Software Product Description ___________________________________________________________________ PRODUCT NAME: DEC FMS/Hebrew for OpenVMS AXP, Version 2.4 SPD 48.67.00 DESCRIPTION DEC FMS/Hebrew for OpenVMS AXP is a mature, character-cell based forms management system for interactive applications running on OpenVMS AXP systems that use video forms as the user interface. DEC FMS provides application programmers with a set of development tools to create and maintain forms-based user interfaces and a run-time system for dis- playing and managing the application's user interface at execution time. DEC FMS/Hebrew for OpenVMS AXP is intended primarily to support the porting of existing VAX FMS-based applications from OpenVMS VAX sys- tems to OpenVMS AXP systems (VAX FMS has been superseded by DECforms). DECforms is Digital Equipment Corporation's strategic forms product and should be used for all new application development requiring a forms- based user interface. Forms defined using DEC FMS provide the programmer with the ability to use the following features of Digital's family of VT terminals with Hebrew support: o Individual character attributes of reverse video, bold, blinking, and underline o Line attributes of double width, double height and scrolled o Screen width attributes such as 80 or 132 column lines, and reverse video o Alternate character sets including the VT100 "special graphics char- acter set" for line drawing DIGITAL August 1993 AE-Q0Y4A-TE DEC FMS/Hebrew for OpenVMS AXP, Version 2.4 SPD 48.67.00 DEC FMS form data structures are used by the Form Driver (FDV) dur- ing run-time to display forms, and to access and validate data entered by the terminal operator. Forms can be created and modified interac- tively with the interactive editing facility (FMS/EDIT) or they can be defined as a source form description with the Form Language and then converted to a form data structure using the Form Language Transla- tor (FMS/TRANSLATE). (Forms larger than 54 lines in 80-column mode and 63 lines in 132-column mode can only be created and modified with the Form Language Translator.) Forms usually reside in form library files on disk and are retrieved as needed by application programs at execution time. This arrangement results in a high degree of independence between form data structures and application programs. Forms can be modified without recompilation or relinking of the application program. Forms can also be converted into an object module and linked with application programs to create memory-resident forms, or forms can be dynamically loaded into mem- ory by the application program. DEC FMS applications use the FMS Form Driver to control the display of forms, their associated data fields, and the input and output of data into fields. All data input from the terminal and output to the terminal is passed as ASCII strings. Data for each field in a DEC FMS form is validated by the Form Driver. Field-validation characters are used to construct a "field validation picture". During program execution, characters input or output to the field are compared to the picture to determine if they are valid. In most instances, the field picture can contain several different field validation characters and also field-marker characters. Field-marker characters, used to improve the readability of the displayed form, are transparent to the application program. Attributes from the following list can be assigned to each individ- ual field: o Name of the Field o A default value 2 DEC FMS/Hebrew for OpenVMS AXP, Version 2.4 SPD 48.67.00 o A help message o Autotab o Clear Character o Display Only o Fixed Decimal o Hebrew o Indexed o Left Justify o Logical Order o Right Justify o Must Fill o No Echo o Response Required o Supervisor Only o Uppercase o User action routines and associated data parameters o Zero Fill o Zero Suppress The attributes assigned to each field are checked for validity when the form is created. Some combinations of attributes are not legal. Each form has attributes that apply to the form as a whole. These at- tributes include: o Name of the form o Name of an associated help form o Screen background (black, white, or do not change) o Screen width (80 columns, 132 columns, or do not change) 3 DEC FMS/Hebrew for OpenVMS AXP, Version 2.4 SPD 48.67.00 o Screen area to clear when displaying the form o Terminal character set o User action routines and associated data parameters o Video attributes to be used if the field being worked on is to be highlighted at run-time o The order in which fields are to be accessed o Named Data DEC FMS Utilities Interactive Form Editor The FMS/EDIT command invokes the interactive editing facility that is used by the form developer to create and modify video forms. The cre- ation of forms with the interactive editing facility is accomplished in phases. The layout phase is used to specify the visual appearance of the form, the background text, and what types of characters are to be valid input to the fields. While laying out a form on the screen, one has available a set of 48 function keys and key combinations. These keys perform functions such as cursor movement, delete and undelete, cut and paste, box drawing, video attribute assignment, centering, and displaying Help. Additional phases are used to assign form and field attributes, to enter Named Data, and to assign field access order. Named Data and all form and field attributes, including user action routines, are specified by filling in questionnaires. Highlighting is used to indicate which field is being referred to during the field attribute and the field order assignment phases. Finally, the test phase allows the developer to interact with a form just as the end user would with- out exiting the editing session. Form Language Translator The Form Language Translator provides an alternate means for defin- ing forms. The Form Language is a free-form, keyword-oriented, declar- ative language that provides the means to create and modify source form descriptions with a text editor or program. 