APPLICATIONS MAKER - INPUT SCREEN HELP

APPLICATIONS  MAKER is a program that supports the implementation  of
user-designed screens and/or reports.  These APPLICATIONS may be very
simple, or quite complex.

With  APPLICATIONS MAKER you are the programmer.  Most  people  don't
know any programming languages and don't want to learn.  That's  why,
within  APPLICATIONS  MAKER, there's no syntax to learn and  no  text
file to write.  Everything is done by simply locating your cursor and
pressing your return (enter) key.

The program executes your APPLICATION just like you are reading  this
text.   It  starts at the upper left corner of the INPUT  SCREEN  and
executes each item it finds, moving from left to right and down.   If
you can read this help screen you already understand the format.

You  may  divide your INPUT and REPORT screens into  sub-screens  and
multiple  reports.  For information on how to do so see the help  for
the  MISC items on the INPUT screen.  To get this help  screen  press
return on any blank space on the INPUT screen, select MISC item  type
and then press your H key.

THE DIALOG BOX and THE DATA DISPLAY AREA:

The  DIALOG BOX at the bottom of your screen holds a  mini-menu.   On
it,  you  will see items such as: Scrn, Write, Quit etc.   To  select
these options you press the first letter of their names.

The  upper, larger screen area displays your APPLICATION.   When  you
begin an APPLICATION this area is blank.  As you place your items  on
the screen it becomes "populated."  All items necessary to  implement
your APPLICATIONS, both data and control, appear in the data  display
area.  The placement of your items controls when they will execute.

INITIALIZING YOUR SCREENS:

The  size of both screens is specified during the definition  of  the
application,  but they are initialized a little differently one  from
another.   The INPUT sub-screens are of a fixed width:  seventy-eight
characters.   You  may  use up to one  hundred  sub-screens  in  your
application, and direct control into any of them.

The  REPORT,  however, does not have a fixed width.  You may  have  a
wide-carriage  printer; you may opt to use different  print  pitches.
If  your printer supports fifteen characters per inch and your  paper
is  eight  inches  wide  your report  could  be  one  hundred  twenty
characters  in width.  The report width can be set to whatever  value
you desire.

When you begin a new application you will be prompted for the  number
of SUB-SCREENS comprising the INPUT screen, and the number of COLUMNS
on the report screen.  These may be INCREASED at any time by  editing
the application, but the screens can never get any smaller.

In  order  to quickly display and use your screens they  are  created
when  the application starts.  This necessitates the provision  of  a
space  to store the screens.  Storage of screens is usually  done  in
the computer's memory in order to provide quick access to the data.

The  screens may be up to 7,800 characters in width and  1,900  lines
tall.  Simple multiplication of these two numbers gives us 14,820,000
bytes  of storage space for EACH screen.  Since PC  hardware  running
MS-DOS  provides only 65,536 bytes of memory it is easy to  see  that
storing the screens in memory is impossible.

When  you begin a new application you must enter a path/filename  for
the  screen  files,  which will be kept on disk.   Suggested  is  the
/MAGE/DBSEFILE directory created by the DATAMAGE installation process
to hold data imported from dBase formatted datafiles.

As  of  version 4.0 DATAMAGE does NOT have  multi-user  capabilities.
This  means  that the system runs on ONE computer  and  the  programs
within the system can NOT handle the access of datafiles by more than
one  user  in  a simultaneous manner.   Multi-user  capabilities  are
planned for version 4.4.

For  now,  all of your applications can use the  same  screen  files.
These  files will be of the size of your largest application, and  if
they  are used by an application that requires less disk  space  then
only  the first part of the file will be used.  Doing this will  save
you lots of disk space if you run several applications.

NAVIGATING ON THE SCREENS:

The four arrow keys will move your cursor one space in any direction,
as you would expect.  Holding the shift key down and hitting an arrow
key  will  move approximately one quarter screen  in  any  direction;
holding  the  control  key down will move an  entire  screen  in  any
direction,  provided your screen was defined larger than  one  screen
wide and/or 19 rows tall.

HOT KEYS:

Pressing  the insert key will place a blank line into your screen  at
the  current cursor position, provided there's no items on  the  last
line of your application.

Pressing  the delete key will remove the line at the  current  cursor
position, provided there are no items on that line.

Pressing  S (or s) will change the display to the other  screen.   If
your  are viewing the INPUT screen you will go to the REPORT  screen,
and  vice-versa.   The screens look EXACTLY the same, but  the  first
item  in the DIALOG BOX will inform you of the current  display.   Be
certain to check which screen you're on before taking action!

Pressing T will test-execute your application.  During test-execution
you will have debugging options not available during execution of the
screen  via  menu option 1, execute.  You may opt  to  redirect  your
normal  disk  output  to the printer, and to  list  any  new  records
written to the printer.

Pressing  N will renew the current screen.  If you are  testing  your
application the data you entered will remain in place after your test
is completed.  Press N to get rid of it.

Pressing D will open a window in which you will see the user  numeric
array,  or  the user string array.  From this window you  may  assign
names  to your variables and view the data they hold.  The names  are
saved with the application.

Pressing P will print the details of the current screen.

Pressing Q will terminate processing of the application.

Pressing W will record the application to disk.

Pressing H will display this help file.

INITIALIZING INPUT ITEMS:

To   place an item on the input screen you locate the cursor  at  the
position  on the screen where you wish the item to appear, then press
return.   Prompts guide you through the many types of items that  you
may  implement on the screens.  On-screen help is available  for  the
items you will be using.

To  edit/move/delete (etc.) an item already on the input  screen  you
place  the   cursor  in any space occupied by  that  item  and  press
return/enter.   You  may also view the status of any screen  item  in
this manner.

TESTING YOUR APPLICATIONS:

Pressing T or t when in edit mode will test-execute the  application.
The  Test-execution will proceed as if the screen were being used  in
entry  mode.   You  will then have an opportunity  to  re-direct  the
normal   disk  output  to  your  printer,  in  order  to   facilitate
applications testing.

It is EXTREMELY important that you create a test environment for your
new  APPLICATIONS.   If you fail to do so you are almost  certain  to
ruin  your datafiles.  Please see the APCNMAKR.DOC file for  detailed
instructions on making/using a test environment.

APPLICATION REPORTS:

To   help  you keep  track of your applications the   program  prints
reports detailing INPUT screen if activated from the input screen, or
the  REPORT  screen if activated from there.  This  printout  details
each  of the items you have selected, in the order found.   The  data
for  each is the same that is displayed when you place the cursor  on
that item and opt for the item's status.

ON-SCREEN HELP:

APPLICATIONS MAKER offers on-screen help in several places within the
program.   You  will know when the help is available  by  seeing  the
words  PRESS YOUR H KEY FOR ON-SCREEN HELP centered in the last  line
of  the  dialog box, or seeing the word Help in the dialog  box.   In
either  case  you simply press the H (or h) key.  The  help  will  be
displayed and then you will return to the place in the program  where
you were when you opted for help.