What’s New in MPS 2020.3

There's a new macro named $CALL-SITE$ that facilitates the insertion of a node attributed with a SWITCH/CALL macro into a designated place in the invoked template. Prior to the change, the template node with a SWITCH/CALL macro attached was generally ignored. Now if an invoked template/switch tries to use 'call site node', the node is processed as a regular template and the outcome is supplied to the invoked template/switch as an implicit argument that can be inserted into the desired location.

Dynamic highlighting, a long-awaited feature, has arrived. This feature is very similar to the existing Highlight Usages action (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+F7). The difference is that dynamic highlighting works automatically as you type or navigate through the code. References to the node under the cursor are highlighted in the edited document almost immediately. You can still use the original Highlight Usages action to "pin" usages of the currently selected node while you navigate away from it. When you do, dynamic highlighting will continue to highlight the node under the cursor.

This feature can be turned on or off in the MPS Editor settings with the Highlight selected node checkbox.

In addition to some editor improvements, the switch concept now supports using multiple cases for the same statement.

We are introducing a new way to display errors, warnings, and messages in the Project pane. The Error strip helps to organize the messages on the Project pane. You can deactivate it via the Logical View setting button.

The old root annotation algorithm used the results of the annotation obtained from the model text file. It worked for text-persisted models only, and in the majority of cases it was not always correct. With the new approach, the annotation is constructed by comparing the models from different revisions.

The previous algorithm for calculating changes between the two models could not detect certain types of changes. Node movement was detected as two independent changes: insertion and deletion. It is now possible to show the node movement as one movement. Furthermore, it is also possible to detect internal changes inside the moving piece.

We’ve updated the look and feel of the Welcome screen. It now includes not only project selection but also a variety of dialogs to help you customize your IDE to your needs. First and foremost, the Projects page has more space, making room for extra projects. It is also easier to search for the desired project from the search field. The Customization page takes you through the primary interface settings, like the color theme, IDE font, import actions, and sharing preferences.

The VCS menu has been renamed to match the version control system that you are currently using. We’ve made the menu neater and more discoverable by keeping the most useful actions for versioning your project. You can now easily access key Git features that are no longer hidden in a submenu. For example, if your project only uses Git, the VCS menu now looks like this: