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╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ ║ ║ ╓─ ╥────╖ ╓───╥───╖ ─╖ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ╟────╨╖ ║ ║ ║ ║ ╓───╢ ║ ║ ║ ╓────╖ ╓────╖ ║ ╓───╖ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ╙───╖ ║ ║ ╙───╨ ╨─────╜ ─╨─ ╙────╜ ╙────╜ ─╨─ ╙───╜ ║ ║ ║ ╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ VERSION 1.23 July 1990 Enhancements to the dBASE language (c) 1989,1990 BERNATH COMPUTER, all rights reserved 1821 Harding Court Antioch, CA 94509 (415) 778-4423 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page No. -------- Introduction ................................... 1 Shareware ...................................... 2 Disclaimer (legalese) .......................... 2 System Requirements ............................ 3 Package Contents ............................... 3 Features ....................................... 3 Loading and Using dBTools ...................... 4 Conventions .................................... 7 dBTools Function Reference Function 0, INITIALIZE DBTOOLS ............. 8 Function 1, ATSAY .......................... 8 Function 2, BLAT ........................... 8 Function 3, BOX ............................ 8 Function 4, CURSOR ......................... 8 Function 5, ERASE .......................... 9 Function 6, DELAY .......................... 9 Function 7, DITHER ......................... 9 Function 8, FADE ........................... 9 Function 9, HMENU .......................... 10 Function 10, PAUSE .......................... 11 Function 11, PRINTER ........................ 12 Function 12, READSCR ........................ 13 Function 13, RECOLOR ........................ 13 Function 14, RESTORE ........................ 13 Function 15, SAVESCR ........................ 14 Function 16, SCROLL ......................... 14 Function 17, SOUND .......................... 14 Function 18, TWIDDLE ........................ 14 Function 19, UNPOP .......................... 15 Function 20, VMENU .......................... 15 Function 21, WINDOW ......................... 16 Function 22, PAGE ........................... 17 Function 23, NOBLINK ........................ 17 Function 24, PALETTE ........................ 17 Function 25, GETKEY ......................... 19 About the dBTools Demo ......................... 20 Technical Support .............................. 21 Revision History ............................... 22 Things to Come ................................. 23 Appendix A : Error messages Appendix B : Printer definition files Appendix C : Musical Note versus Frequency Equivalency Chart Appendix D : Coding pulldown menu systems Appendix E : Function Key Scancode Values Appendix F : Registration Form and Questionaire dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 1 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER INTRODUCTION The dBASE language has become an accepted standard for custom database applications. A number of third party vendors have imitated the original package offered by Ashton-Tate (they say imitation is the highest form of flattery), offering improved speed, and/or extensions to the dBASE language. Most notable among these third party vendor products are Clipper, Foxbase/FoxPro, and dBXL/Quicksilver. Even Ashton-Tate has come up with an improved and enhanced version of the language in dBASE IV. However, studies show that there are still a lot of copies of dBASE III+ being used out there - everybody hasn't rushed out to purchase a dBASE compiler or even to upgrade to dBASE IV. So whereas programmers love to bash dBASE III+, there are a lot of people out there still using it. One of the areas where I believe dBASE III+ shows its most dismal performance is in its screen handling capabilities. The "look and feel" of a typical dBASE application is lackluster, as a result of the barrenness of the language in this area. It is one of the first areas where the third party vendors have added extensions to the language (and Ashton-Tate in dBASE IV). Nowadays an attractive application should have popup windows and menus, fast screen writes, and color, features which are missing or severly limited in dBASE III+, and implemented to various degrees in the other dBASE versions. The ability to take advantage of your printer's features is also a desirable capability. These are the type of enhancements that dBTools provides, from within your copy of dBASE. dBTools also has some features not found in ANY of the dBASE dialects, and can be used to enhance any one of them. dBASE III+ and dBASE IV are trademarks of Ashton-Tate Foxbase and FoxPro are trademarks of Fox Software, Inc. Clipper is a trademark of Nantucket Software Ltd. dBXL and Quicksilver are trademarks of WordTech Inc. MSDOS is a trademark of Microsoft, Inc. IBM is a trademark of International Business Machines Lotus 123 is a trademark of Lotus, Inc. dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 2 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER SHAREWARE dBTools is classified as shareware: meaning that BERNATH COMPUTER retains all copyrights on the software, but users are allowed to freely distribute the package as long as they include all files intact. No charge may be made for this distribution except for a small handling charge not to exceed $5 (if you're charging more than this you're soaking people!) such as shareware libraries and distribution houses charge. You are allowed to use dBTools for an evaluation period free of charge, afterwards which you are encouraged to register your copy with BERNATH COMPUTER for a small registration fee of $25. What will registration get you? ■ A copy of the latest revision of dBTools without the opening shareware message, and a copy of the lastest version with the share- ware message so you can pass it on to others. ■ Notification of upgrades to dBTools and other products by BERNATH COMPUTER (oh no, another mailing list!). ■ My prayers and blessings (if that sounds strange, just realize that I am also an ordained minister and the pastor of a church). SINGLE USER vs SITE LICENSE dBTools is essentially a programmer's development tool. As such, the license is for one individual developing applications. If you have more than one person developing applications using dBTools, you need a site license. Or, if you are an individual developing an application using dBTools that will be distributed commercially or to more than 50 end users, you need a site license. See the registration form at the end of this documentation. I've had a number people tell me what a great product dBTools is, that in fact I was undercharging for it. So, I've raised the registration from $15 to $25 in this version, but there are some added features also. I must say I haven't been encouraged by the number of registrations I've been getting. C'mon, gang, 25 bucks is CHEAP for what dBTools gives you! DISCLAIMER dBTools is supplied AS IS, with no guarantees or warranties for its performance or suitableness for any application. BERNATH COMPUTER will in no way be held liable for any losses or damages incurred through the use of this product. The above statement is for protection from sue-happy lawyers. In reality, I am very interested in providing a quality product that IS suitable for your application. If there are bugs, I want to know about them and will endeavor to correct them. dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 3 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS An IBM compatible