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Some of the material used comes from scanning CLIPPER echoes which are carried in various BBS throughout the World. These Echoes are very often the source of the most often asked Questions and Answers about Clipper. Other material, which is fully signed or abbreviated is the copyright of the appropriate persons. The publisher is not responsible for other authors submissions.... Published material is not necessarily the opinion of the publisher. Redaction: Publisher...................................Daniel Docekal Chief editor ...............................Daniel Docekal Language editor .................................Dave Wall Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL ............................................................ 1 Monday editorial ..................................................... 1 2. ARTICLES ............................................................. 2 DOSRCS - Revision Control System - Part (5) .......................... 2 The Programmer's Guide to CLIPPER Linkers - part (4) ................. 5 What is faster, FOR or AEVAL? ........................................ 11 RCS - New version of PUT.BTM for 4DOS (or NDOS) ...................... 13 3. Q&A .................................................................. 15 Clipper 87 books ..................................................... 15 4. ANOMALIES ............................................................ 16 ANOMALIES reports and commets ........................................ 16 INKEY() function anomaly with SETKEY ................................. 16 Keyboard codes missing from definition of K_xxxx ..................... 17 Memoedit() function .................................................. 17 5. ADVERTISEMENT ........................................................ 18 WHAT WAS IN PREVIOUS NUMBER .......................................... 18 6. CLIPPER NET .......................................................... 19 Index of described files in Clipper BBS Magazine ..................... 19 CLIPBBS 1-07 Table of Contents (...) 8 Oct 1991 ClipperNet - DIAL.CLN ................................................ 19 ClipperNet - GSR151.ARJ .............................................. 20 ClipperNet - KF_LOKUP.ARJ ............................................ 20 ClipperNet - OOPSCL5.ARJ ............................................. 21 ClipperNet - PAT1.ARJ ................................................ 21 ClipperNet - POWER10.ARJ ............................................. 22 ClipperNet - SCANCODE.ARJ ............................................ 22 ClipperNet - SHELP50A.ARJ ............................................ 22 7. CLIPBBS .............................................................. 24 CLIPBBS distribution ................................................. 24 CLIPBBS, how to write an article!!! .................................. 25 - - - - - CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 1 8 Oct 1991 ============================================================================= EDITORIAL ============================================================================= Monday editorial Hello all again. It's monday. Yes, it's unusual because of all previous ones written on mostly Sunday. Reality is always first before writing fun, Satturady and Sunday i spent in optimizing one time critic application (FAX/TELEX/E-MAIL server) written as combination of Clipper, C and Assembler. It was last piece of Summer 87 code not fully optimized into 5.01 Clipper. Thanx god that never again... OK, get back to main theme. Clipper BBS magazine. Do you, reader, now what is wonderfull? I'm publishing, writing and collecting magazine only by my own, everybody is telling me, great work, keep it... But what's strange, nobody is giving ANY articles (sorry, exception is Pepijn Smits with article about his great library). Where are all Clipper freaks with ideas good to publish? I'm not expecting someone from U.S. they have own Reference Clipper or Nantucket News, but EUROPE? Where they are sleeping? Or they are afraid to write not in own language? Don't be. Own language.... My own language is Czech. It's language of few millions of people (less than 10, but more than 5 millions). Country called Czechoslovakia located in centre of Europe. Therefore my English is sometime bad and i'm sure that some englishman can have lot of fun with reading my sentencies or way of writing words. Year ago, i moved to The Netherlands to work. Family including my wife, my dog and me is now trying to get another language, Dutch as good as we are capable to speak and understand English. Unfortunately my wife and me are also journalist and there is coming a problem. For me it's easy, technical journalism is just easy (writing of books also), but normal one.... Therefore don't be afraid to use another strange language. About what to write? About everything what one can see interesting for himself or for some others. Everything what is related to Clipper. It not must be real only Clipper thing. Good use of editor, DOS, .BAT files any utilities which can help... Somewhere later, Daniel ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 2 8 Oct 1991 ============================================================================= ARTICLES ============================================================================= DOSRCS - Revision Control System - Part (5) _____________________ RCS.EXE - Maintanence ═════════════════════ RCS.EXE is maintenance utility set for controlling RCS system and files. Is not very often used, but several jobs must be done via this program - - unlocking of locked revision - changing/adding of users of file RCS can work on files only in case, that caller of RCS is in access list of file, user is superuser, or access list is empty or user is owner of file or -i options is used. _____________ SYNTAX of RCS RCS [ options ] file ... _______________ Options for RCS -i Creates and initializes a new RCS file, but does not deposit any revision. -a<logins> ║ Appends the login names appearing in the COMMA SEPARATED ║ list <logins> to the access list of the RCS file. This ║ command is NEEDED in network environment to allow several ║ programmers work on one file (not at the same time of ║ course..). Please note LOWER case of "-a" switch. -A<oldfiles> ║ Appends the access list of <oldfile> to the access list of ║ RCS specified file. It's needed in case of neccesity make ║ the same access list for new file as for old one. -e[<logins>] ║ ERASES login names appearing in COMMA SEPARATED list ║ <logins> from access list of RCS file. If <logins> is ║ omitted, ENTIRE access list is erased! CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 3 8 Oct 1991 -b[<rev>] Sets the default branch to <rev>. If <rev> is omitted, the default branch is reset to the highest branch in the trunk. -c[<string>] ║ Sets the comment leader to string. The COMMENT LEADER is ║ printer before EVERY log message line generated by the ║ keyword $Log$ during CheckOut. This is usefull for ║ programming languages without multi-lie comments or for ║ better keeping format of your program. During RVS -i or ║ initial CI, the comment leader is guessed from the suffix ║ of the working file. -l[<rev>] Locks the revision with number <rev>. If a branch is given, the latest revision on that branch is locked. If <rev> is omitted, the latest revision of default branch is locked. Locking prevents overlapping changes. Lock is removed with CI or with RCS -u. -u{<rev>] ║ Unlock the revision with number rev. If a branch is given, ║ the latest revision on that branch is unlocked. If <rev> is ║ omitted, the latest lock held by the caller is removed. Normally only locker of a revision may unlock it, but sometime is needed to unlock revision without original locker. If somebody else than original locker is trying to unlock revision, is asked for writing message to original locker. In UNIX it's probably working, but in DOS environment it has not effect. -L │ Sets locking for STRICT. Strict locking means that the │ Owner of an RCS file is not exempt from locking for │ checkin (normally is possible to get file without lock). │ This should be used for files that are shared. Please not that -L is upper case "-L". -U Sets locking to non-strict. Owner of a file need not lock a revision for checkin. Please DO NOT use this option for file that are shared with more people. ║ In DOSRCS version logging is STRICT by DEFAULT. -n<name>[:<rev>] ║ Associates SYMBOLIC name <name> with branch or revision ║ <rev>. RCS prints an error message if name is already CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 4 8 Oct 1991 ║ associated with another number. if <rev> is omitted, the ║ symbolic name <name> is deleted. -N<name>[:<rev>] Same as "-n", except that it overrides a previous assignment of <name>. -o<range> │ Deletes "outdated" revisions given by range. Range │ consisting of a single revision number means that revision. │ Range consisting of a branch number means the latest │ revision on that branch. Range of from <rev1>-<rev2> means │ revisions <rev1> to <rev2> on the same branch, -<rev> means │ from beginning of branch containing <rev> up to and │ including <rev> and finally <rev>- means from revision │ <rev> to the end of the branch containing <rev>. NONE of │ the outdated revisions may have branches or locks. -q Quite mode, diagnostics is not printed. -s<state>[:<rev>] │ Sets the state attribute of the revision <rev> to <state>. │ If <rev> is a branch number, the latest revision on that │ branch is assumed. Any identifier is acceptable for state. │ A useful set of state is: ║ Exp Experimental ║ Stab Stable ║ Rel Release │ Default CI sets the state of revision to EXP. -t[<txtfile>] Writes descriptive text into the RCS file (deletes existing text). If <txtfile> is omitted, RCS prompt the user for text, otherwise DESCRIPTIVE text is copied from the file <textfile>. If "-i" is presend, text is requested even if "-t" is not given. That's all about this utility control program. See you later.. .DD. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 5 8 Oct 1991 The Programmer's Guide to CLIPPER Linkers - part (4) = VIRTUAL MEMORY LINKING (VML) = Virtual Memory Linking is a technique developed by Pocket Soft, Inc. and was introduced in the .RTLINK version 3.1. They originally referred to this techique as "dynamic-overlaying" which led to a lot of confusion, because it was not at all similar to overlaying of code and data, therefore, I proposed that this type of linking be referred to as "Virtual Overlays". Now, with the release of .RTLINK/Plus 4.0, Pocket Soft is calling this technology Virtual Memory Linking (VML), which is a much more appropriate name for the technology. Unlike "dynamic overlays" which are "read-only", virtual overlay managers not only overlay the CODE portion of a module, but also the portion of a module which is changed during the running of an application - the DATA. The data changes are written out to disk in temporary files which are managed during the running of the application. Virtual overlays are similar in concept to both the "dynamic- overlaying" technique used in RTLINK/Clipper-5.0 when loading code from disk into memory combined with the Virtual Memory Manager (VMM) system which allocates virtual memory for memvars and arrays. When executing a program using virtual overlaying, the code is paged from disk to memory on a "least recently used" basis. This means that code which has not been used for a while is overwritten to make room for the new code, leaving frequently used code in memory. Virtual overlay linkers dynamically allocate the size of the object pool for paging code in accordance with the memory available during the start of the application. The more memory that is available, the less "disk-intensive" the application and the better the speed performance. VMM and VML systems which are properly designed will automatically execute programs in the available memory by making use of conventional memory, expanded memory, extended memory and disk. At the writing of this article, my experience with this type of linking is limited to my experience with Clipper-5.0, however it is very curious to me that the VML system in RTLINK-4.0 was announced at "virtually" the same time the VMM system was incorporated in Clipper-5.0. It is only speculation on my part, but Pocket Soft's advertising about the features of VML and Nantucket's advertising about the features of VMM are so similar that it appears to the casual observer that there was a collaboration of efforts in the development of this technology, or that Microsoft developed the technology and simply handed it over to Nantucket and Pocket Soft at the same time. It is unclear at the present time, how much of Clipper 5.0's memory management is handled by the Clipper Libraries and how much is handled by the RTLINK linker. CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 6 8 Oct 1991 = SYMBOL-MANAGEMENT = Symbol Management is a technique that can greatly reduce the amount of memory overhead in a linked application. Symbol management is a process in which the "symbol table" is managed to prevent unneccessary symbols in the main root memory area. There is usually very little that a linker can do to resolve this problem because the problem is usually caused by the compiler and the programmer. Every compiled object contains symbols, constants, code and data. Overlay linkers can usually do a good job of overlaying code and constants but symbols and data must be treated differently. Symbols must always be placed in "root" memory for overlay managers to be able to find and load the module which contains the called symbol. Unfortunately, most linkers are not sophisticated enough to eliminate the "redundancy" of symbols which are placed in root memory. For example, if you reference the memvar INV_NMBR just one time in each of 10 different clipper-compiled objects, there will be 10 different symbol-table entries for INV_NMBR, however, if you compile your 10 programs into one larger object, then INV_NMBR will occupy only 1 memory location in the symbol table thereby greatly reducing the root memory allocation. This can become a delicate balancing act, however, when trying to find the proper balance of .OBJ file size verses symbol count to make a difference in memory usage. Increasing the .OBJect size may increase the overlay area size thereby nullifying the memory savings from the reduced symbols. Static and reloable overlay linkers do nothing to help this problem because they overlay at the "object" level. ALINK, BLINKER, WARPLINK, dCLIP-2.50, and NOLINK-2.50 all excel in the area of symbol management. Memory management with these link systems is very efficient because they overlay code segments down to the "procedure" level rather than the "module" level. This means that you can now compile your large clipper application into just a few huge .OBJect files, thereby greatly reducing the number of symbols which are placed into "root" memory. It is really this "symbol management" of ALINK, BLINKER and WARPLINK which make them perform well as memory-management linkers as much as their overlaying techniques. NOLINK, dCLIP and dCLIPRUN provide even better symbol management because they not only overlay at the procedure level (when using dynamic libraries), but they only create symbols when called for during the running of the application. The symbols from a huge report that is run once a week will waste valuable memory with other linkers, where "true dynamic-linking" will create these symbols only at the time the report is being run. - PROGRAMMING TIPS FOR SYMBOL REDUCTION - This article is basically intended to provide "linking" tips for memory-management, however, it is incumbent upon me to also offer additional tips on reducing