═══ 1. VisPro/REXX Version 3.0 ═══ Get Serious OS/2 Development Power With VisPro/REXX! VisPro/REXX is an easy-to-use visual programming environment that gives you the power to create your own OS/2 GUI applications. Fast. Whether you want to build a time-saving utility program or a client/server application, VisPro/REXX is the right tool for the job. VisPro/REXX is packed with features that allow you to instantly begin building powerful OS/2 GUI applications. Quickly develop OS/2 CUA '91 applications, from simple utilities to robust client/server programs, and generate a single .EXE file of your application for royalty-free distribution. Both VisPro/REXX Bronze and VisPro/REXX Gold :  Provide an easy-to-use visual programming environment that gives you the power to quickly create your own OS/2 GUI applications.  Increase your programming productivity with drag and drop programming, which automatically generates the REXX code for you.  Are fully integrated into the OS/2 WorkPlace Shell so you can begin using VisPro/REXX immediately, without having to learn the idiosyncrasies of an unfamiliar user interface.  Ease debugging because you make on-the-fly modifications without ever leaving the development area.  Provide an open development environment with support for REXX APIs including DB2/2, APPC and EHLLAPI.  Provide a complete development environment with multiple CUA '91 views such as a List view, Event Tree view, and Layout view, each of which is tailored to specific development tasks. With VisPro/REXX, you use the Layout view to design the layout of your form. The Layout view consists of forms, a canvas, and a tool bar. You use forms to create your projects; each form represents a window that the user of your application will see. The objects that you use to create your applications are represented graphically on a tool bar. You simply select the objects you want to use in your application and then copy them to the canvas, which is the area in which you lay out or design your applications. Just Like the Workplace Shell VisPro/REXX Bronze and VisPro/REXX Gold are fully integrated into the Workplace Shell so they look and feel natural and instinctive. Both employ pop-up menus, direct editing, multiple views, and settings notebooks. The products support the OS/2 font and color palettes, so you can easily change the font or color of your objects. An example of a notebook is the Menu page. The Menu page allows you to design the menus for your application. To add a menu, simply select the Add menu push button. A Menu Bar icon appears, representing the menu. You can assign a name to the menu using direct editing. To add menu items for the menu you created, simply select the Add item push button once for each menu item you want to add. Then use direct editing to assign a name to each menu item. Drag and Drop Programming VisPro/REXX Bronze and VisPro/REXX Gold provide drag and drop capabilities throughout the products. The most distinctive of these capabilities is drag and drop programming. You begin by specifying an event for an object (for example, the user selects a push button). Select the object and drag it to the Event window. In the Event window, a window appears, allowing you to select the action you want to perform. The choices are presented in simple terms, and you do not need to know the REXX statement for the action you select; VisPro/REXX generates it for you. Achieving the CUA '91 Ideal The objective of the common user access (CUA) '91 standard is to make all OS/2 products share the same look and feel. HockWare understands the CUA '91 standards thoroughly, and we put this ideal into practice for VisPro/REXX Bronze and VisPro/REXX Gold. Because both are truly CUA '91 conforming products, they are themselves exemplary OS/2 applications. VisPro/REXX comes in two editions -- Bronze and Gold. Both products provide productive programming features at very attractive prices. VisPro/REXX Bronze:  Easiest-to-use visual programming environment  First tool with Workplace Shell-enabled drag and drop programming  More CUA '91 objects than similar programs  Open environment with available SOM Toolkit for building your own objects  Animated graphical debugger for easier debugging  OS/2-style help and information line tips for your programs  Access to DB2/2 and Watcom SQL via OS/2 REXX Suggested Retail Price: $59 VisPro/REXX Gold includes all of the powerful features of Bronze PLUS:  Visual database designer for creating Client-Server applications with ODBC-enabled databases  The most CUA '91 objects of any tool in its class  Three-dimensional business graphics for displaying application data  MMPM/2 Video Window and Circular Slider object for full-motion multimedia capabilities  Ability to add Workplace Shell drag and drop and pop-up menus to your programs  VisPro Team administrator for group development, with automatic change logging  Also comes in a LAN version for even more savings Suggested Retail Price: $299 System Requirements: OS/2 2.x or OS/2 Warp, 5Mb memory and 3 Mb hard disk space ═══ 2. Getting Started ═══ Once you install your Evaluation version of VisPro/REXX, you can use the online help to get information about how to use the product. Instructions for installing the Evaluation version, opening a project, and using the online help are provided in the following sections.  