XT, AT, or 386 machine with MSDOS 2.x or higher. A color CGA, EGA, or VGA video card. A maximum of 32k memory in addition to that required by dBASE III+. dBASE III+ or a compatible dBASE compiler or interpreter (dBTools has been successfully used on Foxbase/FoxPro, dBXL, Quicksilver, and dBASE IV). A version will be forthcoming which will work with Clipper (see the THINGS TO COME section). dBTools CONTENTS You should have the following files included in your dBTools package: DBTOOLS.BIN - the dBTools module DBTOOLS.DOC - this documentation DBTQREF.DOC - dBTools Quick Reference Guide DBT*.PRG - demo programs PRNDEF.DBF, and .NDX, ESCCODES.DBF, and .NDX - Printer definition data, an easy way to create and maintain the .PRT files. PRNDEF.FRM - report form to list printer codes PRTTEST.PRG - standalone printer test program PROCFILE.PRG- a procedure file with some useful routines PROCDEMO.PRG- goes with the procedure file to demo the routines CLOSET.PRG - skeleton code for pulldown menu system GODEMO.BAT - batch file to execute the demo PAN1091.PRT - Printer dfn for Panasonic 1091i EPSONFX.PRT - Printer dfn for Epson FX series OKI192.PRT - Printer dfn for Okidata 192 HPLASER.PRT - Printer dfn for HP Laserjet IBMPRO.PRT - Printer dfn for IBM Proprinter *.IMG - Screen image files PAINT.* - files for PC Magazines screen painter FEATURES ■ A single .BIN file contains all dBTools functions. ■ Written entirely in assembly language for the ultimate in speed and compactness. ■ All functions accessible within a .PRG file or from the dot prompt through the CALL command. ■ 25 functions provided: Popup windows with boxed and shadowed frames, or draw framed and shadowed boxes without saving what's underneath. Vertical moving bar menus, with framed boxes and shadows that can trap function keys. May be popup/pulldown. dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 4 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER Horizontal moving bar menus, a la Lotus 1-2-3, with Fkey trap. Save and restore up to three entire screens in memory. Read a screen image from a file into memory. Eight slideshow-type "fades" of screen images in memory, for dramatic effects. Turn off/on the cursor, or set its width from skinny to fat. Scroll, and/or erase a portion of the screen. Recolor (change the attribute bytes) of an area of the screen without changing the text. A fast alternative to @ SAY that works independently of the dBASE SET COLOR TO command, with an optional shadow. Sound commands that allow you to set frequency and duration of a note, a three note "twiddle", and the computer equiv- alent of a bronx cheer. Clear the screen to a "dithered" background using upper graphics characters, which gives over a hundred background colors. Delay an operation (a timed wait command) anywhere from 1/18th second to several seconds. A more elegant WAIT command (press any key to continue....), with an optional user defined message and the ability to trap Function and other control keys. A user definable printer driver which allows you to take advan- tage of your printer's features (Bold, underline, pitch, font, italic, etc.) from within dBASE. Write invisibly to a different video page, and then activate the page "instantly". Ability to set the EGA color palette, and choose between blinking or high intensity background attributes. Trap keystrokes and return unambiguous scancodes. LOADING AND USING dBTools To make the functions of dBTools available to dBASE you must first load the dBTools module. This is the single file DBTOOLS.BIN. This file must be where dBASE can locate it, such as in the current or the SET PATH TO subdirectory. Then execute the commands: LOAD DBTOOLS CALL DBTOOLS WITH "0" dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 5 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER from a .PRG file or from the dot prompt. A brief shareware message will appear (not in registered copies). Press ENTER, and then the dBTools functions will be available. Here is a programming tip that will allow you to avoid hard coding subdirectory names in your applications: I have my dBASE files in a subdirectory C:\DB3, my dbTools files in C:\DBTOOLS, and my different dBASE applications files (the .PRG's, .DBF's, etc.) in other subdirectories. I set three MSDOS environment variables from a batch file GOAPP.BAT in my application subdirectory: set DBPATH=C:\appsubdir set DBTOOLS=C:\DBTOOLS set DBTPRT=PAN1091 cd \db3 dbase c:\appsubdir\APPSTART where appsubdir is the name of the subdirectory my applications programs are in, and APPSTART.PRG is the name of the frontend startup program of my application. APPSTART.PRG will look something like this: * APPSTART.PRG - application startup program public gPATH,gPRT,gPRTFILE && declare a global var do LOADDBT && load and initialize dBTools do APPMAIN && execute your own application * The file LOADDBT.PRG is included in the distribution package, and contains the following code: * LOADDBT.PRG - load and initialize dBTools gPATH = GETENV("DBPATH") && fetch pathname from environment SET PATH TO &gPATH && use it to set path gDRV = SUBSTR(gPATH,1,2) && get drive name SET DEFAULT TO &gDRV && set default drive gPATH = TRIM(gPATH)+"\" mTOOLS = GETENV("DBTOOLS") && get dBTools location mTOOLS = TRIM(mTOOLS)+"\" mEXP = mTOOLS + "DBTOOLS" LOAD &mEXP && use macro to load it CALL DBTOOLS WITH "0" && initialize dBTools gPRT = GETENV("DBTPRT") && get default printer gPRTFILE = gPATH+gPRT+".PRT" && turn it into fully qualified filename mEXP = "11,0,0,"+gPRTFILE && create a memvar to load the printer CALL DBTOOLS WITH mEXP && driver RETURN The above scenario has the advantage that if you want to change any of the subdirectories used by your application, all you have to do is change the batch file GOAPP.BAT which sets the environment variables. dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 6 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER THE CALL COMMAND dBTool functions (or any .BIN module loaded into dBASE, for that matter) are accessed with the CALL command: CALL DBTOOLS WITH <parameter string> where <parameter string> can either be a string memory variable or text in quotes. The first value in the parameter string should be the dBTools function number (1-25), then a comma, and then whatever parameters the function requires, separated by commas. For example, the CURSOR function, function 4, has two parameters, toggled with a "1" or a "0": the first specifies whether the cursor is to be turned on or off, the second whether it is to be a normal or fat cursor. To turn the cursor off, you could write CALL DBTOOLS WITH "4,0,0". To turn the cursor on with a fat cursor, you would write CALL CURSOR WITH "4,1,1". Alternatively you could use a memory variable for the parameters, such as STORE "4,1,0" TO mPARM CALL DBTOOLS WITH mPARM The parameter string can consist of any valid dBASE expression as long as it evaluates to the proper parameters for the function. If the parameter string is incorrect in some way, dBTools will beep, blank the screen, display a diagnostic error message and the offending parameter string, then pause for a keystroke. After receiving the keystroke, operation will resume with the next dBASE statement after the CALL command. A list of error messages is in Appendix A. dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 7 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER CONVENTIONS In the command reference that follows, the following conventions will be used: FG = foreground color BG = background color Using the DOS color parameters 0 through 15: 0 = black 8 = dark grey 1 = blue 9 = bright blue 2 = green 10 = bright green 3 = cyan 11 = bright cyan 4 = red 12 = bright red 5 = magenta 13 = bright magenta 6 = brown 14 = yellow 7 = grey 15 = white Note that using background colors > 7 will result in blinking text, unless function 23 has been used to set blinking Off. All parameters should be separated by commas. Parameters enclosed in <> are optional. Columns are numbered 0 through 79, rows are 0 through 24. Window and box coordinates: ULC = upper left column ULR = upper left row LRC = lower right column LRR = lower right row dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 8 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER DBTOOLS FUNCTION REFERENCE ■ INITIALIZE DBTOOLS, function 0 : Execute this function once right after loading dBTools. A shareware message will appear once (not in registered versions). Press ENTER to continue. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ■ ATSAY, function 1 : an fast alternative to @ SAY commands. CALL DBTOOLS WITH "1,<S>,row,col,FG,BG,page,text" The S parameter is optional. If included, a background shadow will appear under the text. page = video page. Normally should be 0. Example: CALL DBTOOLS WITH "1,5,10,15,1,0,Enter Last Name:" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ■ BLAT, function 2 : a computerized bronx cheer. CALL DBTOOLS WITH "2" This function is used to provide "negative" audio feedback, such as when an incorrect entry is made by a user. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ■ BOX, function 3 : draw a framed box with optional shadow. CALL DBTOOLS WITH "3, ULR, ULC, LRR, LRC, FG, BG, frame, page, shadow" ULR, ULC, LRR, LRC form the coordinates of the box. Frame = 0 : no frame Frame = 1 : single line Frame = 2 : double line Frame = 3 : single on horizontal, double on vertical Frame = 4 : double on horizontal, single on vertical Frame = 5 : thick line frame Shadow = 0 for no shadow, = 1 for shadow Page = video page, 0 to 3 Example: CALL DBTOOLS WITH "3,10,25,15,60,15,1,2,0,1" --------------------------------------------------------------- ■ CURSOR, function 4 : turn cursor on/off and control its shape. CALL DBTOOLS WITH "4, off/on, normal/fat" The On and Fat toggles are set by setting the parameters to "1", and reset by specifying "0". Example: CALL DBTOOLS WITH "4,0,0" && cursor off CALL DBTOOLS WITH "4,1,1" && cursor on and fat CALL DBTOOLS WITH "4,1,0" && cursor on and normal dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 9 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER ■ ERASE, function 5 : erase text CALL DBTOOLS WITH "5,ULR,ULC,LRR,LRC,<BG>" Erases an area of the screen, specified by its corner coordinates ULR,ULC,LRR,LRC. The background color BG is optional. If used, text is erased and set to the color specified by BG. If BG is not specified, text will be blanked, but the underlying colors will remain unchanged. Examples: CALL DBTOOLS WITH "5,5,10,5,22" && erases 12 chars, retaining current colors CALL DBTOOLS WITH "5,10,0,11,79,1" && erases two lines in blue ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ■ DELAY, function 6 : timed delay CALL DBTOOLS WITH "6,delay" This function suspends execution of any command for the time specified by Delay, which is in eighteenths of seconds (Delay = 18 = one second). It is derived from the system clock and so is accurate with any processor. ----------------------------------------------------------------------= ■ DITHER, function 7 : paint a background using graphics characters and "dithering". CALL DBTOOLS WITH "7,CharType,FG,BG,Page" CharType = 0 : <solid BG color> CharType = 1 : ░ CharType = 2 : ▒ CharType = 3 : ▓ CharType = 4 : <solid FG color> Over a hundred color shades are possible by combining different CharType's, FG's, and BG's. You can also use this to clear alternate video pages. ■ FADE, function 8 : Use one of several slideshow type "fades" to display a screen image on the screen. CALL DBTOOLS WITH "8, fadetype, mode/color, delay, slot" Fadetype: 0 = instant snap to screen 1 = vertical wipe, top to bottom 2 = vertical wipe, bottom to top 3 = horizontal wipe, left to right 4 = horizontal wipe, right to left 5 = horizontal alternate fingers wipe 6 = vertical alternate fingers wipe 7 = sparkle fade dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 10 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER Mode/Color: If this parameter is 0, it is assumed the screen data is stored in an memory screen image specified by Slot (ie, a screen image produced either by the SAVESCR function 15 command or the READSCR function 12 command). If Mode/Color is nonzero, it is assumed you want to clear the screen to a solid color specified by the Color parameter, using the specified fade type. The Delay parameter controls how fast the fade will occur. The delay is not derived from the system clock, so there may be some varia- tion between processors (although it does sense whether you're running on an 8086, 286, or 386 machine and attempt to adjust for it). Example: Fade to a screen image stored in slot 3, using fade 2. CALL DBTOOLS WITH "8,2,0,5,3" Example: Clearing the screen to green using the sparkle fade. CALL DBTOOLS WITH "8,7,2,5,0" When fading to a color, the Slot parameter is ignored. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ■ HMENU, function 9 : horizontal bar menu. mMENUSTR="9, <Y>, choice, row, col, LowFG, LowBG,HighFG, HighBG,; item1, item2, ....., @" CALL DBTOOLS WITH mMENUSTR This function allows you to create scrolling horizontal moving bar menus a-la Lotus 1-2-3. The arrow keys, along with the End and Home keys, are used to position the highlight bar, and the <─┘ (Enter) key used to select the item. Alternatively, you may press the first letter of the menu item to select (pressing Enter is not necessary). If you specified the optional Y parameter, HMENU will also trap and return the value of Function and other control keys. The colors specified by LowFG and LowBG control the color of the nonhighlighted text, and HighFG and HighBG control the colors of the highlighted text. The parameter string MUST be set up with a memory string variable, as the value of the selected item is returned in it. You may add leading and trailing spaces to the menu items to get them to space out as desired. Specifying a 0 initial choice displays the menu, but no options are highlighted and the program exits the function without waiting for a keystroke. Specifying a NEGATIVE initial conditions will highlight the specified the specified option, but the function will exit without pausing for a keystroke (See Appendix D for application). dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 11 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER Example: mCHOICE = 1 mPARM = "9,"+STR(mCHOICE,2)+",24,25,11,1,1,3," mPARM = mPARM + "A)dd,C)hange,D)elete,Q)uit,@" * don't forget the commas and terminating @ sign! CALL DBTOOLS WITH mPARM mCHOICE = VAL(mPARM) Note that the value of Choice (the string representation of the memory variable mCHOICE imbedding in the parameter string) determines which of the menu items is initially highlighted. The value of the selected item is returned in the first two characters of the parameter string, and can be converted to a numeric variable with the dBASE VAL( function. Pressing the Escape key returns a value of 0. The "@" character at the end of the parameter string is mandatory, as it signals dBTools that there are no