symbol-count in your CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 7 8 Oct 1991 applications which will work with ALL linkers. a. USE CONSTANTS INSTEAD OF MEMVARS Clipper memory variables are always treated as "symbols". Refrain from using a memory variable if a constant is sufficient. For example, an unnecessary symbol can be eliminated by changing the code: escapekey=27 DO WHILE INKEY()#escapekey *clipper code ENDDO to: DO WHILE INKEY()#27 *clipper code ENDDO b. USE ARRAYS INSTEAD OF MEMVARS Every different Clipper memvar name creates a "symbol", whereas an array name creates only ONE symbol. The following example shows how to save considerable memory in a clipper application by reducing the symbol count with an array. This code produces 10 symbols: mname = name maddress = address mcity = city mstate = state mzip = zip @ 1,1 SAY 'Name ' GET mname @ 2,1 SAY 'Address' GET maddress @ 3,1 SAY 'City ' GET mcity @ 4,1 SAY 'State ' GET mstate @ 5,1 SAY 'Zip ' GET mzip READ REPL name WITH mname, address WITH maddress,; city WITH mcity, state WITH mstate, zip WITH mzip This code produces 6 symbols: PRIVATE gets[5] gets[1] = name gets[2] = address gets[3] = city gets[4] = state gets[5] = zip @ 1,1 SAY 'Name ' GET gets[1] @ 2,1 SAY 'Address' GET gets[2] @ 3,1 SAY 'City ' GET gets[3] CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 8 8 Oct 1991 @ 4,1 SAY 'State ' GET gets[4] @ 5,1 SAY 'Zip ' GET gets[5] READ REPL name WITH gets[1], address WITH gets[2],; city WITH gets[3], state WITH gets[4], zip WITH gets[5] c. USE THE SAME NAME MEMVARS WHENEVER POSSIBLE Again, every "different" Clipper memvar in a module creates a symbol. If an object contains several procedures, use the same name for memvars even though they may not perform the same or similar functions. For example, procedure A and procedure B both need 5 memvars. If procedure A declares its memvars with 5 unique names and procedure B declares its memvars with 5 unique names, then 10 symbols are used in the linked application. To eliminate 5 symbols, make sure that procedure B assigns the same name to the memvars as procedure A. This is not possible of course, if the memvars need to be public to both procedures and perform different functions, only if they are private. - USING THE CLIPPER-5.0 PRE-PROCESSOR FOR SYMBOL MANAGEMENT - The above techniques for symbol reduction may not be practical in all programming situations because of the "cryptic" method in which you must treat your memvar declarations. Clipper 5.0 solves this problem and also makes it easier to do steps 1 and 2 above by including a language "pre-processor" which allows you to program using non-cryptic language extensions then convert your code at compile time to memory-efficient use of arrays or constants. Let's look at how you would use Clipper-5.0 pre-processor definitions to solve the problems in examples 1 and 2 above. 1. CONVERTING MEMVARS TO CONSTANTS AT COMPILE-TIME #define escapekey 27 DO WHILE INKEY()#escapekey *clipper code ENDDO 2. CONVERTING MEMVARS TO ARRAYS AT COMPILE-TIME #ifndef DEBUG && compiling non-DEBUG version PRIVATE gets[5] #define mname gets[1] #define maddress gets[2] #define mcity gets[3] #define mstate gets[4] #define mzip gets[5] #endif CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 9 8 Oct 1991 mname = name maddress = address mcity = city mstate = state mzip = zip @ 1,1 SAY 'Name ' GET mname @ 2,1 SAY 'Address' GET maddress @ 3,1 SAY 'City ' GET mcity @ 4,1 SAY 'State ' GET mstate @ 5,1 SAY 'Zip ' GET mzip READ REPL name WITH mname, address WITH maddress,; city WITH mcity, state WITH mstate, zip WITH mzip To compile the above code WITHOUT symbol substitution for debugging purposes, compile as follows: CLIPPER <my app> /rDEBUG To compile the above code WITH symbol substitution for your final application, compile as follows: CLIPPER <my app> The /rDEBUG switch has the same effect as the comand: #define DEBUG in your source code, however, it is much more convenient because it allows you to make debug or non-debug versions of your code simply from the DOS command line or .BAT files. SYMBOL COMPACTION Some linkers include "symbol-compaction" techniques to help eliminate the problem caused by the duplicate symbols in each Clipper object file. RTLINK/Clipper-5.0 automatically eliminates duplicate symbols during linking, thereby eliminating the need to compile your .PRG files into larger objects using .CLP files. I experimented with a large application of mine in which I compiled the source code into 100 objects, then 10 objects, and finally only 3 objects. The number and size of the object files made absolutely no difference in the output size of the .EXE produced by RTLINK/Clipper-5.0, whereas each of these models would have produced drastically differenct results with any other linker. WARPLINK provides a utility named SP.EXE (written by Steve Klingler) which essentially performs the same task, however, symbol-compaction with WARPLINK is a two-step process. First the .EXE must be created using WARPLINK.EXE, followed by running SP.EXE using the following syntax: SP <input file .EXE name> <output file .EXE name> CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 10 8 Oct 1991 The results, in some cases can be dramatic. In one of my applications, SP.EXE removed 908 duplicate symbols from the symbol table and reduced my .EXE by 15k. SP.EXE will work only on .EXE files created with WARPLINK or .EXE files which contain no overlays. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 11 8 Oct 1991 What is faster, FOR or AEVAL? New test is here. This time we will be taking a look at AEVAL and FOR cycles used in ekvivalent situations. As usual, we will see that AEVAL with codeblock is again slower than classic application of FOR cycle with the same effect. Remember? In some previous number we did a tests of DBEVAL and FOR, therefore logically is coming test of AEVAL and FOR. Overwiew ALL tests are using this definition of variables: │ local aTest := ARRAY(1000) ,; │ n , start ARRAY has only 1000 of values for avoiding cases of disk swappings in smaller memories. TEST1 is FOR and is filling array with values of value index │ start := seconds() │ for n:=1 to 1000 │ aTest[n]:=n │ next │ ? 'for elapsed in ', seconds()-start TEST2 is AEVAL equivalent of TEST1 │ start := seconds() │ n := 1 │ aeval(aTest,{|xx| xx:=n++}) │ ? 'aeval elapsed in ', second()-start TEST3 is FOR and is displaying complete ARRAY on screen │ start := seconds() │ for n:=1 to 1000 │ QQout(aTest[n],chr(13)) │ next │ ? │ ? 'for qqout elapsed in ', seconds()-start TEST4 is AEVAL equivalent of TEST3 │ start := seconds() │ aeval(aTest,{|xx| QQout(xx,chr(13))}) │ ? │ ? 'aeval qqout elapsed in ', seconds()-start TEST5 is FOR + EVAL equivalent of TEST3 │ start:=seconds() │ for n:=1 to 1000 │ eval({|| QQout(aTest[n],chr(13))}) │ next │ ? │ ? 'for+eval elapsed in ', seconds()-start All those tests i runned on AT286/16Mhz Laptop with normal memory, CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 12 8 Oct 1991 no EMS, nothing special (free about 550KBs). Results are: │ T1 │ T2 ║ T3 │ T4 │ T5 │ ├───────┼───────╫───────┼───────┼───────┤ │ 0.28 │ 0.38 ║ 2.08 │ 2.20 │ 2.52 │ And interpretation? T1 and T2 are telling, that AEVAL is slower for 0.1 of second on initialization of 1000 of values in array. Actually cannot be expected nothing else, because is here evaluation of code block with passing values instead of just executing assig of value directly in FOR. But at all NANTUCKET maybe can do something with those results... T3 and T4 are telling the same, AEVAL was slower again for displaying of 1000 values than the same FOR cycle. T3/4 and T5 are only comparing FOR with executed command and FOR with EVALuated codeblock. It's actually most ekvivalent of T4. It's of course significantly slower, because of overhead of EVALuating codeblock instead of normal executing. Cheers Daniel ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 13 8 Oct 1991 RCS - New version of PUT.BTM for 4DOS (or NDOS) In some cases is Clipper BBS Magazine slower than actual development which i'm doing during using of some new programs. Typicall example of this case is serie of BATCH files which i'm slowly upgrading for use of RCS with mine installation of 4DOS (NDOS of course also for all who have Norton Utilities 6.0 from Symantec). PUT.BTM (.BTM is extension of fast batch file in 4DOS) is slightly changed: ------------------------------<PUT.BTM>----------------------------------- @echo off SET P$=N IFF NOT "%1"=="" THEN IFF %@index[%1,*]==-1 THEN IFF %@index[%1,?]==-1 THEN echo ■ echo ■ Processing single file %1 echo ■ IFF "%2"=="" THEN call rcsput %1 R ELSE call rcsput %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9 ENDIFF ELSE SET P$=Y ENDIFF ELSE SET P$=Y ENDIFF IFF %P$%==Y THEN echo ■ echo ■ Processing from list defined as %1 echo ■ IFF "%2"=="" THEN for %%i in (%1) do call rcsput %%i R ELSE for %%i in (%1) do call rcsput %%i %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9 ENDIFF ENDIFF ELSE echo ■ PUT Usage: echo ■ PUT filename [RFLU] rev_number [symbolic_name] echo ■ filename can be with "*" and "?" signs also echo ■ R = check in [default] echo ■ F = force check in echo ■ L = checkin and then check out echo ■ U = check in and then check out and not lock echo ■ ENDIFF SET P$= ------------------<eof>---------------------------------------------------- File which is called from main batch file is: <-------------------------<RCSPUT.BTM>------------------------------------> CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 14 8 Oct 1991 @echo off echo ■ echo ■ Processing [%1] with rev.num %3 as -%@lower[%2] %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9 echo ■ IFF "%4"=="" THEN CI -q -%@lower[%2]%3 %1 ELSE CI -q -%@lower[%2]%3 -N%4 %1 ENDIFF <--------------------<EOF>-----------------------------------------------> And that's all. Question about 'downgrade' to normal standard .BAT files of DOS is little bit problematic because of absence functions like @index which are like AT() function in Clipper.... .DD. P.S. Above is REAL BATCH FILE in simple and nice 4DOS (SHAREWARE!!!) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 15 8 Oct 1991 ============================================================================= Q&A ============================================================================= Clipper 87 books Question: Could someone recommend Summer87 related books? Answer: Dynamics of Clipper by: Arthur Fuller pub: Dow Jones-Irwin Software Guides ISBN: 1-55623-131-8 Date: 1989 Using Clipper by: W. Edward Tiley pub: Que Corporation ISBN: 0-88022-379-0 Date: 1988 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 16 8 Oct 1991 ============================================================================= ANOMALIES ============================================================================= ANOMALIES and their comments This part of Clipper BBS Magazine is dedicated to all discovered anomalies and comments about them in Clipper products. Because Nantucket is still unable to give own bug and anomalies reports (as actually did in past with Summer 87 version) is very handy to have results of many investigations done on many user places. I'm also doing my own investigatings, because i'm always very good when someting has hidden problems. Everything what i buy will first show all problems and then all normal things. This amazing part of my live is sometime making me crazy, but for testing of programs it's great <grin>. Daniel ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- INKEY() function anomaly with SETKEY Another problem which somebody could expect that have to be solved is fact, that all SETKEY sets aren't working when one is using INKEY() function. Because INKEY() is just ONLY reading keyboard. In all other places where keyboard is read are all SETKEY sets executed correctly. But, when programmer will start to use INKEY() in more places, then will have problem, all SETKEY sets aren't valid and programmer MUST take care of them by special routines or DO CASE checks. My expectation that this nonlogical fact will be corrected is wrong. INKEY() is still don't recognizing SETKEY sets. Solving: don't use INKEY(), you easy can all INKEY() callings replace with call to new function: Function MyInkey(nnn) local value := 0 , cBlock while .t. if valtype(nnn)!="N" value:=inkey() // inkey WITHOUT parameter else value:=inkey(nnn) // inkey WITH parameter endif if (cBlock:=setkey(value))!=NIL Eval(cBlock) // test if valid SETKEY loop // and then continue endif return (value) This possible (and easy) solving has this advantages: - fully compatible with INKEY() function in parameter CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 17 8 Oct 1991 passing and value returning - taking care of your SETKEY sets and executing (better evaluating) them without special testings or actions - all LASTKEY() stuff is still the same because of original INKEY() using .DD. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Keyboard codes mising from definition of K_xxxx When received 5.01 my expectation was, that INKEY.CH was expanded to some missing keyboard codes. Not only codes from extended keyboard (because they are disputable), but also codes for normal keyboard which weren't in 5.0 INKEY.CH. Truth is different, INKEY.CH is still missing extended codes and from basic codes, K_SPACE ,just easy code is NOT included in INKEY.CH Solving: just update your INKEY.CH with (example): #define K_SPACE 20 #define K_CTRL_UP 397 #define K_CTRL_DOWN 401 .... .DD. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Memoedit() function A more comments i will give to MEMOEDIT() function. First problem which i had with Memoedit() in Clipper 5.0 was a problem that there IS NOT a way to access edited string from INSIDE of Memoedit(). One can access ONLY original string, but edited (and continuously changed) string is hidden somewhere in Clipper memory. I reported this problem already to Nantucket a LONG time ago, the told "will be solved in new version", but true is again different. And i'm so sure, that this isn't so problem. In Clipper 5.0 there was a BIG problem with MemoEdit() function when there was a very small free memory for your program (about 30KB after loading program in memory). Then Memoedit in some cases did HANG of whole system. Probably it had something to do with RTLINK inability to handle proper overlaying when there was a small memory. This problem is PARTIALLY out. One need more smaller memory to hang system with Memoedit (10KB to 20KB). Hope, somebody will take care of this, because to have hanging editor (yes, PE.EXE distributed with CLIPPER will hang too) inside of application running just close to free memory is pity. .DD. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 18 8 Oct 1991 ============================================================================= ADVERTISEMENT ============================================================================= WHAT WAS IN PREVIOUS NUMBER DOSRCS - Revision Control System - part (4) The Programmer's Guide to CLIPPER Linkers - part (3) Best way of making FOR cyclus, and what about WHILE cyclus WHICH packing/unpacking program to choose??????? Will Clipper expand to graphics environment? TIPS&TRICKS - how to found largest string in array DANIEL.LIB - NEW version of DANIEL.RMK ANOMALIES reports and commets Clipper Debugger anomalies INCONSISTENCY New RTLINK version, INCREMENTAL LINKING CONFERENCE DUMP part (5) Index of described files in Clipper BBS Magazine Routing-Plan for ClipperNet CLN - SOUND.ARJ 30 CLN - TBWHL4.ARJ . 31 ClipNet - NFDESC2.ARJ ClipNet - NFLIB2.ARJ ClipNet - NFSRC2.ARJ ClipperNet - ACCESS.ARJ ClipperNet - ACHOO2.ARJ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 19 8 Oct 1991 ============================================================================= CLIPPER NET ============================================================================= Following is COMPLETE list of all published file descriptions in Clipper BBS magazine in previous numbers. Purpose of this index list is to allow anybody find needed file descriptions in growing number of described files. Short description after name will give first possible close image about file. Number enclosed in "[]" will mean number of Clipper BBS magazine. ┌─────────────┬────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────┬──────┐ │FileName │Src │Description │Where │ ├─────────────┼────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────┤ │ACCESS.ARJ │Cln │Source of speed testing program │[1-06]│ │ACH2TB.ARJ │Cln │Convert ACHOICE to TBROWSE │[1-05]│ │ACHOO2.ARJ │Cln │Replacement of ACHOICE with GET possibilites │[1-06]│ │ADHOC302.ARJ │Cln │Summer 87 inteligent report program │[1-04]│ │CL5103.ARJ │Cln │Report of 5.01 anomaly number 3 │[1-04]│ │CL5REP6.ARJ │Cln │5.01 replacement of REPORT command │[1-04]│ │CLIP110.ARJ │Cln │Clipper Documentor program │[1-05]│ │CLIPLINK.ARJ │Cbs │Complete text of R.Donnay about linkers │[1-04]│ │CLIPSQL.ARJ │Cln │Demo of complete SQL library for CLipper │[1-05]│ │CLPFON.ARJ │Cln │Set of fonts for EXPAND.LIB from author │[1-03]│ │COND.ARJ │Cln │Builder of conditional indexes like SUBNTX │[1-03]│ │DBSCN2.ARJ │Cln │Screen designer generator │[1-05]│ │HGLASS.ZIP │Cln │Hour glass for indication of index progression │[1-04]│ │INDXSL.ARJ │Cln │User Fields selection builder for index generate│[1-03]│ │IOBASYS9.ARJ │Cln │Demo of S87 library and calling Clipper from C │[1-03]│ │MK30.ARJ │Cln │Mouse library demo version │[1-03]│ │MOVEGETS.ARJ │Cln │GETSYS change for moving between gets via VALID │[1-03]│ │NFDESC2.ARJ │Cln │NanForum library description list │[1-06]│ │NFLIB2.ARJ │Cln │NanForum library main file │[1-06]│ │NFSRC2.ARJ │Cln │NanForum library Source files │[1-06]│ │NOTATION.ARJ │Cln │Complete text of article about hungarian notat. │[1-04]│ │PACKUP.ARJ │Cln │ASM source of PACK/UNPACK replacement SCRSAVE.. │[1-04]│ │POPUPCAL.ARJ │Cln │Popup calender │[1-05]│ │READPW.ARJ │Cln │GETSYS change for password invisible reader │[1-03]│ │SCRSAVE.ARJ │Cln │Screen AntiBurning utility (inactivity snake) │[1-05]│ │SOUND.ARJ │Cln │Multiple TONE() used as one SOUND function │[1-06]│ │SYMBOL.ARJ │Cln │Dumper of symbol tables of Summer87 .EXE │[1-03]│ │TBWHL4.ARJ │Cln │WHILE browsing using TBROWSE, well commented │[1-06]│ │VSIX711.ARJ │Cln │Vernon Six Clipper utilities and library │[1-05]│ └─────────────┴────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────┴──────┘ Src can be: Cln File is accesible on ClipperNet Cbs File is accesible in HQ BBS of CLipper BBS Magazine ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ClipperNet - DIAL.CLN CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 20 8 Oct 1991 File Name: DIAL.CLN Other Names: File Size: 1,791 bytes File Contents: DIAL.PRG 4297 Dialer program written for CLIPPER 5.0 with many back steps coming from fact that author was for sure Summer87 programmer. It's using ONLY Clipper code, nothing from any other language. FOPEN is used for opening of COM port, and FWRITE for putting all AT commands on this. Easy and limited of course. .DD. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ClipperNet - GSR151.ARJ File Name: GSR151.ARJ Other Names: File Size: 140,879 bytes File Contents: GSR.DOC 16478 GSR.EXE 148300 GSR.SDA 1552 GSRAVOID.DBF 141 This, big set of files, is really needed utility of Clipper programmer. Global search and replace. GSR now works on ANY size file. You may select a single file, or a group of files to operate on. You specify what text to look for, and what text to replace it with. Your search can be either case sensitive or not. You may either view each occurance, to verify the change, or have GSR automatically make all replacements for you. The search and/or replace string can be read from a disk file allowing you to search for and replace binary or text strings made with your choice of editor. In any case, if you choose to make the replacements, your original file will be saved with the extension .GSR. Subsequent changes will increment the .GSR extension, with up to 99 changes kept on any single file name. Like .gsr .gs1 .gs2 up to .g99 Find all occurances of any text and replace it with other text. Rename an existing variable across many programs. Change a copyright notice. Change a client name when you are recycling code. and many more..... .DD. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 21 8 Oct 1991 ClipperNet - KF_LOKUP.ARJ File Name: KF_LOKUP.ARJ Other Names: File Size: 12,028 bytes File Contents: KF_LKUP.PRG 18889 KF_PPDBF.PRG 4584 KF_UTIL.PRG 13340 READ.ME 4106 Set of lookup function related to relations between databases. Documentation is too less descriptive and i hadn't enough of patience to scan through source codes... Contains some usefull conversion functions also and two functions for saving and restoring database status on stack (made by static variable of course). .DD. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ClipperNet - OOPSCL5.ARJ File Name: OOPSCL5.ARJ Other Names: File Size: 2,826 bytes File Contents: CLASSES.PRG 4387 DEMO.PRG 2685 OOPS.H 1465 Another version of _pseudo_ objects. this one is very small and very simple, therefore nice to learn about how to make pseudo objects. It's known, that pitty use of preprocessor can create pseudo objects which are in fact array keeping all needed information. .DD. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ClipperNet - PAT1.ARJ File Name: PAT1.ARJ Other Names: File Size: PAT1.ARJ File Contents: ORIGIN.ASM 3404 ORIGIN.OBJ 170 PAT1.DOC 1035 CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 22 8 Oct 1991 PATCH number one for Nanforum Toolkit Library version 2.0. ORIGIN.ASM is replacement for the same named file in sources, ORIGIN.OBJ is possible just use as replace for .LIB file (LIB -+ORIGIN.OBJ). Function for returning location of .EXE was returning normally garbage, this is fix. .DD. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ClipperNet - POWER10.ARJ File Name: POWER10.ARJ Other Names: File Size: 138,668 bytes File Contents: LISEZ.MOI 2560 POWERCOM.MEM 1706 POWER.INS 95 POWER.NG 214796 GO.BAT 2262 NOSILVER.OBJ 3638 POWER.CH 3898 POWER.PRG 35142 POWER.LIB 236419 POWERCOM.PRG 11718 POWER.MEM 1706 Another library. Pitty is, that ALL about this library is written ONLY and ONLY in FRENCH language. And i'm not so good in this (actually my knowledge of french is zero). From function names it looks nice, but author could choose better language for distributing library worldwide :-) .DD. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ClipperNet - SCANCODE.ARJ File Name: SCANCODE.ARJ Other Names: File Size: 2,154 bytes File Contents: SCANCODE.DBF 5719 Database file contains list of scan codes of keyboard for use in DOS services. It is NOT the same as INKEY() codes! .DD. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ClipperNet - SHELP50A.ARJ CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 23 8 Oct 1991 File Name: SHELP50A.ARJ Other Names: File Size: 124,163 bytes File Contents: DEMO.BAT 1981 MVCLIP50.LIB 21621 HINTS.TXT 3534 ORDER.FRM 1396 HELP.PRG 5697 SHELP50.LIB 206279 HELPCON.PRG 3742 HELPDEMO.PRG 5334 SCREENS.DBT 29601 PROJECT.HLP 2727 SYSHELP.DBT 76399 L.LNK 192 HELPLIB.PRG 7670 HSETUP.HLP 8 SUPERV25.DOC 198 CLIPPER.501 15 HELPMGR.PRG 5113 VERSION.50 26 SHELP.MGR 913 PROJECT.PRJ 238 SCREENS.HLP 396 HELPMGR.DBF 813 SYSHELP.HLP 6410 PRINT.ME 13266 SYSLINK.HLP 690 SHELP.REF 41809 Super Help for Summer87 and Clipper 5.01 both. It's able to generate field or conceptual level help. Support for project management, creating help screens, linking help windows, creating of help index, windowing effects... Seems like very good help. Maybe later i will do some testings... ------10 minutes later------ After trying to make a demo program included. 1) authors are dreaming everybody has BLINKER and link script is only for BLINKER. Must be changed 2) CLIPPER compilation of programs is missing some switches and bombing immediately out. +++NEEDS /M ++++++ 3) List of libraries must include BOTH .LIB presented in file otherwise one will get list of LOT missing.... 4) After this it's working, but my patience to totally strange system of screens was not enough long.... .DD. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 24 8 Oct 1991 ============================================================================= CLIPBBS ============================================================================= CLIPBBS Distribution CLIPBBS is special magazine about CLIPPER and CLIPPERing (or about another related problems and xBASE languages). This magazine is for free and articles aren't honored. Nobody can make a profit from the distribution of this magazine. CLIPBBS can be freely downloaded and uploaded to any BBS or any other public system without changes of original contents or number of files in original archive (kind of archive can be changed, but we are sup- porting ARJ archive because is best and smallest). If you are interested in CLIPBBS and would like to become a DISTRIBUTION site, contact publisher on 2:285/608@fidonet or 27:1331/4412@signet or just call to 31-10-4157141 (BBS, working 18:00->08:00, 2400bps) or voice to 31-10-4843870 in both cases asking for DANIEL (Docekal). Distribution sites: United Kingdom Welsh Wizard, SYSOP Dave Wall, phone 44-656-79477 United States of America The Southern Clipper, SYSOP Jerry Pults, phone 1-405-789-2078 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLIPBBS 1-07 Page 25 8 Oct 1991 How to write articles in CLIPBBS? Submission of articles to CLIPBBS is really easy: Maximum of 78 characters per line, as long or as short as you like ASCII text. Choose from the list of extension which most describes your text, or just name it .ART as ARTicle and send it to publisher or to any distribution site via modem to BBS or with mailer as file attach. Article will come automatically appear in the next free issue. Extensions are: Articles (anything) .ART Software .SOF News .NEW Question and Answers .Q&A ANOMALIES and their comments .ANO Letters to editors .LET Advertisement .ADV Wanted .WAN Comments .CMS DUMP from conferences .DMP Clipper Net .CLN That's all at the moment, there will probably be changes later, as the magazine evolves. If you have any ideas for a new section of CLIPBBS, please tell us, or just write an article about it. Daniel, publisher -----------------------------------------------------------------------------