Programmer 7500

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Programmer 7500 / MAX_PROGRAMMERS.iso / EDITORES / TSCREDD1.ZIP / SCRDISK2.EXE / TUTORPT1.DOC < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1990-04-29 | 101.5 KB | 2,431 lines

Page I-9 TURBO SCREDIT TUTOR PART I..(The Screen Editor).....(Section T-1) Introduction to Turbo ScrEdit Tutor....................T-1.1 Getting Started........................................T-1.1 Using the on-line user manual (help system).(F7).......T-1.2 Scrolling up and down in the on-line index.........T-1.2 Selecting topics fro the index screen..............T-1.3 Using the string search............................T-1.3 Printing all or part of the manual.................T-1.4 Using the manual index listing.....................T-1.4 Exiting the on-line help system....................T-1.5 Exiting the Turbo ScrEdit environment.(ESC)............T-1.5 Viewing disk directories.(F5)..........................T-1.5 Description of a screen file...........................T-1.6 Selecting a screen file to create or edit.(F1).........T-1.6 Field editing features.............................T-1.6 Working with screen files..............................T-1.8 Adding screen to a screen file.(INS)...............T-1.8 Renaming a screen.(TAB)............................T-1.9 Scrolling screen names (HOME) (END)................T-1.9 Deleting screens from the screen file.(DEL)........T-1.10 Automatic screen file backups......................T-1.10 Editing a screen record................................T-1.11 Starting the screen editor.(F2)....................T-1.11 The editor status line.............................T-1.11 Cursor movement....................................T-1.11 Changing the direction that the cursor travels.....T-1.11.2 Insert and overtype mode...........................T-1.12 Keyboard Graphics character mode...................T-1.12 The Quick reference editor help screen.............T-1.12 Switching between graphics and character mode......T-1.13 Changing character colors..........................T-1.13 Inserting blank lines..............................T-1.14 Deleting screen lines..............................T-1.14 Saving and Undoing screen changes..................T-1.14 Cutting and pasting screen text....................T-1.15 Copying a block of text........................T-1.15 Copying a line of text.........................T-1.17 Moving a block of text.........................T-1.18 Drawing lines and boxes............................T-1.18 Typing any ASCII...................................T-1.20 Compiling the screen.(F4)..............................T-1.22 Selecting the compiler you are using...............T-1.23 Setting the default field data type................T-1.23 Defining field types and processing specs..........T-1.24 Testing a screen.(F10).................................T-1.27 Changing a screens field order.(F6)....................T-1.28 Changing the field attribute colors.(F8)...............T-1.28 Printing a screen listing.(F5).........................T-1.30 Copying text from other screens.(F3)...................T-1.30 Generating source code (G).............................T-1.32 Selecting the compiler language for source code.....T-1.32 Suppressing skeleton file comments..................T-1.32 Options for using screen buffers....................T-1.32 Controlling character case in the new source file...T-1.33 Specifying the skeleton file location...............T-1.33 Selecting the screens to be included in generation..T-1.33 Page T-1.1 ** Turbo ScrEdit Tutor ** Copyright(C) 1989, by iHn Systems .........................Introduction........................... This tutor is designed to step you through every aspect of using Turbo ScrEdit. As you read through this tutor it is assumed that you have successfully installed Turbo ScrEdit as described in the file "PRINTME.1ST", and you are sitting at a PC keyboard with Turbo ScrEdit running. Turbo ScrEdit is an extensive program, with a lot of features and capabilities. You should expect to spend from 3 to 4 hours going through each part of this tutor. Throughout this tutor, as I describe each of Turbo ScrEdit's features, I will ask you to press a key or a sequence of keys, or type in a response, I will type your instructions in all UPPERCASE characters on a line by themselves. Be sure to read the complete text that proceeds each of these examples before you try to do the example. Example: Pressing the enter key at this point will cause your computer to stand up abruptly and tap dance across your desk: PRESS ENTER In the above example you would press the enter key when you see "PRESS ENTER". Another Example: TYPE "some word or name" AND PRESS ENTER. In the above example I want you to type the phrase surrounded by quotes and press the enter key. You are only expected to type the phrase between the quotes, not the quotes. This tutorial will be divided into three parts: PART ONE will step you through using the Turbo ScrEdit screen development environment. You will be guided through every aspect of using ScrEdit to create and edit screens and screen files. PART TWO will take you for a detailed look at using Turbo ScrEdit's field processing statements to validate field values, assign fields initial values, assign help messages to fields, and how to create and use field edit masks. PART THREE will use the demonstration files "SCRDEMO.SCR" and "SCRDEMO.P", that have been supplied with ScrEdit to show one way to implement a screen file into a pascal program. (Turbo C users will be using "SCRDEMO.C" instead of ScrDemo.P); ...........................PART ONE............................. To start with you should be looking at the Turbo ScrEdit Logo screen (or the registration information screen if you are using an evaluation copy of Turbo ScrEdit. Press any key to get to the logo screen.) If you do not know how to proceed beyond this screen you will want to read the file "PRINTME.1ST" that came Page T-1.2 with Turbo ScrEdit. There you will find the instructions for starting Turbo ScrEdit immediately following the disclaimer section. I would encourage you to take the time to read the entire contents of the "PRINTME.1ST" file before you proceed with this tutor. When you enter the Turbo ScrEdit, environment the main menu screen will fill the display. Menu options are selected by pressing the keys that correspond to the highlighted key descriptions. Turbo ScrEdit's main menu screen contains five sections: 1 - The top of the screen displays the Turbo ScrEdit version number and copyright notice. 2 - Next is the "Work Screen" section. This section of the screen is where we define the screen file that we will be creating and storing screens in. 3 - A little lower and to the right of the screen is the "Key Assignments" section. 4 - Still lower and back to the left of the screen is the "Copy Screen" section. 5 - And finally the bottom line of the screen is the message and prompt line. If Turbo ScrEdit needs to tell you something or if it wants you to make a decision it will display messages on this line. Now turn your attention to the "Key Assignments" section of the screen. We are going to discuss each of the keys listed here and their functions. We can see here that Turbo ScrEdit uses the function keys F1 through F10 and the "G" key to invoke various functions. Notice also on the bottom of the screen that the ESC key ends Turbo ScrEdit, and holding down the shift key and pressing any of the above mentioned keys will invoke the on-line help system and display the manual text describing the particular key that you have pressed. First lets discuss the control keys that do not pertain to editing screen files. Using the on-line user manual. ----------------------------------------------------------------- PRESS F7 When you press F7 the main menu screen will disappear and the system help screen will be displayed. Scrolling up and down in the on-line manual index. ------------------------------------------------------------ What you are looking at is the help system index. You can scroll the index up and down through the text window one line at a time by using the up and down arrows on the keypad, or you can scroll a Page T.1.at a time by using the PgUp and PgDn keys. Try scrolling the index text: PRESS DOWN ARROW (a few times) PRESS PgDn PRESS UP ARROW (a few times) PRESS PgUp Page T-1.3 Selecting topics from the on-line manual index. ------------------------------------------------------------ Lets look at Topic# 1 of the manual. This topic will discuss using the on-help system: PRESS "G" A line at the top of the screen has changed from a empty inverse line to a data entry field with a blinking cursor in it. The label to the left of the field reads "Index line Number =". Turbo ScrEdit is waiting for you to enter one of the highlighted index numbers (1-21). TYPE "1" and PRESS ENTER The index has disappeared and the text for Topic# 1 now is displayed in the text window. Take time now to read the manual comments about using the on-line help system. Use the same keys (Up & Down arrows, PgUP, PgDn) to scroll text through the text window as you did to scroll the index. Go ahead and read the manual text until you reach the section heading "THE MAIN MENU SCREEN". Using the string search feature. ------------------------------------------------------------ Okay, now that you have read the instructions for using the on-line help system lets explore some of the options you just read about. First lets try the string search feature (C,S,A, and B keys). PRESS "C" In the field above the text you are being prompted to enter a string of characters to search by. You can capitalize words if you like, but when Turbo ScrEdit search's for text it pays no attention to character case. Thus "INDEX" and "index" will be considered the same. TYPE "index" and PRESS ENTER Now that you have