more menu items. If the Y parameter is specified and a function key is pressed, HMENU will return a value of 99 for mCHOICE, the 4th byte of the parameter string will be set to the first scancode for the function key (see Appendix E for scancode values), the 5th byte to the second scancode, and the currently highlighted option will be in the 6th byte: mPARM = "9,Y,"+STR(mCHOICE,2)+",24,25,11,1,3,Add,Change,Delete,@" CALL DBTOOLS WITH mPARM mCHOICE = VAL(mPARM) IF mCHOICE = 99 && Fkey was pressed * See Note mKEY = ASC(SUBSTR(mPARM,4,1))-1 && Extract 1st scancode mSCAN = ASC(SUBSTR(mPARM,5,1))-1 && Extract 2nd scancode mCHOICE = ASC(SUBSTR(mPARM),6,1)) && Extract highlighted opt ENDIF Note: Because dBASE cannot handle strings with CHR(0) in them, the scancodes are incremented by one in the parm string, and so you must subtract 1 when you extract them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ■ PAUSE, function 10 : an alternative to dBASE's WAIT command. CALL DBTOOLS WITH "10, row, col, FG, BG" CALL DBTOOLS WITH "10, row, col, FG, BG, <alternate message>" mPARM = "10,<Y>, row, col, FG, BG, <alt msg>" CALL DBTOOLS WITH mPARM mKEY = ASC(mPARM)-1 mSCAN = ASC(SUBSTR(mPARM,2,1)) The PAUSE command has three options: In the first example it will print the message "Press any key to continue..." in the color specified by FG and BG, at the position specified in Row and Col, and wait for a keystroke. In the second example, an alternate user defined message may be specified in place of the default "Press any key..." In the third example with the Y parameter specified, PAUSE will trap and return the scancode values of function keys or cursor control keys pressed (see Appendix E). ESC will be returned as 27,0. Note that a memory variable string must be used for the parameters. dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 12 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER ■ PRINTER, function 11 : Send escape codes to printer. CALL DBTOOLS WITH "11,0,0,filespec" && load printer dfn mPARM="11,0,1,"+SPACE(31) CALL DBTOOLS WITH mPARM && get printer info CALL DBTOOLS WITH "11,seqcode" && send escape sequence This function is a general purpose non-graphics printer driver which allows you to define escape codes in a text file and call them from within dBASE to control your printer's attributes. Calling this function with a seqcode will send the escape sequence specific to your printer to control pitch, bold, underline, and whatever other features your printer offers. Changing to another printer is just a matter of calling function 11 with a different filespec. The printer control codes must be loaded into memory before they can be used. This is accomplished by calling dBTools function 11 with seqcode = 0, and the filename that contains the codes: CALL DBTOOLS WITH "11,0,0,EPSON.PRT" Once the codes are loaded, up to 48 printer commands are available. These are user definable. A suggested format is shown below: seqcode Action ------- ----------------------------- 1 Initialize printer 2 Set to 10 CPI 3 Set to 12 CPI 4 Compressed print ON 5 Compressed print OFF 6 Double wide ON 7 Double wide OFF 8 Bold ON 9 Bold OFF 10 Italic ON 11 Italic OFF 12 Underline ON 13 Underline OFF 14 Superscript ON 15 Superscript OFF 16 Subscript ON 17 Subscript OFF 18 NLQ ON 19 NLQ OFF 20 Set to 6 LPI 21 Set to 8 LPI 22 Set to 4 LPI 23 Set left margin A special program is included with the demo that maintains a data- base of printers and their escape sequences, from which the printer definition files can be automatically created (see Appendix B). dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 13 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER Calling printer function 11 with subfunctions 0,1 returns informa- tion about the selected printer. A 38 byte parameter string is first set up as shown below, dBTools is called, and information is returned in the parameter string: mPARM = "11,0,1,"+SPACE(31) && set up parameter string CALL DBTOOLS WITH mPARM && get printer info mNUMESC = ASC(SUBSTR(mPARM,1,1)) && number of defined esc codes mPRTYPE = ASC(SUBSTR(mPARM,2,1))-1 && Printer type: && 0 = non-programmable && 1 = 80 col dor matrix && 2 = 132 col dot matrix && 3 = laser/inkjet mPRNAME = SUBSTR(mPARM,3,36) && Name of printer The escape sequences are sent to the printer by calling dBTools function 11 with the appropriate seqcode: CALL DBTOOLS WITH "11,seqcode" See Appendix B for instructions on how to create Printer Definition files. ----------------------------------------------------------------------= ■ READSCR, function 12 : read a screen image from a file into memory. CALL DBTOOLS WITH "12, slot, filespec" The Slot number may be 1-3. Once in memory, the image may be disp- layed by either using RESTORE (function 14) or FADE (function 8). ----------------------------------------------------------------------= ■ RECOLOR, function 13 : recolor an area of the screen without changing the text. CALL DBTOOLS WITH "13,ULR,ULC,LRR,LRC,FG,BG" Example: CALL DBTOOLS WITH "13,10,15,17,45,11,1" ----------------------------------------------------------------------= ■ RESTORE, function 14 : write a screen image stored in memory to the screen. CALL DBTOOLS WITH "14,slotnumber,page" The slotnumber is 1-3 and must have had something stored in it previously. Page is 0-3. Example: CALL DBTOOLS WITH "14,3,0,1" dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 14 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER ■ SAVESCR, function 15 : save current screen image into a memory slot. CALL DBTOOLS WITH "15,slotnumber" You may save up to 3 memory images simultaneously, numbered 1-3. -------------------------------------------------------------------- ■ SCROLL, function 16 : scroll a portion of the screen. CALL DBTOOLS WITH "16,ULR,ULC,LRR,LRC,FG,BG,numlines,direction" Numlines = number of lines to scroll. Direction = 1, up. Direction = 2, down. Example: DO WHILE .NOT. EOF() @ 15,30 SAY TRIM(LAST_NAME)+", "+FIRST_NAME+SPACE(6)+SSN CALL DBTOOLS WITH "16,5,25,15,70,7,1,1,1" SKIP ENDDO ----------------------------------------------------------------------= ■ SOUND, function 17 : sound the speaker. CALL DBTOOLS WITH "17, frequency, duration" This function allows you to play musical notes. Entire tunes can be played, but they are time consuming to code. The legal frequency range is 50 to 17000 cycles per second (although you shouldn't expect much sound out of a PC speaker at the frequency extremes). Duration is in clock tics, which are one eighteenth seconds (ie, one second = 18). Example: A sound equivalent to the TWIDDLE function 18 is: CALL DBTOOLS WITH "17,300,3" CALL DBTOOLS WITH "17,800,3" CALL DBTOOLS WITH "17,1200,3" See Appendix C for a musical note to frequency conversion chart. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ■ TWIDDLE, function 18 : three note "twiddle" sound. CALL DBTOOLS WITH "18" This function produces a "positive" audio feedback, as opposed to the BLAT function above which produces a negative feedback. It can be used as an alternative to BEEP or ? CHR(7). dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 15 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER ■ UNPOP, function 19 : close a popup window. CALL DBTOOLS WITH "19,windownumber" This function closes a popup window and restores the screen data underneath the window. If you attempt to restore a windownumber that has not previously been saved with the WINDOW command, an error will result. Legal range for Windownumber is 1-24. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ■ VMENU, function 20 : vertical moving bar menu. Optional popup. There are two forms of the VMENU function, one that produces a popup menu that can be UNPOP'd, and one that just draws the menu on the screen and leaves it up after you exit. Non-popup form: CALL DBTOOLS WITH "20,<Y>,choice,0,ULR,ULC,LRR,LRC,LowFG,LowBG, frame,shadow,HighFG,HighBG,Jus,item1,item2, item3,....,@" Popup form: CALL DBTOOLS WITH "21,windownumber,ULR,ULC,LRR,LRC,FG,BG, frame, shadow" CALL DBTOOLS WITH "20,<Y>,choice,windownumber,HighFG,HighBG,Jus, item1,item2,....,@" Note that a window box must be opened with the WINDOW function first (function 21), then the VMENU function is called with fewer para- meters. Specifying a Windownumber of 0 signals the function that it is a nonpopup type, and it will look for the box parameters. The LowFG and LowBG parameters specify both the window frame colors and the unhighlighted text colors. The Jus (justification) parameter controls whether the menu text will be left justified (for Jus = 1), or centered in the box (for Jus = 2). The box parameters are the same as in the BOX function (3). The up/down arrows, Home and End will position the highlight bar, and <─┘ (Enter) selects the item. Or, pressing the first letter of the menu item text will also select an item. Pressing the Escape key returns a value of 0. dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 16 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER Example: Non-popup menu mCHOICE = 1 mPARM = "20,"+STR(mCHOICE,2)+",0,5,10,9,35,14,4,1,1,12,0,2," mPARM = mPARM + "Data Entry,Reports,Utilities,Quit,@" CALL DBTOOLS WITH mPARM mCHOICE = VAL(mPARM) Example: Popup Menu CALL DBTOOLS WITH "21,1,5,10,9,35,14,4,1,1" && Window function mCHOICE = 1 mPARM = "20,"+STR(mCHOICE,2)+",1,12,0,2," mPARM = mPARM + "Data Entry,Reports,Utilities,Quit,@" CALL DBTOOLS WITH mPARM mCHOICE = VAL(mPARM) CALL DBTOOLS WITH "19,1" && Unpop window If the optional Y parameter is specified, VMENU will also trap and return the scancodes of the control keys pressed (see Appendix E) in the 4th and 5th bytes, and the currently highlighted option in the 6th byte: mPARM = "20,Y,"+STR(mCHOICE,2)+",0,5,10,9,35,14,4,1,1,12,0,2," mPARM = mPARM + "Data Entry,Reports,Utilities,Quit,@" CALL DBTOOLS WITH mPARM mCHOICE = VAL(mPARM) IF mCHOICE = 99 && Fkey was pressed mKEY = ASC(SUBSTR(mPARM,4,1))-1 && Extract 1st scancode mSCAN = ASC(SUBSTR(mPARM,5,1))-1 && Extract 2nd scancode mCHOICE = ASC(SUBSTR(mPARM,6,1)) && Extract highlighted option ENDIF ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ■ WINDOW, function 21 : open a popup window. CALL DBTOOLS WITH "21, windownumber, ULR, ULC, LRR, FG, BG, frame, shadow" The parameters for WINDOW are similar to those of BOX, except that the screen underneath the box is first saved in memory. There is enough memory available to hold a bit more than two full screens, so make sure you close them with UNPOP afterwards to make the memory available to the heap again. Valid windownumbers are 1-24. Example: CALL DBTOOLS WITH "21,1,13,45,18,76,14,1,1,1" dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 17 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER ■ PAGE, function 22 : set active page. CALL DBTOOLS WITH "22,pagenum" Color adapters (CGA, EGA, VGA) have actually 16k of memory set aside for video mapping. When in text mode, which requires only 4k for a full screen, the remaining 12k can be written to "invisibly", and then activated later. The four video pages are numbered 0-3. You can use the DITHER, ATSAY, BOX, READSCR and RECOLOR functions to write to a page other than page 0, and then display it instantly by activating the page with this function. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ■ NOBLINK, function 23 : enable/disable blinking. CALL DBTOOLS WITH "23,blinkattr" This function enables you to choose between blinking color attributes or high intensity background colors (but not simultaneously). blinkattr=0, disables blinking, enables high intensity BG blinkattr=1, enables blinking, disables high intensity BG Note: use the * in dBASE to denote a blinking color. Example: CALL DBTOOLS WITH "23,0" && disable blinking SET COLOR TO N/*GR,+GR/N && black on yellow BG --------------------------------------------------------------------- ■ PALETTE, function 24 : set EGA/VGA color palette CALL DBTOOLS WITH "24,1,RR/VV,RR/VV,RR/VV,...." CALL DBTOOLS WITH "24,0" The EGA card has 16 color registers, so it can only display 16 colors, numbered 0-15, at a time. However, the current set of 16 colors may be chosen from a "palette" of 64 possible colors, numbered 0-63. The default color set consists of the colors: 0,1,2,3,4,5,20,7,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63 corresponding to black, blue, green, cyan, red, magenta, brown, dark grey, grey, bright blue, bright green, bright cyan, bright red, bright magenta, yellow, and white. In the first version of the command, you can use function 24 to set from one to all 16 colors with one command. CALL DBTOOLS WITH "24,1,RR/VV,RR/VV,RR/VV,....." where RR is the register number 0-15 to change, and VV is the color value 0-63 to set it to. For example, to change brown to a nice orange color, CALL DBTOOLS WITH "24,1,6/38" Now in dBASE whenever you access the color GR (which gives brown), it will appear orange. The change occurs immediately, so any brown areas on the screen will turn orange. You can get some interesting "animation" effects with this (see the demo Color Palette). dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 18 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER Watch what combinations you use, because it can get very confusing executing a command like CALL EGAPAL WITH "1,2/37" and then setting your colors SET COLOR TO +GR/G and having it come out yellow on hot pink (yuk)! The entire palette can be reset to the default colors by executing the command: CALL DBTOOLS WITH "24,0" Note that function 24 only works for EGA and VGA adapters. If you have a CGA adapter, function 24 will just return without doing anything. Table 1 below gives the 64 colors and an approximate description of their appearance, with the default colors in CAPS: Table 1 0 BLACK (0) 16 green black 1 BLUE (1) 17 dark blue violet 2 GREEN (2) 18 bright yellow green 3 CYAN (3) 19 light green 4 RED (4) 20 BROWN (6) 5 MAGENTA (5) 21 magenta 6 olive 22 bright yellow green 7 GREY (7) 23 light green 8 blue black 24 almost black 9 bright blue 25 bright blue 10 med green 26 bright green 11 med blue 27 bright cyan 12 med red 28 reddish brown 13 blue violet 29 purple 14 olive 30 yellow green 15 light blue violet 31 light cyan 32 almost black 48 almost black 33 dark blue violet 49 dark blue violet 34 med green 50 bright yellow green 35 med cyan 51 light green 36 bright red 52 red orange 37 hot pink 53 red violet 38 orange 54 yellow 39 light pink 55 light yellow 40 almost black 56 DARK GREY (8) 41 bright blue 57 BRIGHT BLUE (9) 42 med green 58 BRIGHT GREEN (10) 43 light blue 59 BRIGHT CYAN (11) 44 bright red 60 BRIGHT RED (12) 45 bright magenta 61 BRIGHT MAGENTA (13) 46 light orange 62 YELLOW (14) 47 light magenta 63 WHITE (15) dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 19 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER ■ GETKEY, function 25 : trap keystrokes and return unambiguous codes mPARM = "25,0" no character echo, OR mPARM = "25,1" with character echo CALL DBTOOLS WITH mPARM mKEY = ASC(mPARM)-1 mSCAN = ASC(SUBSTR(mPARM,2,1))-1 Letter and number keys