4 DEC FMS/Hebrew for OpenVMS AXP, Version 2.4 SPD 48.67.00 The FMS/TRANSLATE command is used to convert the source form descrip- tions (contained in a text file) to form data structures. The data struc- tures created are equivalent to those created with the FMS interac- tive editor. Existing form data structures can be converted back into Form Language source code for modification or documentation by using the FMS/DESCRIPTION/FULL command. Other Form Application Development Aids The DEC FMS Forms Management System provides additional facilities to aid in the application program development process. The facilities are invoked with the following commands: o FMS/LIBRARY-To create and maintain form libraries o FMS/DESCRIPTION-To obtain any of the following basic types of de- scriptions of forms: - /BRIEF-summary information about a form, its fields, Named Data, and user action routines. - /FULL-Text files containing Form Language statements suitable for input to the Form Language Translator. - /DECLARATIONS-To obtain data division code that can be edited by the user to create a COBOL Data Division or DATATRIEVE Do- main Definition reflecting the names, lengths, and order of fields on the screen. - /DISPLAY_IMAGE-A printable image of a form in either terminal image format (with escape sequences), line printer format (with- out escape sequences), or LN03/LN03 PLUS format. Note that the optionally available VT100/200 Screen Font Cartridge Set is re- quired to actually print forms on the LN03 and LN03 PLUS laser printers with full VT100/200 video attributes. Refer to the sec- tion below on Printing Forms for more information. - FMS/DIRECTORY-To obtain a directory list of forms in a library or in form files. 5 DEC FMS/Hebrew for OpenVMS AXP, Version 2.4 SPD 48.67.00 - FMS/OBJECT-To generate an object module containing one or more form data structures that, when linked with the application pro- gram, will allow access to the forms through virtual memory. o FMS/VECTOR-To generate an object module containing a vector table of addresses that point to the user action routines that are linked with the application program. o FMS/TEST-To invoke the form testing facility which allows the ap- plication developer to display a form as an application program would, to type data into fields, and to display field Help. DEC FMS Form Driver The Form Driver is the run-time component of DEC FMS. It consists of AST re-entrant, shareable subroutines that are called by application programs to control the interaction of the terminal, the user, and the application program. The Form Driver provides facilities for manag- ing multiple work areas (each of which contains a single form data struc- ture). Multiple forms can be displayed on a single terminal screen. Form Driver subroutines provide for terminal input and output, dis- play of forms, manipulation of the screen, basic input validation and formatting, calling user action routines, and responding to the ter- minal operator's requests for help. Input and output can be specified one field at a time or on a whole form basis. The Form Driver has a number of features to facilitate fine tuning of the application human interface. A timeout facility allows the appli- cation program to continue execution after waiting a specified period of time for the operator to enter the next character. Field video at- tributes, cursor position, and Insert/Overstrike mode can be dynam- ically altered by Form Driver calls in the application program. Field highlighting, controlled by the Form Driver, causes the video attributes of each field to be altered as the cursor enters the field and to be restored to their original state when the operator exits the field. The Form Driver may be purchased separately for systems that require only run-time support for applications using DEC FMS. 6 DEC FMS/Hebrew for OpenVMS AXP, Version 2.4 SPD 48.67.00 Named Data The Form Driver supports the creation of parameter-driven applications by providing Named Data. Named Data are form constants that can be stored as part of the form data structure and retrieved at execution time by calls in the application program. Named Data allows information needed by the application program (such as form linkage, operator messages and other human language information, and data validation criteria for user subroutines) to be defined, stored, and modified independently of the application program. User Action Routines User action routines (UARs) are procedures written by the user in any Digital-supported OpenVMS programming language. UARs are associated with forms and fields during the creation of form data structures and are automatically called by the Form Driver under the following con- ditions: o When processing for a field is finished o Before and after processing the terminal operator's Help request o When the terminal operator presses a function key o When a screen refresh operation is requested The Form Driver transfers program control to the user action routine under the circumstances defined. The user action routine has avail- able to it (through Form Driver calls) a parameter string of 80 char- acters (defined as part