Installing the Evaluation Version  Creating a VisPro/REXX Project  Opening the Main form  Using the VisPro/REXX Online Help  Using the REXX Information Online Reference ═══ 2.1. Installing the Evaluation Version ═══ To use VisPro/REXX, you must have OS/2 2.x or any later version (including OS/2 WARP) installed on your system. VisPro/REXX requires approximately 2.5 megabytes of free disk space. If you are installing on OS/2 2.x, be sure that REXX has been installed on your workstation. NOTE: No version of VisPro/REXX should be running when you install the Evaluation version. If this occurs, close all VisPro/REXX windows, reboot and then start the installation over. To install the VisPro/REXX Evaluation version, complete the following steps: 1. Place the Evaluation diskette in the drive you wish to install from. 2. Press the right mouse button to get a pop-up menu on the diskette drive you are using. 3. Select the arrow on the Open menu item. 4. Select Icon View. 5. Double-click on the SETUP.EXE program. 6. Select the drive where you want to install the Evaluation version beside 'Install on drive'. 7. If you want to change the path you are installing on, type the path name in the Install path field. 8. Select Install. 9. When the installation is complete, the Installation Complete window appears. It will prompt you for additional input if modifications to your CONFIG.SYS file are necessary. 10. If changes are required for your CONFIG.SYS file, select Continue. Since VisPro/REXX requires a path be specified to its required files, you must shutdown and reboot before using the product. 11. Select Exit to end the installation process. After Rebooting, the VisPro/REXX folder appears on the OS/2 desktop. 12. Double Click on the VisPro/REXX folder. You will see the VisPro/REXX Icon View window appear. This window contains the following:  Mixed Color Palette: Allows you to change colors on your form.  Font palette: Allows you to change the font on your form.  REXX Information: The online reference for the REXX language.  Samples folder: Sample programs you can run.  Projects folder: Where you will create new projects.  Read Me: This Read Me File. ═══ 2.2. Creating a VisPro/REXX Project ═══ When you open the VisPro/REXX folder you created during installation, you see a template called Project. You can drag a new folder off the Project template and use it as your new project, which will become your application. To open your new project, complete the following steps: 1. Open the VisPro/REXX folder on your desktop. To do so, double-click on the folder. 2. Open the Projects folder in the VisPro/REXX folders Icon view. To do so, double-click on the folder. 3. Create a new Project folder. To do so, press the right mouse button and drag a folder off the Project template in the PROJECTS - Icon View window, 'dropping' the folder inside an unused area of the PROJECTS folder. A Project folder appears. 4. Rename your Project folder. To do so, select the Project folder and press Alt while you click the left mouse button. Type the name you want to assign to your new application. Click outside of the folder. 5. Open your Project folder. To do so, double-click on the folder. The icon view for your new application appears. You will see a Main icon. The Main icon is the form you use to begin designing your application. After your application is complete, do not delete, move, or rename the Main form. The next section details the ways in which a form may be accessed. ═══ 2.3. Opening the Main Form ═══ To begin creating your application, you can open the Main form in one of two ways:  METHOD A: Double-click on the Main icon. The form appears in the Layout view, presenting the tool bar and the canvas. This view allows you to easily design your form.  METHOD B: Select the Main icon, and then click the right mouse button to get the pop-up menu for the Main icon. Select Open. A cascading menu appears, allowing you to select the view you want to begin working with. The Layout view is recommended for designing the layout of your form. ═══ 2.4. Using VisPro/REXX's Online Help ═══ VisPro/REXX includes an extensive online help system that you can use if you have questions while you are working. To get information about how the online help works, select the Help menu. A cascading menu appears, presenting the following menu item  Help Index....  General Help....  Using Help....  Product information.... You can select any of these items. To find out what information each of these items provides, highlight the item (use the arrow keys), and then press F1. Note: You can browse the help using the online help Contents. To use the Contents, select the OPTIONS menu from within any help window, and then select CONTENTS. ═══ 2.5. Using the REXX Information Online Reference ═══ If you require information about REXX, you can use the excellent REXX Information online reference that comes with OS/2. If you did not include this reference when you installed OS/ 2 on your workstation, you will have to do a selective install. To use the reference, double click on the REXX Information icon in the VisPro/REXX-Icon View window. ═══ 3. Creating a Simple Application ═══ Creating Your First VisPro/REXX Application You will get a quick overview of how to use VisPro/REXX when you create this simple application. To complete the application, you will start a new project, open a form, and add two objects to the form: a push button and an entry field. You will provide behavior for the objects by visually programming the entry field to say "Hello, world!" when the push button is selected. You will run your application to make sure it works the way you want it to, and then run it to see the results of your programming. Your finished application will look like this: To create the application, complete the steps in the following sections. 1. Start Your Project 2. Open the Main Form 3. Change the Title Bar Name 4. Add Objects 5. Size and Align Objects 6. Provide Behavior 7. Run Your Project ═══ 3.1. Start Your Project ═══ To start your project, complete the following steps: 1. Open the VisPro/REXX folder that was created on your desktop during installation. To do so, double-click on the folder. The VisPro/REXX - Icon View window appears. 2. Double-click on the Projects folder. 3. Create a new Project. To do so, press the right mouse button and drag a folder off the Project template. A new Project folder appears. This folder is assigned a default name. 4. Rename your Project folder using direct editing. To do so, select the Project folder and press Alt while you click the left mouse button. Type your name over the existing name, and then select the pointer tool. 5. Double-click the folder you just created and named. The icon view for your new application appears. You will see the following icons:  Main form, which is the form you use to begin designing your application. After your application is complete, do not delete, move, or rename the Main form.  Form template, which allows you to drag off additional forms if you want your application to have more than one window.  SubProcs folder, which allows you to incorporate existing REXX code into your application or to group commonly used code segments so they can be called anywhere in your program.  Threads folder, where you can add REXX CMD files to be used as threads within your project (see the THREADS sample in your Samples directory).  VpBackup folder, where VisPro/REXX automatically saves a copy of each change made to your project. These files can be accessed by clicking on the LOG.VPL file, which is created after the first change to a project. This invokes the VisPro Team Administrator, which is used in team development and change logging. ═══ 3.2. Open the Main Form ═══ To open the Main form, double-click on Main. The Main form opens to the Layout view, which you use to easily design your application. The Layout view is shown as follows: The form is the environment in which you design the window that your user will perform tasks with. For each window your user works with, you create a form. This application consists of a single form. The form consists of two main parts: the Tool Bar and Canvas. ═══ 3.2.1. The Tool Bar ═══ The VisPro/REXX (Evaluation Version) Tool Bar The tool bar consists of a series of icons. Each icon represents a tool. Each tool is used to place a certain kind of object on the canvas. For example, the push button tool places a push button object on the canvas. An object is a graphical item that can be used to perform tasks. Radio buttons and list boxes are examples of objects. The difference between a tool and an object is that a tool is a graphical representation of something that can be added to the canvas. Once added, it becomes an object that can be used to perform tasks. You can turn off the tool bar by selecting Open and then Settings from the Form menu. Select the Options page and deselect Show tool bar. If you select Save defaults, all the defaults you have set for the form are saved, including fonts, grid spacing, etc. Saving defaults affects the defaults for every other project you create. If you do not select Save defaults, your changes will affect only the project the change was made in. ═══ 3.2.2. The Canvas ═══ About the Canvas The canvas is the open, gridded area below the tool bar. This is the area in which you will design (or lay out) your form. You select the tools you need from the tool bar and add them to the canvas. Once objects are added to the canvas, you can customize their appearance and provide behavior for them. You can turn off the grid lines in the canvas by selecting Open and then Settings from the Form menu. Select the Options page and deselect Show grid. If you select Save defaults, all the defaults you have set for the form are saved, including fonts, gridspacing, etc. Saving defaults affects the defaults for every other project you create. If you do not select Save defaults, your changes will affect only the project the change was made in. Note: Snap to grid forces the object to align with the nearest grid line. If you do not want to use this feature, deselect it. ═══ 3.3. Change the Title Bar Name ═══ Change the name on the title bar of your application to say "Hello, World Project." To do so, complete the following steps: 1. From the Form menu, select Open, and then Settings. A notebook appears. 2. Select the General tab. 3. Type Hello, World Application in the field beside Title bar text. 4. Double-click the system menu icon (in the upper left corner) to close the settings view. ═══ 3.4. The VisPro Team Administrator ═══ With the new releases, all products (except VisPro/REXX Bronze) feature the VisPro Team Administrator, which takes the error-prone guesswork out of team development. The Team Administrator allows programmers to clearly and easily compare change levels and project versions, to rollback changes, and monitor development progress. All changes are automatically logged and forms can be locked to ensure that only one programmer makes changes at a time. Other features include read-only viewing and the ability to create a form shadow for easy accessibility in a distributed system environment. All changes to your forms are saved to the VPBACKUP folder inside your Project directory. These backups are logged to a file called LOG.VPL, which is created after the first change to a form. Double-clicking on the LOG.VPL file invokes the VisPro Team Administrator. As part of team development, VisPro introduces Form Shadows. Form shadows are similar to OS/2 Workplace Shell shadow objects. They allow you to include a VisPro form in a project that actually exists in another project folder. The source project folder can be on the local machine or remotely on a server. This allows you to share commonly-used forms in several projects. Form Shadows are created the same way as a Workplace Shell shadow. You can either drag a form from a source project folder to the target while holding the CTRL and SHIFT keys, or you can get a pop-up menu on a form icon and select Create Shadow. VisPro form shadows differ from OS/2 Workplace Shell shadows in a very fundamental way. OS/2 Workplace Shell shadows are not visible on your hard drive because they actually exist in the OS/2 INI configuration files. VisPro form shadows are actual directories within a project. A file named !!LINK exists inside the directory that contains the fully-qualified path of the original form's location. This prevents the loss of project structure due to changes in the OS/2 system files and improves reliability over OS/2 shadow implementation. Note: Shadows are created as read-only objects by default. To override this attribute, select Read only from a form's pop-up menu. ═══ 3.5. Add Your Objects ═══ You can now add your objects to the canvas of the Layout view. For this application, you will add a push button and an entry field. To add the push button object, complete the following steps: 1. Select the push button tool on the tool bar. 2. Click anywhere on the left portion of the canvas. 3. Use direct editing to rename your push button "OK." To do so, click the push button while you hold down the Alt key. Type over the existing text, then select the pointer tool. To add the entry field object, complete the following steps: 1. Select the entry field tool on the tool bar. 2. Click anywhere on the right portion of the canvas. ═══ 3.6. Size and Align Your Objects ═══ To size your entry field so that the text fits, select the entry field, then position the mouse pointer over the left or right side until you see a double arrow. Drag the edge of the field until the entry field is about twice as long as it was. To align your two objects so the canvas looks tidy, use the Arrange feature. Complete the following steps: 1. Select both the push button object and the entry field object (one way to do this is to hold down the Ctrl key and click on each object). 2. From the Selected menu, select Arrange. 3. Select Align bottom. The objects are aligned with the bottommost object. ═══ 3.7. Provide Behavior For Your Application ═══ Now program your objects so that when the user selects the push button, the entry field says "Hello, World!" To do this, complete the following steps: 1. Select the push button. 2. Click the right mouse button to get a pop-up menu for the push button. 3. Select When, and then Clicked/selected. An Event window appears with the statement Arg window self at the top. Move the Event window so you can see both the Main form and the Event window at the same time. 4. Holding down the right mouse button, drag from your entry field object in the canvas to the Event window. Release the mouse when the focus point is anywhere below the Arg window self statement. The Create Link window appears, presenting an alphabetical list of choices. 5. Scroll down and select Set item value. Then select OK. A REXX statement appears in the Event window. 6. Change value to 'Hello, World!' (include the single quotes). The Event window should look like this: Arg window self /* Set item value Entry Field */ CALL VpSetItemValue window,1001,'Hello, World!' It is not necessary to close any of your windows before you go on to the next step. ═══ 3.8. Run Your Application ═══ You can test your application to see how it works. To test your application without starting the debugger, complete the following steps: 1. Select the Form menu on the Main form. 2. Select Run.... Your application appears. If you select the OK push button, the entry field displays the text "Hello, World!" ═══ 4. Limitations of the Evaluation Version ═══ The Evaluation Version of VisPro/REXX differs from the full product in several key aspects: 1. The Evaluation version does not allow you to build your application to create a stand-alone executable file. The production version allows you to create stand-alone or small(with a DLL) executables, which can be tokenized or encrypted. ________________________________________________________ The VisPro/REXX Build Options 2. The Evaluation version of VisPro/REXX allows you to create single-form applications only. The product version of VisPro/REXX allows you to create multiple-form applications. 3. The Database Designer is not included in the Evaluation version. This feature allows you to design client/server applications or reverse engineer existing database structures from ODBC-enabled databases to create entity/relationship (E/R) diagrams. These can then be used to create visual SQL statements or to automatically generate the code used to access the database. Using the Database Designer you can construct a form accessing multiple database tables with a single drag and drop operation. ________________________________________________________ The VisPro Database Designer 4. Support for Threads, as well as Event and Mutual Exclusion Semaphores is not included in this Evaluation version. VisPro/REXX Gold allows creation and use of Threads and Semaphores to develop powerful multithreaded projects. 