to be?
• File type: VFT_DRV needs missing VFT2_DRV_VERSIONED_PRINTER option.
• File flags 1: VS_FF_INFOINFERRED is present in VIEd code but not in docs. If this is removed it affects ValidFileFlagsMask routine.
• File flags 2: VS_FFI_FILEFLAGSMASK is a combination of all file flags - can this be used and does it include VS_FF_INFOINFERRED.
• Languages: re check against list in docs - some spelling may differ.
• Character sets: names differ - recheck with docs (also layout in source code is off - may contain tabs).

Update `SourceCodeLicenses.txt` and convert to Markdown format

SourceCodeLicenses.txt is well out of date. It needs bringing up to date.

The file is almost in Markdown format, so it makes sense to convert it.

Selecting a menu item with cursor and clicking `F1` raises exception

Error reported when running outside debugger is:

No context-sensitive help installed.

And when running under debugger:

Project VIEd.exe raised exception class EHelpSystemException with message 'No context-sensitive help installed'.

Add a row/column counter to comments editor

It would be useful in limiting the length of a line of comments to a fixed number of characters if it displayed a column / line counter.

B/f from issue 14 of the old verinfo-tools tracker on GoogleCode.

Remove or more strictly enforce limit on length of string table entry values

Main form imposes a limit of 128 characters on the length of string information values.

vied/Source/FmMain.pas

Line 857 in 80d7280

Ed.MaxLength := 128; // limit length of text to 128

Such a restriction is not supported by MS documentation for version information. So, unless BRCC32 enforces this there's no need for it.

So, depending on BRCC32, the limit should either be lifted or should be enforced after fields & macros have been expanded.

Add a mechanism to import some data from external files

Possibly add an extension to current field format (some kind of #include directive), or add a different pre-processor to include data from files that is then processed as normal. Using the latter method means that external files can contain fields.

This will be useful for any occasions where there is more than one program or DLL that shares some version data, such as product version or license details.

Create new next-release milestone

Create a new next-release milestone for Issues that will be included in release following v2.13.0.

Inconsistent style of hex symbol used in main display

Normally the Pascal style "$" hex symbol is displayed in the main window, for example for the File Sub-type or File Flags / File Flags Mask when the "Describe File Flags" option is off.

However the hex symbol can change to the C-style "0x" hex symbol under some circumstances.

To reproduce do this:

1. Start a new instance of the application
2. Load a .vi file and change its File Type to VFT_APP or VFT_DLL if necesarry - note that the File Sub-type is displayed using the "$" hex symbol
3. Choose the File > View RC Statements menu option
4. Reload the .vi file. The hex symbol used now will be "0x".

Increase size of dialogue used to display RC file

The dialogue used to display the RC resource file that will be generated is rather small.

It could do with increasing in size, or making resizable with persistent size.

B/f from issue 15 of the old verinfo-tools tracker on GoogleCode.

Trim trailing spaces from string information items

At present any leading and trailing spaces entered into string information items are retained when the .rc file is generated.

Remove the trailing spaces by default.

Or make trimming of leading and trailing spaces an option?

Add a row/column counter to comments editor

It would be useful in limiting the length of a line of comments to a fixed number of characters if it displayed a column / line counter.

B/f from issue 14 of the the old verinfo-tools tracker on GoogleCode.

Update list of available languages for translations

List of available languages is rather short. Could do with updating. Here's a possible list from the MS Office docs:

MSOfficeLanguageMap.pas.txt

Potential buffer overun in clipboard copy method

vied/Source/UVInfo.pas

Line 612 in 382fbc8

procedure TVInfo.CopyToClipBoard;

The implementation of the above method assumes a fixed buffer size when copying .rc file data to the clipboard. There may be the possibility of a buffer overrun.

Even if not the code is hideous and overcomplicated, so it could do with a rewrite anyway.

Update docs re missing releases for v2.11.1 & v2.12.0

Some documentation notes that releases go back to v2.11.2. However the release pages link to GoogleCode which has been unavailable for some years.

Releases 2.11.2 and 2.12.0 are no longer available.

Need to update affected documentation.

Permit version info items to be deleted

Change so that any version info item in VIEd's display can be "deleted" by pressing Del key (or selecting Edit | Delete menu item).

What delete means will depend on what the item is - it may be to delete a string or set a number to 0 or a default value.

B/f from issue 11 of the old verinfo-tools tracker on GoogleCode.

Make the comments editor resizable

The comments editor would be easier to use if it could be resized or defaulted to 80 columns in width.