will return a unique value in mKEY, and mSCAN will be 0. Function and control keys will return mKEY = 0 and a unique value in mSCAN. Of special interest is the ENTER key which returns mKEY=13 and mSCAN=0, and the ESC key which returns mKEY=27 and mSCAN=0. See the chart in Appendix E for a list of scancodes. dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 20 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER ABOUT THE DEMO Included in the dBTools package is a demonstration program that illustrates the many features of dBTools. The source code is included, so it also acts as a tutorial on how to use dBTools. To run the demo you will require dBASE III+ or a dBASE compatible interpreter (this includes dBXL and QuickSilver, Foxbase, FoxPro, and dBASE IV. This version will not work with Clipper, but I will shortly have a version that does). The files DBT*.PRG and the .PRT printer definition files should be in the same subdirectory. Set up three environment variables: SET DBPATH=<path where the .PRG and .PRT files can be found> SET DBTOOLS=<path where the file DBTOOLS.BIN can be found> SET DBPRT=<name of .PRT printer definition file to load> select the subdirectory where dBASE is found: CD /DB3 (or wherever) DBASE <path>\DBTDEMO (path is where DBTDEMO.PRG is found) For example, let's say you have dBASE in a subdirectory C:\DB3, and you copy all the necessary dBTools files into a subdirectory called C:\DBTOOLS. You could execute the demo with the following batch file: DBPATH=C:\DBTOOLS DBTOOLS=C:\DBTOOLS DBTPRT=EPSONFX && or whatever CD\DB3 DBASE C:\DBTOOLS\DBTDEMO This batch file is included in the dBTools package as GODEMO.BAT. If you are using subdirectories other than those in the example, you may modify GODEMO.BAT with a text editor. THE PROCEDURE DEMO The PROCDEMO programs can be setup in a similar way with batch files and environment variables. A sample batch file called PD.BAT is included which will work if all your files are in a subdirectory C:\DBTOOLS. SCREEN PAINTER Inquiries have been made as to how to create the screen images to use with the FADE command. I have included as a convenience in this distribution package PC Magazine's PAINT.COM, authored by Jeff Prosise. Doc's are in PAINT.DOC. Another excellent screen painter you can find on most BBS's is THEDRAW by Ian Davis. dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 21 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER TECHNICAL SUPPORT If you are having problems using dBTools, or encounter a bug (get out the Raid!), I want to hear about it. I would like to say you can call our 24 hour toll free technical support line and one of our trained technical advisors will assist you, but I would be lying. The fact is, "BERNATH COMPUTER" is just me, Scott Bernardi, and I don't do this full time. I pastor a church AND I work a full time job as a management analyst and programmer (I do a lot of FoxPro programming). Therefore I am not always the easiest person to get a hold of. You may call me at (415) 778-4423 on Tuesday and Friday eves or on Saturday. During the day, try (415) 356-3664 (I'd rather you called me at home on evenings since this is my regular work number). For registered users, if you encounter a bug in dBTools, I'll send a fix out to you. You'll find me very responsive. In fact, the dBASE IV and QuickSilver compatible versions came about from user requests. For non registered users, I'll try to maintain the lastest version on the following BBS's: INFOLINC (415) 778-5929 The File Bank (619) 728-4318 Bertha Board (209) 239-9833 Charisma (415) 349-6576 You may write to me at: BERNATH COMPUTER 1821 Harding Court Antioch, CA 94509 dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 22 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER REVISION HISTORY 10/31/89 - Initial Release 02/26/90 - Version 1.1. No bugs reported as yet. Function key support added to HMENU, VMENU, and PAUSE. Alternate message capability added for PAUSE. Demonstration procedure file added. 03/15/90 - Version 1.11. If one of the sound commands were called right after loading dBTools, it would lock the computer. Fixed by adding the initialization function 0 to be called right after loading dBTools. 05/10/90 - Version 1.2. Added the NOBLINK and PALETTE commands. 06/29/90 - Version 1.21. Made some changes to make it run under dBASE IV and QuickSilver. 07/09/90 - Version 1.22. Made some corrections to the documentation. PAINT.COM screen painter included. I decided to put a sharware message in the initialization routines, and raise the price to $25 (hey, people, I'm just being honest!). The only ones to receive version 1.21 were registered users. 07/20/90 - Version 1.23. Added the GETKEY function. Added expanded function key trapping capability to HMENU, VMENU, and PAUSE. HMENU accepts a 0 or negative initial choices to bypass the wait for keystroke. Added the Pulldown Menu System code to the demo. Fixed a bug in the printer driver. Cleaned up some of the error messages. dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools Page 23 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER THINGS TO COME I'm currently working on Version 2.0 'PRO' of dBTools, which will add increased storage capacity for screens and windows, some more sound effects, MOUSE SUPPORT!!, "dialog buttons", enhanced menu capabilities, color schemes like FoxPro, online syntax help, the ability to use dBASE type color specifications (W/N, etc) or color numbers interchangably, string, encryption, and whatever else I might think of. Version 2.0 will not be distributed as shareware, so version 1.2x will be the last shareware versions available. The price of version 2.0 will probably be $45, but registered users of the shareware version will be given full credit for their registration towards Version 2.0. This is not an official announcement yet since I'm still working on it. When I'm finished, I'll probably put some kind of demo on the BBS's, and I'll notify registered users by mail. I'm also toying with the idea of a Clipper library version. I can get dBTools to work with Clipper right now, but it still uses the kludgey CALL interface which is necessary with all the other dBASE compilers and interpreters (if you're interested, contact me). Please use the questionaire/survey form to express your own ideas for what you'd like to see in dBTools. dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER A-1 APPENDIX A - ERROR MESSAGES The most common source of errors are incorrect parameter strings, or dBTools can't find a specified file. Upon encountering an error, dBTools will beep, blank the screen, print a diagnostic message about the error, print the offending parameter string, and pause for a key stroke. Upon receiving a keystroke, your dBASE program will continue with the next statement. 1 : Invalid function. A function code outside the 1-25 range was specified. 2 : Error in parameters. A missing or invalid parameter was specified in the parameter string. 3 : Parameter out of range. A numeric parameter was specified outside its legal range. May also occur when the function is expecting numeric data but encounters alpha data. 4 : Color monitor required. The Page function 22 requires a color monitor. 5 : Invalid color attributes. A FG or BG color was specified outside the legal 0-15 range. 6 : Invalid screen file. A file was specified in the READSCR function 12 that was not recognizable as a 4000 byte screen image. 