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Display, Screen Section, NCurses, CobCurses, Report Section

2022-10-10
2022-10-11
  • Aoirthoir An Broc

    Basically I just need to know does the DISPLAY function use ncurses or is it just ordinary c output to stdout?

    Also what ever happened to cobcurses? Is that still around?

    If DISPLAY does not use curses... what was cobcurses for?

    How much of Screen Section is implemented?

    And report section?

     
    • Vincent (Bryan) Coen

      On 10/10/2022 02:47, Aoirthoir An Broc wrote:

      Basically I just need to know does the DISPLAY function use ncurses or
      is it just ordinary c output to stdout?

      Also what ever happened to cobcurses? Is that still around?

      If DISPLAY does not use curses... what was cobcurses for?

      Basically from what I understand it depends on the platform AND if you
      have defined Screen Section and/or using other than the simple format
      for DISPLAY, ie.,

      DISPLAY fred at 0101 (or lin 1 col 1) etc is full screen handling but:
      DISPLAY FRED                 is not.

      I, could be wrong here :(

      How much of Screen Section is implemented?

      See the prog guide

      And report section?

      See the prog guide.

      Vince

       
      • Aoirthoir An Broc

        DISPLAY fred at 0101 (or lin 1 col 1) etc is full screen handling but:
        DISPLAY FRED is not.

        Thanks. In either case, do they use NCurses or is it just standard stdout? Or is the first Curses and the other is stdout?

        Also I think in your Applewood you use the first format a lot if I recall. For instance I havfe a larger font when I am in Terminal (or most things actually) than others. So that even when I use CTRL-ALT F2/etc to switch to a TERMINAL ONLY screen, I had to reduce the font because I got a warning that your screen would not display becuase you needed larger number of lines. When I reduced the font size, giving me more lines, Applewood worked just find.

        I will look at the program guide for SS and RW like you suggested.. In the other post that I wrote, I would actually like to create a separate manual specifically geared at User Inferface. I believe TUI, GUI, SS, and STDOUT (and maybe RW) could all be in that manual.

         
        • Vincent (Bryan) Coen

          On 10/10/2022 19:02, Aoirthoir An Broc wrote:

          DISPLAY fred at 0101 (or lin 1 col 1) etc is full screen handling but:
          DISPLAY FRED is not.
          

          Thanks. In either case, do they use NCurses or is it just standard
          stdout? Or is the first Curses and the other is stdout?

          Also I think in your Applewood you use the first format a lot if I
          recall. For instance I havfe a larger font when I am in Terminal (or
          most things actually) than others. So that even when I use CTRL-ALT
          F2/etc to switch to a TERMINAL ONLY screen, I had to reduce the font
          because I got a warning that your screen would not display becuase you
          needed larger number of lines. When I reduced the font size, giving me
          more lines, Applewood worked just find.

          I will look at the program guide for SS and RW like you suggested.. In
          the other post that I wrote, I would actually like to create a
          separate manual specifically geared at User Inferface. I believe TUI,
          GUI, SS, and STDOUT (and maybe RW) could all be in that manual.

          I suggest you pass these questions to @Simon who would know exactly what
          is used as my knowledge is some what limited as I think curses used
          relates to what is installed prior to building the compiler and that
          depends on the platform - I only use Linux as for me the Windows
          implementations are a bit of a gods dinner when I tried to play using
          Windows.

          I was going to try and build a windows system using Visual Studio but
          when I suggested that I was warned off because of one or more issues but
          that was some time ago so have given up on it.

          One issue I do have is building any application even consisting of 1 or
          2 program as static applications so I can just issue them as ready to
          run programs and that seems to depend on what libraries are used i.e.,
          available as static libs against dynamic and in some cases they do not
          seem to be available i..,e take a look at the needed libs when building
          the compiler and runtime etc.

          There should be no need to having to supply the source code for a end
          user and s/he having to install the compiler in order to run it / them.