of the form) which can be used to give pro- cessing information and the current Form Driver context. DEC FMS Sample Application Program The Sample Application program is a supported DEC FMS demonstration program. The Sample Application program, included in the distribution kit, is used to certify proper installation of DEC FMS. The documen- tation for DEC FMS gives examples from the Sample Application program. The sample programs (in each of the documented programming languages) 7 DEC FMS/Hebrew for OpenVMS AXP, Version 2.4 SPD 48.67.00 and form descriptions are included in the documentation and in the dis- tribution kit. The Sample Application Program can be installed on the target system at the user's discretion. Printing Forms Form images can be created and written to a file for subsequent print- ing by either an application program using a Form Driver call, FDV$PRINT_ SCREEN, or by a terminal operator using an FMS DCL command, FMS/DESCRIPTION/DISPLAY_ IMAGE. The following screen images can be created: Line Printer Image-All video attributes are ignored or translated to formats printable by standard line printers. Line drawing graphic char- acters are converted to standard ASCII characters and all other char- acters in alternate character sets remain untranslated. Terminal Image-All escape sequences and control characters are included to present an exact image of the screen if it were to be displayed on the same kind of terminal as the current terminal. This image can be output properly only to a printer that understands the same control sequences as the current terminal. LN03 and LN03 PLUS Laser Printer Image-Escape sequences are included to reproduce a screen image which is printable on an LN03 or LN03 PLUS laser printer. The resident fonts in these printers support the print- ing of forms which include ONLY single-size characters of the ASCII, DEC Supplemental, and DEC VT100 Line Drawing character sets. To print DEC FMS forms which include the FULL range of character, line, and screen attributes of the VT100 and VT200-compatible terminals (except for blink- ing), the optionally available VT100/200 Screen Font Cartridge Set must be installed in the LN03 or LN03 PLUS laser printer. This font car- tridge set can be ordered from Digital using the following ordering information: LN03X-DA VT100/200 Screen Font Cartridge Set 8 DEC FMS/Hebrew for OpenVMS AXP, Version 2.4 SPD 48.67.00 This set of two font cartridges contains all the fonts necessary to reproduce most of the character, line, and screen attributes avail- able on VT100, VT200, and VT300-compatible terminals. These fonts are extensions to standard Courier fonts and include the: o ASCII character set o DEC Supplemental character set o DEC VT100 Line Drawing character set o DEC Overprint Shading character set (reverse video effect) Sizes: - Double-high, double-wide (double-size) - Single-high, double-wide (double-wide) - Single-high, single-wide (single-size) (Overprint only)* Orientations: - Portrait (80-column) - Landscape (132-column) * The LN03 and LN03 PLUS resident fonts supply the single-high, single- wide size for the other three character sets. Bolding and underlining are also supported by the LN03 and LN03 PLUS. Blinking is not supported. Release Notes DEC FMS release notes are provided in machine-readable form on the dis- tribution media. Using the VMSINSTAL procedure, release notes may be displayed at the terminal or printed prior to installing DEC FMS and can be made available on-line after installation. 9 DEC FMS/Hebrew for OpenVMS AXP, Version 2.4 SPD 48.67.00 HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS Processor and/or hardware configurations as specified in the System Support Addendum (SSA 48.67.00-x). SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS OpenVMS AXP Operating System * Refer to the System Support Addendum for availability and required versions of prerequisite software (SSA 48.67.00-x). ORDERING INFORMATION Full Development (including run-time) System: Software Licenses: QL-MVST*-** Run-Time Only System: Software Licenses: QL-MVTT*-** Documentation for this product is distributed on the consolidated Open- VMS AXP Layered Product Compact Disc. * Denotes variant fields. For additional information on available li- censes, services, and media, refer to the appropriate price book. SOFTWARE LICENSING This software is furnished under the licensing provisions of Digital Equipment Corporation's Standard Terms and Conditions. For more in- formation about Digital's licensing terms and policies, contact your local Digital office. License Management Facility Support This layered product supports the OpenVMS License Management Facil- ity. License units for both the Full Development System and Run-time System are allocated on a CPU-capacity basis. 10 DEC FMS/Hebrew for OpenVMS AXP, Version 2.4 SPD 48.67.00 For more information on the License Management Facility, refer to the OpenVMS AXP Operating System Software Product Description (SPD 41.87.xx) or the OpenVMS AXP Operating System documentation set. SOFTWARE PRODUCT SERVICES A variety of service options are available from Digital. For more in- formation, contact your local Digital office. SOFTWARE WARRANTY Warranty for this software product is provided by Digital with the pur- chase of a license for the product as defined in the Software Warranty Addendum of this SPD. eightpointss [TM]The DIGITAL Logo, Alpha AXP, AXP, DATATRIEVE, DEC, DECforms, Digital, FMS, LN03, LN03 PLUS, OpenVMS, VAX, VMS, VT100, VT300, VT320, VT330, VT340, and VT420 are trademarks of Digital Equip- ment Corporation. 11