7 : Cannot restore a screen that hasn't been saved. Results from trying to call RESTORE function 14 before READSCR function 12 or SAVESCR function 15 has saved an image in the specified slot. 8 : Invalid coordinates. Screen coordinates outside the row range of 0-24 or outside the column range of 0-79 have been specified. 9 : Window hasn't been saved. An attempt to UNPOP a window with function 19 before it has been opened with function 21 will cause this error. 10: Invalid window number. Legal range is 1-24. dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER A-2 APPENDIX A - ERROR MESSAGES 11 : Not enough memory to save window. A limited amount of memory space is available (a bit more than two full screens) to store areas underneath windows, which can be exceeded by trying to maintain too many open windows at a time. If you make sure you UNPOP a window when you are done with it, you shouldn't encounter this error. 12 : Error allocating HEAP space. Rarely will occur. Has to do with the allocating of memory space for popup windows or temporary buffers for files. 13 : Invalid printer code file. The '@PRNDEF' in the first line of a .PRT file acts as a "signature" to determine whether the specified file is a valid printer definition file. 14 : Invalid printer code. An attempt has been made to access an escape sequence outside the range defined for the currently loaded printer dfn file. The maximum value is stored in line 3 of the definition file. Maximum value is 48. 15 : Invalid video page specified. Legal range is 0-3. 16 : Error reading file. If a specified file is not found, or cannot be opened for some reason, this error will occur. dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER B-1 APPENDIX B - PRINTER DEFINITION FILES A printer definition file contains the escape codes that control the features of your printer. It can be created or modified with any text editor or word processor (in non document mode) that will produce a pure ASCII file. Or alternatively, a dBASE program and associated datafiles are included in the demo which maintain a database of printers, their available features, and the escape sequences to activate those features. Registration includes the right to incorporate the printer maintenance files into your application. Printer definition files can then be automatically created from this database (by far the easiest way to go!). Included in the dBTools package are definition files for five pop- ular printers (ones where I could get my hands on the manuals). A printer definition file can have any filename, but should have a .PRT extension. The first line of the file should have the word "@PRNDEF" (don't include the quotes) by itself, with no leading spaces. The second line of the file specifies the name/type of the printer, eg, EPSON FX-286e or whatever. This printer description can be up to 36 characters long. The third line should be a number 0-3 which defines the printer type as follows: 0 = nonprogrammable 1 = 80 col dot matrix 2 = 132 col dor matrix 3 = laser/inkjet The following lines will be the actual escape sequences. Any number of escape sequences may be defined, up to 48. Each line should start with the sequence code (1-48), immediately followed by a colon (:), at least one space, and then the decimal equivalents of each escape sequence byte separated by commas. Up to 16 bytes may be included in a sequence. A sequence is terminated by an ending comma followed by the @ char- acter. This is mandatory. End the line with a carriage return. The last line of the file MUST be two '@' signs by themselves: @@ The escape sequences can be anything you like, but you should main- tain consistency between files. This will enable you to program applica- tions with generic calls to dBTools to perform particular functions, no matter what printer is loaded at the time. Examine the included .PRT files for examples. To test your printer codes, run the demo and select the Printer Driver demonstration, or run PRTTEST within dBASE. Specify your new .PRT file as the one to load, and a test sheet will be printed. dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER C-1 APPENDIX C - Musical note versus Frequency Equivalency Chart Octave 0 --------------- A 110 Bb 117 B 124 Octave 1 Octave 4 Octave 7 --------------- --------------- --------------- C 131 C 1047 C 8372 C# Db 139 C# Db 1109 C# Db 8870 D 147 D 1175 D 9397 D# Eb 156 D# Eb 1245 D# Eb 9956 E 165 E 1319 E 10548 F 175 F 1397 F 11175 F# Gb 185 F# Gb 1480 F# Gb 11840 G 196 G 1568 G 12544 G# Ab 208 G# Ab 1661 G# Ab 13290 A 220 A 1760 A 14080 Bb 233 Bb 1865 Bb 14917 B 247 B 1976 B 15804 Octave 2 Octave 5 Octave 8 --------------- --------------- --------------- C 262 C 2093 C 16744 C# Db 277 C# Db 2217 D 294 D 2349 D# Eb 311 D# Eb 2489 E 330 E 2637 F 349 F 2794 F# Gb 370 F# Gb 2960 G 392 G 3136 G# Ab 415 G# Ab 3322 A 440 A 3520 Bb 466 Bb 3729 B 494 B 3951 Octave 3 Octave 6 --------------- --------------- C 523 C 4186 C# Db 554 C# Db 4435 D 587 D 4698 D# Eb 622 D# Eb 4978 E 659 E 5274 F 698 F 5587 F# Gb 740 F# Gb 5919 G 784 G 6271 G# Ab 831 G# Ab 6644 A 880 A 7040 Bb 932 Bb 7459 B 987 B 7902 dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER D-1 APPENDIX D - Coding Pulldown Menu Systems With this version of dBTools, you can program pulldown menu systems with a selecting horizontal bar menu across the top for the main categories, and pulldown vertical bar menus when the horizontal pad is selected. When a vertical pulldown menu is visible, you can select the adjacent vertical menu by pressing the right or left arrow key (previous to this version, pressing the right or left arrow in a vertical menu would just beep). Alternatively you could use a "hotkey" to jump right into another vertical menu without having to cycle through intervening options. The ability to trap a hotkey also permits you to provide context sensitive popup help windows while in the menu system (eg, upon pressing Alt-h or something similar). It's much easier to give a demonstration than to try to explain it in English. The main demo menu is now coded in such a fashion, and the the "Pulldown menu system" selection off the Menus option also illustrates the new features. Also provided is a "skeleton" code module in the file CLOSET.PRG. Coding a pulldown menu system relies on two new dBTools features; the ability for HMENU to act upon an initial bar choice without waiting for a keystroke, and the ability for VMENU to trap and return FKey and control key combinations (Note: "control key" refers to non-ASCII keys such as the direction keys, function keys, Ins, Del, Home, End, PgUp, PgDn, plus standard ASCII keys in combination with Cntrl or Alt; eg, Alt-b or Cntrl-w). The scancodes that are returned by key combinations are listed in Appendix E. Coding HMENU with an initial choice of 0 will display the horizontal bar menus, but with no options highlighted. The function will immediately exit without pausing for a keystroke, and will return a value of -1 in the parameter string: HCHOICE = 0 mMENUSTR="9,"+STR(HCHOICE,2)+",0,0,7,1,1,7, Data Entry ; , Reports , Utilities , Quit ,@" CALL DBTOOLS WITH mMENUSTR HCHOICE = VAL(mMENUSTR) && will return HCHOICE=-1 Use of blanks in the menu items can space the menu out more. Coding HMENU with a NEGATIVE initial choice will draw the menu, high- light the initial choice, exit the menu without pausing for a key- stroke, and return a number which will be the absolute value of the initial choice. For example, if the first line in the code segment above was HCHOICE = -2, the menu would be drawn, 'Reports' would be highlighted, the