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Alexander Liberov edited this page Nov 5, 2026 · 2 revisions

ConvRulesEditor

The visual editor for conversion rule books (.rules files). It puts the real property tree of the old component beside the real property tree of the new one, both read from the drag-lint index, and lets you pair them up. The editor authors the plan; the engine verbs (convert-scaffold, convert-validate, convert-apply) do the conversion.

Starting it

ConvRulesEditor.exe ships inside the Win64 drag-lint release archive (there is no Win32 build). Open a rule book from File > Open, or start a new one with File > New. The IDE plugin can also launch it with a conversion request (--convert-request <file>).

What you do in it

  • Author rules -- pair properties, edit conditional mappings, compose the rules for one job.
  • Convert tab -- run a conversion, see per-step progress, and read what is left: StripDB value casts, cast sites to convert by hand and uses changes. See Convert progress and Qualify fix.
  • Inherited units, ancestors first -- adding a unit walks its class chain to the root and offers every ancestor that still holds a From type of the checked books (intermediate classes included), root first. Convert never runs a descendant above its ancestor: it asks to reorder the list ancestor-first (No runs nothing). An unconverted ancestor that is not in the run at all blocks the same way: Convert asks to add the missing ancestors root-first (Yes) or cancels the whole run (No) -- a No when the unit was added does not exempt it later. An ancestor class that is in neither the project index nor the platform library index blocks the run until its unit is added to the .dproj/.dpr and reindexed; a library class (TForm, a vendor base the library declares) ends the chain. A class that two project units declare is ambiguous: it blocks with its own message (remove the duplicate or qualify the class), never as "not in a project". If the platform library cannot be asked, only TForm, TFrame, TDataModule and their TCustom* forms still count as roots; any other class blocks. The 1.42 engine orders a batch ancestor-first too, as a second net.
  • Work list -- the manual to-do list after a run: Work list.
  • Reindex project -- refresh the index between stages: Reindex project.

Full manual

The task-oriented manual is docs\converter\convrules-editor-manual.md (rule language: docs\converter\convrules-dsl.md).

Reaching it from the IDE

The IDE plugin starts the editor with a conversion request (see above); the editor has no IDE menu of its own.

Where to click

Conversion > Convert... (the IDE plugin starts it with --convert-request FILE and probes --write-capabilities FILE)

  1. Choose Conversion > Convert... (opens the Convert tab)
  2. Or start ConvRulesEditor.exe with --convert-request FILE to open it pre-filled from the IDE

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