5. VisPro/REXX Gold allows you to debug multiple threads of execution (the only product in its class that allow this). Variables in multiple threads can be traced in the Variable Watch window. ________________________________________________________ The VisPro/REXX Debugger, with Conditional Break 6. The Notebook control is disabled, since Notebooks require secondary forms. Recall that secondary forms are not allowed in the Evaluation version. 7. Embedded resources cannot be used in the evaluation version, since these resources are embedded in executable files. The VisPro Resource Editor allows you to add Icons, Bitmaps, and Strings as embedded resources within your executable files (the Resource Editor is included with the evaluation version for your review).. ________________________________________________________ The VisPro/Resource Editor 8. The DDE Client and Multimedia objects are not included in the Evaluation version. In the production version of the product we have used the System Object Module (SOM) to add the DDE Client and Multimedia Presentation Manager/2 (MMPM/2) controls to our tool box. Users of VisPro/REXX can request the free SOM toolkit to add additional controls to their toolbar. ________________________________________________________ The DDE Client and Multimedia Objects 9. Simple report capabilities are not offered in the Evaluation version. In VisPro/REXX Gold there are three ways to print the information from a form:  Print a list from a stem variable  Print a tabular report from a stem variable  Print a rendering of a FORM window to the printer, including Business Graphics and Container Details views. Along with graphics, your reports can include headings, subtitles, and page numbers to make your off screen presentation as impressive as your final executable code. HockWare also offers VisPro/Reports, a REXX-enabled programmable report writer for OS/2. Contact HockWare for more information on this product. ═══ 5. Company background ═══ In April of 1993, HockWare introduced VisPro/REXX--the first OS/2 visual REXX programming tool as well as the first REXX programming tool to include drag and drop programming. VisPro/REXX fully exploits OS/2 2.x, OS/2 Warp, the Workplace Shell, CUA '91 objects, SOM and the REXX language. There are three commercially available products developed with VisPro/REXX:  Performance Plus by Clear and Simple A CPU performance monitoring tool  WatchIt by Client Server Networking A LAN performance analysis and management tool for IBM LAN Server  CS-Edit/2 by Multitask Consulting A system configuration editor These are just a few of the products that exemplify the robustness and stability of the VisPro development environment. HockWare has headquarters in Cary, North Carolina (USA). ═══ 6. How To Order VisPro/REXX ═══ VisPro/REXX is available directly from HockWare or from your favorite software reseller. We provide several ways you can reach us for product support and questions. These include:  Phone: Our technical support number is (919) 380-0616  Fax: Our FAX number is (919) 380-0757  Compuserve: Mail can be sent directly to us at 71333,3226 Technical questions can be directed to our forum. You can access the HOCKWARE forum by using the GO command in this form: GO HOCKWARE  Internet: Our Internet address is: hockware@vnet.net  World Wide Web: General sales information, product announcements, and patches are available from our site on the world wide web. The URL is: http://www.hockware.com/hockware The next section contains an online order form, which you may print out to use when mailing or faxing your order to us. ═══ 6.1. Order Form for VisPro/REXX ═══ SHIPPING ADDRESS: BILLING ADDRESS: Name: ____________________________ Name: ____________________________ Company: _________________________ Company: _________________________ Address: _________________________ Address: _________________________ __________________________________ __________________________________ City: ____________________________ City: ____________________________ State: ___________________________ State: ___________________________ Country: _________________________ Country: _________________________ Zip: _____________________________ Zip: _____________________________ Phone: ___________________________ Phone: ___________________________ FAX: _____________________________ FAX: _____________________________ PAYMENT METHOD: (Circle) Check Purchase Order(Include copy of PO) Credit Card: Visa Amex MC Wire Transfer Account Number: ______________________________ Expiration Date: _____________ UPS SHIPPING and HANDLING FEES: (Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Intnl. shipping fees vary. Please call.) Ground: 1-3 Copies $7.00 each additional copy: $2.00 2nd day air: 1 copy 15.00 each additional copy: 4.00 Next day air: 1 copy 25.00 each additional copy: 6.00 ITEM QUANTITY UNIT PRICE TOTAL VisPro/REXX Gold __________ $299.00 _____________ VisPro/REXX BRONZE __________ $59.00 _____________ VisPro/Reports __________ $199.00 _____________ VisPro/C __________ $299.00 _____________ VisPro/C++ __________ $299.00 _____________ Development Suite (VisPro/REXX, C, C++) __________ $499.00 _____________ SUBTOTAL _____________ Sales Tax (residents of NC only, 6% subtotal) _____________ Shipping _____________ TOTAL _____________ Where did you hear about us? HockWare, Inc. Telephone (919) 380-0616 FAX (919) 380-0757