B/f from issue 13 of the old verinfo-tools tracker on GoogleCode.

Add README file to repo root

Added markdown formatted README file.

Enhance appearance of UI

Give the UI a new font, reduce some button sizes and generally modernise the appearance.

Insufficient memory allocated for window class names in dialogue boxes

Insufficient memory allocated for TCreateParams.WinClassName to store Unicode strings in FmGenericDlg.pas at line 141

Convert to compile with Delphi 12

It's about time this code base was moved to an up to date compiler.

Probably safer to stick to a 32 bit only Windows target to begin with.

Generate binary resource without use of external compiler

It is inconvenient to have to use an external resource compiler to compile .res files from intermediate .rc files. Add facility to VIEd to generate binary files directly.

B/f from issue 16 of the old verinfo-tools tracker on GoogleCode.

Add a "minimum version" entry to config section of .vi files

The idea here is to specify the minimum version of VIEd that is required to read the file.

Quotes in string information value need to be escaped

Example:

Set Comments to foo "bar" baz in UI

This renders as

VALUE "Comments", "foo "bar" baz\000"

but should be

VALUE "Comments", "foo \"bar\" baz\000"

Add new fields relating to string file info items

This issue has been created from off topic suggestions in issue #31. Those comments were:

---

A field that returns the full contents of the Original File Name string information item could be useful.

There's already the <SHORTFNAME> field that removes the file extension from Original File Name, so how about <FNAME> for the full content.

Originally posted by @delphidabbler in #31 (comment)

---

Another useful field that provides access to a string information item could be <COMPANYNAME>. This would allow the company name to be used in string information, such as copyright.

Also, an obvious complement to <SPECIALBUILD> would be <PRIVATEBUILD>.

Finally, in case the Internal Name string information isn't connected with Original File Name it will do no harm to have a <INTERNALNAME> field.

Originally posted by @delphidabbler in #31 (comment)

---

In proposing additional fields providing access to string information items, wouldn't it be easier to provide a field for each string item ? That way there's no need to try to second guess which ones would be useful.

Originally posted by @delphidabbler in #31 (comment)

Permit dotted quad version numbers in .vi files using dots as well as commas

Currently version numbers have to be delimited with commas. I would be good to be able to use the traditional dot, as in 2.0.8.6.

Convert `Build.html` to Markdown format

It's a bit of a pain viewing Build.html on GitHub. Use of https://htmlpreview.github.io/ is needed to view the file effectively.

Using Markdown instead of HTML would make the file easy to view on GitHub.

Update `README.md`

The main README.md document contains some broken and/or out of date links.

The content of some sections needs overhauling.

This needs to be done before the next release.

TViewListDlg has a `Description` property that is never displayed.

Description property sets the caption of label that is hidden by the memo control that displays the list.

Error parsing `<SHORTFNAME>` field

vied/Source/UVInfo.pas

Line 780 in 382fbc8

tkSHORTFNAME: Result := RemoveExtension(StrInfo[siOriginalFileName]);

All other fields that reference contents of a string info item evaluate fields in string info item rather than simply referencing it. For example, here's how <PRODUCTNAME> is parsed:

vied/Source/UVInfo.pas

Line 781 in 382fbc8

tkPRODUCTNAME: Result := EvaluateFields(siProductName);

So, should <SHORTFNAME> be parsed like this instead?:

case I of
  // ...
  tkSHORTFNAME: Result := RemoveExtension(EvaluateFields(siOriginalFileName);
  // ...
end;

Allow version numbers to be quickly and easily incremented

Add a facility to quickly and easily increment a version number.

Will need a setting to decide which version number field is incremented and whether file and product versions are to be kept in sync. EDIT: not needed: implemented via version number editor dialogue box.

B/f from issue 12 of the old verinfo-tools tracker on GoogleCode.

Refactor `UVInfo.pas`

To quote from the comments in the UVInfo unit:

THIS CODE IS VERY "SMELLY"!

"Smelly" according to Fowler's definition of bad code smells in his book "Refactoring".

The macro handling functionality was added in to the TVInfo class when it really should be in its own class.

Further, the implementation just grew like topsy and there's a lot of duplication and confusing code.

Data structures are badly chosen too.

This code really needs a major overhaul.

Nuff said!

Permit user preferences to be deleted

Allow user to delete preferences, i.e. restore default settings.

B/f from issue 10 of the old verinfo-tools tracker on GoogleCode.

Command line version of VIEd

Create a command line version of VIEd that can generate .res files directly from .vi files.

B/f from issue 18 of the old verinfo-tools tracker on GoogleCode.