          Extra manuals - yes I agree, documents for these areas are really needed
          but the problem I find even with a Programming Reference is the lack of
          information from any of the compiler programmers about what exactly they
          have implemented for any of the Cobol functions when adding new code 
          and I am left guessing as to what is and that is NOT the way to go !

          Good luck with this.

          I will issue a copy of the Programming Reference in the next few hours /
          days but first release will be the existing PG as that as suggested is
          really a PR and start to remove the example elements from it. If nothing
          else will cut down on the number of pages needed.

          Vince

           
          • Aoirthoir An Broc

            There should be no need to having to supply the source code for a end
            user and s/he having to install the compiler in order to run it / them.

            I agree. There is probably some way to statically compiler all the libraries we need? That would be my preferred method.

            In cases of someone that knows how to use whatever distro.. sure you can create Packages for the package manager in question, but you have to do that with each system... which is why people are starting to use things like AppImage because thats one format for all systems, and with Windows 10 and the WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) the appimage would work there just as well. In any case... an executable with everything you need, would be useful.

            While this might be the case for GnuCOBOL itself, maybe its useful maybe not, but certainly for our compiled programs.

            Extra manuals - yes I agree, documents for these areas are really needed
            but the problem I find even with a Programming Reference is the lack of
            information from any of the compiler programmers about what exactly they
            have implemented for any of the Cobol functions when adding new code
            and I am left guessing as to what is and that is NOT the way to go !

            Alright this is going to take a team then. I do not know how the GCC works so I would have to interface a lot with the others. With a team, it can be done.

            I will issue a copy of the Programming Reference in the next few hours /
            days but first release will be the existing PG as that as suggested is
            really a PR and start to remove the example elements from it. If nothing
            else will cut down on the number of pages needed.

            When those are removed can they be copied to a separate document so we still have them easily and can start to move to create these guides? A lot of that detail is excellent.. and frankly some of it is as I see it, GnuCOBOL Evangelism explaining why COBOL, why GnuCOBOL and so on.

             
            • Vincent (Bryan) Coen

              On 11/10/2022 19:18, Aoirthoir An Broc wrote:

              There should be no need to having to supply the source code for a end
              user and s/he having to install the compiler in order to run it /
              them.
              

              I agree. There is probably some way to statically compiler all the
              libraries we need? That would be my preferred method.

              In cases of someone that knows how to use whatever distro.. sure you
              can create Packages for the package manager in question, but you have
              to do that with each system... which is why people are starting to use
              things like AppImage because thats one format for all systems, and
              with Windows 10 and the WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) the appimage
              would work there just as well. In any case... an executable with
              everything you need, would be useful.

              While this might be the case for GnuCOBOL itself, maybe its useful
              maybe not, but certainly for our compiled programs.

              Extra manuals - yes I agree, documents for these areas are really
              needed
              but the problem I find even with a Programming Reference is the
              lack of
              information from any of the compiler programmers about what
              exactly they
              have implemented for any of the Cobol functions when adding new code
              and I am left guessing as to what is and that is NOT the way to go !
              

              Alright this is going to take a team then. I do not know how the GCC
              works so I would have to interface a lot with the others. With a team,
              it can be done.

              I will issue a copy of the Programming Reference in the next few
              hours /
              days but first release will be the existing PG as that as suggested is
              really a PR and start to remove the example elements from it. If
              nothing
              else will cut down on the number of pages needed.
              

              When those are removed can they be copied to a separate document so we
              still have them easily and can start to move to create these guides? A
              lot of that detail is excellent.. and frankly some of it is as I see
              it, GnuCOBOL Evangelism explaining why COBOL, why GnuCOBOL and so on.

              As I said I will copy over the current PG to a new PR as is.
              Then over a few days/weeks remove the example stuff out of the PR
              (Programmers Reference) hopefully leaving a Reference document.

              As for the PG, I will leave that to another to change or replace for the
              PG (Programmers Guide)

              Vince

               

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