"Auto complete used units" does not recognize units without unit scope.

[JonRobertson 83]

I sent an email to support@mmx-delphi.de. I decided to post here in case someone knows a solution aside from turning off "Auto complete used units" under Pascal->Editing.

 

When adding an event, MMX does not recognize when the required unit is already in the uses clause without a unit scope.

 

For example, adding an event for TDataSet.OnNewRecord adds "Data.DB" to the uses clause, even though "DB" is already in the uses clause.

[MMX] FormUsers(12): Auto Completed uses clause. Added: Data.DB

On compile/build, this results in:

[dcc32 Error] E2004 Identifier redeclared: 'Data.DB'

This is a legacy project. Adding unit scopes to each unit reference is on the to-do list. I do feel this is a flaw in MMX that could be corrected if MMX can distinguish the unit scope from the unit name.

 

Jon

[Uwe Raabe 2166]

1 hour ago, JonRobertson said:

Adding unit scopes to each unit reference is on the to-do list.

You can have this for free:

1. Open MMX properties and navigate to Pascal - Sorting
2. Under Format unit uses clauses check Group and sort uses

Now when you format the uses clause (with Ctrl-Alt-U while the cursor is inside a uses clause) MMX does the following:

• Resolve any unit aliases
• Resolve all unit scope names
• Group the units as configured (see below)
• Compress and wrap each group according to the settings

The groups are configured per project in the MMX Project options setting. If the entry for Groups is cleared neither grouping nor sorting is done.

 

Also these Project options have an Auto Format checkbox, which when checked forces the uses clause formatting whenever MMX manipulates a uses clause. 

 

My personal preference would be to format the uses clauses without any other changes done to keep version control happy. This can be achieved by a command line tool available on GitHub: UsesCleaner

It provides almost the same functionality as MMX, but targets complete projects instead of single units.

 

[JonRobertson 83]

Thank you. I am still a new user to MMX and still exploring the options. Unfortunately I have not had time to read the user manual from cover to cover. 

 

I am also coming back to the Delphi community after being away (due to job availability) for a couple of years. So I have a little catching up to do. I have not come across UsesCleaner. That sounds like a huge time saver.

[Uwe Raabe 2166]

24 minutes ago, JonRobertson said:

I have not had time to read the user manual from cover to cover.

I'm afraid the user manual doesn't cover this feature.

[JonRobertson 83]

On 11/8/2023 at 3:59 PM, Uwe Raabe said:

Now when you format the uses clause (with Ctrl-Alt-U while the cursor is inside a uses clause) MMX does the following:

• Resolve any unit aliases
• Resolve all unit scope names
• Group the units as configured (see below)
• Compress and wrap each group according to the settings

I must be doing something wrong. In MMX Properties, Pascal, Sorting, I enabled "Group and sort uses clauses". But Ctrl-Alt-U changes this

uses
  ShlObj, SysUtils, Windows;

to this

uses
  Winapi.ShlObj,
  SysUtils, Windows;

and I expected this

uses
  System.SysUtils,
  Winapi.ShlObj, Winapi.Windows;

This is using Delphi 11.3 and MMX 15.1.7 build 2567.

 

Thanks

[Uwe Raabe 2166]

Can you show the Unit Scope Names entry in your project options, please?

[JonRobertson 83]

Datasnap.Win;Web.Win;Soap.Win;Xml.Win;Bde;Vcl;Vcl.Imaging;Vcl.Touch;Vcl.Samples;Vcl.Shell;System;Xml;Data;Datasnap;Web;Soap;Winapi;Data.Win;System.Win

I recently started this position and inherited this project. At the time, was partially migrated from Delphi 7 to Delphi 10. I have not modified the Unit Scope Names in the project as I have not needed to.

[Uwe Raabe 2166]

Can you reproduce on a minimal project?

 

I just copied that uses clause into a fresh VCL project and everything works as expected.

[JonRobertson 83]

I will attempt to recreate sometime today.

 

Thanks Uwe.

[JonRobertson 83]

The behavior in that project was due to the .DPR not having unit scope names in its uses clause.

[JonRobertson 83]

I wanted to say that yesterday I took the time to configure MMX to group and sort uses clauses they way I wanted and it is working great.

 

I expect you hear this a lot, but thank you for your help and keeping MMX alive. I did not have the opportunity to use Code Explorer when it was a ModelMaker product. Yesterday I took the time to go through most of the options and will be changing my coding habits to take advantage of more MMX features.