menu would be exited immediately without waiting for a keystroke, and the last code line would return HCHOICE = 2. dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER D-2 The second scenario above permits you to act upon control keys "lower down" in your code to go through HMENU without having to manually select options. Secondly, VMENU, when defined with the Y option, will trap non-ASCII control keys: mKEY =ASC(SUBSTR(mMENUSTR,4,1))-1 && extract 1st scancode mSCAN=ASC(SUBSTR(mMENUSTR,5,1))-1 && extract 2nd scancode mCUROPT=ASC(SUBSTR(mMENUSTR,6,1)) && currently highlighted && option Code segment: VCHOICE = 1 DO WHILE VCHOICE<>0 && vmenu loop CALL DBTOOLS WITH "21,3,1,5,6,20,14,1,1,1" && define window mPARM="20,Y,"+STR(VCHOICE,2)+",3,14,0,2,Employees,Accounts,; Transactions,Report Titles,@" CALL DBTOOLS WITH mPARM VCHOICE = VAL(mPARM) DO CASE CASE VCHOICE = 0 && ESC pressed CASE VCHOICE = 1 && Employees selected DO EMPDE CASE VCHOICE = 2 && Accounts selected DO ACCTDE CASE VCHOICE = 3 && Transactions selected DO TRANDE CASE VCHOICE = 4 && Report Titles selected DO RPTTTLDE CASE VCHOICE = 99 && non-ASCII key pressed * A special procedure to processing control keys pressed. The 3rd * parm is the number of menu items, the last is the NAME of the * hotkey processor. DO TRAPIT WITH mPARM,HCHOICE,4,"HKPROC" EXIT ENDCASE CALL DBTOOLS WITH "19,3" && unpop window ENDDO && terminate VCHOICE loop You'll have to experiment with VMENU's coordinate parameters to get it to line up with the HMENU options. dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER D-3 The above code module will handle the processing of the vertical pull- down menus. There would be a similar block of code for each of the HMENU options (ie, also one for Reports, Utilities, and Quit), nested inside another DO CASE coming off of HMENU: HCHOICE = 1 DO WHILE HCHOICE<>0 mMENUSTR="9,"+STR(HCHOICE,2)+",0,0,7,1,1,7, Data Entry ; , Reports , Utilities , Quit ,@" CALL DBTOOLS WITH mMENUSTR HCHOICE = VAL(mMENUSTR) DO CASE CASE HCHOICE = 1 * VMENU code block as above CASE HCHOICE = 2 * VMENU code block for Reports CASE HCHOICE = 3 * VMENU code block for utilities CASE HCHOICE = 4 .OR. HCHOICE = 0 * VMENU code block to choose Exit to Dos or to Dot Prompt ENDCASE ENDDO What remains is the code for the TRAPIT procedure: *|---------------------------------------------- PROCEDURE TRAPIT PARAMETERS mPARMSTR,HCHOICE,mMAXVAL,mHOTKEY mKEY=ASC(SUBSTR(mPARMSTR,4,1))-1 mSCAN=ASC(SUBSTR(mPARMSTR,5,1))-1 mCURVAL=ASC(SUBSTR(nPARMSTR,6,1)) DO CASE CASE mSCAN = 75 && west IF mCURVAL = 1 mRETVAL = mMAXVAL ELSE mRETVAL = HCHOICE - 1 ENDIF CASE mSCAN = 77 && east IF HCHOICE = mMAXVAL mRETVAL = 1 ELSE mRETVAL = HCHOICE + 1 ENDIF * Trap for hot keys CASE mSCAN = 35 && Alt-h * you could write a routine for context sensitive help. DO DISPHELP WITH HCHOICE,mCUROPT mRETVAL = -HCHOICE _______________________________ continued next page dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER D-4 ......continued..... OTHERWISE * call another procedure to do hotkey processing. This enables * you to use the same TRAPIT routine with different menus that * use hotkeys. IF mHOTKEY<>"" DO &mHOTKEY ELSE ?? CHR(7) mRETVAL = -HCHOICE ENDIF ENDCASE HCHOICE = -mRETVAL RETURN *|------------------------------------------------------------- PROCEDURE HKPROC && hotkey processor PARAMETERS mKEY,mSCAN,HCHOICE DO CASE CASE mKEY=4 .AND. mSCAN=0 && Cntrl-d mRETVAL=1 CASE mKEY=18 .AND. mSCAN=0 && Cntrl-r mRETVAL = 2 CASE mKEY=21 .AND. mSCAN=0 && Cntrl-u mRETVAL = 3 CASE mKEY=17 .AND. mSCAN=0 && Cntrl-q mRETVAL = 4 OTHERWISE mRETVAL = -HCHOICE ?? CHR(7) ENDCASE HCHOICE = -mRETVAL RETURN A full implementation of this type of menu structure is found in the program files DBTMAIN.PRG and DBTPULDN.PRG, with some calls to procedures in DBTPROC.PRG. Also, a "skeleton" code module which you can modify is found in the file CLOSET.PRG. dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER APPENDIX E - Scancode Values displayed as KEY,SCANCODE. Combinations which do not work are marked xxxxx. KEY Normal Shift Cntrl Alt ----- ------ ----- ----- ----- F1 0,59 0,84 0,94 0,104 F2 0,60 0,85 0,95 0,105 F3 0,61 0,86 0,96 0,106 F4 0,62 0,87 0,97 0,107 F5 0,63 0,88 0,98 0,108 F6 0,64 0,89 0,99 0,109 F7 0,65 0,90 0,100 0,110 F8 0,66 0,91 0,101 0,111 F9 0,67 0,92 0,102 0,112 F10 0,68 0,93 0,103 0,113 West 0,75 0,75 0,115 xxxxx East 0,77 0,77 0,116 xxxxx North 0,72 0,72 xxxxx xxxxx South 0,80 0,80 xxxxx xxxxx Home 0,71 0,71 0,119 xxxxx End 0,79 0,79 0,117 xxxxx PgUp 0,73 0,73 xxxxx xxxxx PgDn 0,81 0,81 xxxxx xxxxx Ins 0,82 0,82 xxxxx xxxxx Del 0,83 0,83 xxxxx xxxxx Note: letters without Alt or Cntrl are searched for a first letter match in menus, beep if not found. a xxxxx xxxxx 1,0 0,30 b xxxxx xxxxx 2,0 0,48 c xxxxx xxxxx ^C 0,46 d xxxxx xxxxx 4,0 0,32 e xxxxx xxxxx 5,0 0,18 f xxxxx xxxxx 6,0 0,33 g xxxxx xxxxx beep 0,34 h xxxxx xxxxx 8,0 0,35 i xxxxx xxxxx 9,0 0,23 j xxxxx xxxxx 10,0 0,36 k xxxxx xxxxx 11,0 0,37 l xxxxx xxxxx 12,0 0,38 m xxxxx xxxxx 13,0 0,50 n xxxxx xxxxx 14,0 0,49 o xxxxx xxxxx 15,0 0,24 p xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx 0,25 q xxxxx xxxxx 17,0 xxxxx r xxxxx xxxxx 18,0 xxxxx s xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx 0,31 t xxxxx xxxxx 20,0 0,20 u xxxxx xxxxx 21,0 0,22 v xxxxx xxxxx 22,0 0,47 w xxxxx xxxxx 23,0 0,17 x xxxxx xxxxx 24,0 0,45 y xxxxx xxxxx 25,0 0,21 z xxxxx xxxxx 26,0 0,44 dBTools - dBASE III+ Enhancement Tools (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER APPENDIX E - Scancode Values displayed as KEY,SCANCODE KEY Normal Shift Cntrl Alt ----- ------ ----- ----- ----- 1 49,0 ! 33,0 xxxxx 0,120 2 50,0 @ 64,0 ^C 0,121 3 51,0 # 35,0 xxxxx 0,122 4 52,0 $ 36,0 xxxxx 0,123 5 53,0 % 37,0 xxxxx 0,124 6 54,0 ^ 94,0 30,0 0,125 7 55,0 & 38,0 xxxxx 0,126 8 56,0 * 42,0 xxxxx 0,127 9 57,0 ( 40,0 xxxxx 0,128 0 48,0 ) 41,0 xxxxx 0,129 ` 96,0 ~ 126,0 xxxxx xxxxx - 45,0 _ 95,0 31,0 0,130 = 61,0 + 43,0 xxxxx 0,131 [ 91,0 { 123,0 27,0 xxxxx ] 93,0 } 125,0 29,0 xxxxx \ 92,0 | 124,0 28,0 xxxxx , 44,0 < 60,0 xxxxx xxxxx . 46,0 > 62,0 xxxxx xxxxx / 47,0 ? 63,0 xxxxx xxxxx ENTER 13,0 13,0 10,0 xxxxx ESC 27,0 xxxx xxxxx xxxxx VMENU and HMENU return the parameter string as "99 "+CHR(scancode)+CHR(highlighted)+CHR(0), which can be extracted as follows: choice = VAL(mMENUSTR) && will return 99 if an Fkey was && pressed, 0 if ESC, or selected && option number IF choice = 99 mKEY = ASC(SUBSTR(mMENUSTR,4,1))-1 mSCAN = ASC(SUBSTR(mMENUSTR,5,1))-1 choice = ASC(SUBSTR(mMENUSTR,6,1)) ENDIF The scancodes for an FKey/control key pressed during PAUSE and GETKEY are returned in the first and second byte of the paramter string: mKEY=ASC(mPARM)-1 mSCAN=ASC(SUBSTR(mPARM,2,1))-1 APPENDIX F - dBTools REGISTRATION FORM dBTools version 1.23 (c) 1990 BERNATH COMPUTER Date ____/____/____ Name ___________________________________________ Address ___________________________________________ City, State, Zip ___________________________________________ Phone (____)________________ Ext _____ Company Name ___________________________________________ Where you obtained dBTools (BBS number, if applicable): _______________________________________________________________ ________ copies of dBTools with latest upgrade disk at $25 each . . . . . . . . . . . . ____________ Each will receive its own serial number. ________ site license(s) at $40 (includes disk) ____________ Shipping and handling . . . . . . . . . ____________ Shipping is $1.50 for up to 3 disks. 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