established the target of the search, you must tell Turbo ScrEdit to begin searching. You have three option for searching (S,A,B). The "S" option means search the entire manual for the first occurrence of the target string. PRESS "S". There will be a brief pause while the search is in progress. When a match is found the line that contains the search target will be displayed on the first line of the text window. The "A" search option means search ahead in the text from the current position in the manual. PRESS "A" Page T-1.4 To search backward through the text for the previous occurrence. PRESS "B" In the case that the target string is not found in the text Turbo ScrEdit will display a message and end the search. Printing All or Part of the Manual. ------------------------------------------------------------ If you do not have a printer attached to your system, skip to the next section. If you have a printer attached to your system lets look at how to print all or part of the manual. PRESS F1 In the field above the text you are being prompted for one of four possible responses. 1. If you press the ESC key the print process is aborted. 2. If you type "E" and press enter the entire manual will be printed. 3. If you type "I" and press enter the manual index will be printed. 4. If you type a topic number (listed on the manual index listing described above), and press enter, that topic will be printed. Lets try the "I" option described above for printing the index: TYPE "I" and PRESS ENTER Using the manual index listing. ------------------------------------------------------------ Now that you have a listing of the manual index, lets try looking up a topic. The topic look up function will work differently depending on where you are in the on-line help system. There are two possibilities: 1st - When you are browsing through the manual text and want to skip to another part of the manual without scrolling to it. PRESS "G" Select a topic from the manual index that we just printed. If you couldn't print an index listing just use Topic# 10. TYPE "10" (or any topic# of your choice) and PRESS ENTER The text for the selected topic# should now fill the screen. Try looking up any of the topics (1-91) on your own before you continue. When you are ready to continue we will use the home key to return to the main index. Remember whenever you are reading the manual you can return to the index by pressing the home key. Page T-1.5 PRESS HOME 2nd - When you are browsing through the help system index and want to go to the text of one of the index topics: PRESS "G" Select one of the 21 highlighted topic numbers to the left of the index text. For this example let's use number 10 again: TYPE "10" and PRESS ENTER The text for Topic# 10 should now fill the screen. Exiting the help on-line system. ----------------------------------------------------------- Well that ends the discussion on using the on-line help system. Remember you can enter into the on-line help system from just about any place while using Turbo ScrEdit. As we go though the other features of Turbo ScrEdit I will show you how to get context sensitive help for whatever keystroke that you need help with. Lets return to the main menu screen: PRESS ESC Exiting the Turbo ScrEdit environment. ---------------------------------------------------------------- The ESC key is used throughout Turbo ScrEdit to "quit" or "exit". If you are performing a function you can usually abort that function by pressing ESC. Other times pressing the ESC key will cause you to return to the main menu. When you are in the main menu of Turbo ScrEdit, pressing the ESC key will end your current session with Turbo ScrEdit and return you to the DOS prompt. Viewing disk directories. ----------------------------------------------------------------- There will be times when you will want to look for files in different directories on your disks without having to exit the Turbo ScrEdit environment. You will use the main menu F9 function for this purpose. PRESS F9. The screen has cleared and the words "Dir Mask ?" have appeared in the top left corner of the screen. PRESS ENTER. The disk directory is displayed for the current, or default, drive. Notice that "*.*" is the default file designator mask. Notice also that directories are displayed in Page T-1.6 different color attributes. You may answer the "Dir Mask ?" prompt with any valid MS-DOS file identifier including wild card characters. You can read more on displaying directories by pressing SHIFT and F9 keys from the main menu screen. PRESS SPACE BAR - to return to the main menu screen. PRESS SHIFT and F9 at the same time. The main menu screen has just been replaced by the on-line help system and the text describing the F9 menu option is displayed. PRESS ESC - to return to the main menu. Description of a screen file. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Now lets look at the control keys that pertain to working with screen files. Just so we know that we are standing on common ground at this point let me define a screen file: A screen file will contain a collection of screen records. A screen file will appear in your disk directory with an extension of ".SCR". Each screen that you design for use in a program will become 1 of the possible 128 screens that can be stored in a screen file. So it is logical that we must first create a screen file before we can begin storing screen records in it. The F1 key is used for specifying the name of the screen file to be created or edited. Selecting a screen file to create or edit (F1). ---------------------------------------------------------------- Locate the section of the screen labeled "Work Screen" and the word "Undefined" in the highlighted line that spans the screen. PRESS F1 Notice that the word "Undefined" and the highlighted line have been replaced by a blank data entry field with a blinking cursor in it. Turbo ScrEdit is waiting for you to type in the name of a screen file to be created or edited. TYPE "TestxxScr" (DO NOT press the enter key yet) Field editing features. ------------------------------------------------------------- Before we press the enter key and create this file, lets look at some of the editing features that Turbo ScrEdit provides when keying data into a field on the screen. - The blinking cursor that is now sitting to the right of the word "TestScr" is actually a "floating cursor". This means that it can be moved either direction in the field using the left and right arrow keys. Page T-1.7 PRESS LEFT ARROW (6 times) PRESS RIGHT ARROW (3 times) The cursor should now be blinking on the second 's' in the word "TestxxScr". The BACKSPACE key will move the cursor to the left on the screen line and delete the character to the left of the cursor each time it moves. PRESS BACKSPACE (2 times) The "xx" was deleted leaving you with the word "TestScr". If you make a typing error, you can use these keys to position the cursor over the incorrect characters and re-type the correct characters. When the ENTER key is pressed, the entire field is read No matter where the cursor is in the field. - Notice on the bottom line of the screen the words INSERT, CAPS, SCROLL LOCK, NUM LOCK. TRY PRESSING THE INSERT, SCROLL LOCK, CAPS, AND NUM LOCK KEYS ON YOU KEYBOARD Each time you press one of the keys, the respective label toggles between highlighted and normal text. When the CAPS label is highlighted, typing at the keyboard will produce characters in uppercase. When the NUM LOCK label is highlighted, the numeric key pad can be used to enter numbers instead of cursor control characters. When SCROLL LOCK is highlighted it has no effect in Turbo ScrEdit. When the INSERT label is highlighted, any key that you type will be inserted into the line at the cursor. When the INSERT label is displayed in normal text any keys that you type will overtype whatever character is at the cursor. Use the right arrow key to move the cursor to the "t" in the middle of "TestScr". WITH INSERT MODE ON (highlighted) TYPE SOME CHARACTERS INTO THE LINE. USE THE ARROW KEYS TO MOVE THE BLINKING CURSOR BACK TO THE FIRST CHARACTER THAT YOU JUST TYPED INTO THE LINE. - The DELete key will delete the character that the blinking cursor is on. USE THE DELETE KEY TO DELETE THE CHARACTERS YOU JUST TYPED. Page T-1.8 The field editing features that we just discussed will work the same in just about any field on any screen of Turbo ScrEdit. Any programs that you write that use Turbo ScrEdit screens will also have the same editing features. Now lets resume our discussion on specifying the screen file that is to be created or edited. Make sure that you still have the screen file name "TestScr" typed on the data entry line. PRESS ENTER The bottom line of the screen now displays the message: "<TESTSCR.SCR> does not exist. Create it? N/Y" PRESS "Y". Any key pressed other than "Y" is considered as "N". But since we answered with yes the screen file is created. The line where we entered the screen file name has returned to a inverse field with the screen file name displayed in it. Screen file names must be valid MS-DOS file names. You can include the drive, path, filename, and extension in the file name. If drive or path is omitted the the current DOS default path is used. If you supply the extension part of the file name, it must be ".SCR". Turbo ScrEdit will only edit (.SCR) files. Working with screen files. ----------------------------------------------------------------- We now have a screen file open and ready for use. Notice that there are some highlighted key labels inside the "Work Screen" section with the words "Next", "Prev", "Add", "Delete", and "Rename" next to them. Adding screens to a screen file ------------------------------------------------------------- The first thing we want to do is add a screen record to the file. Notice that the INS key label has the word "Add" next to it. Use the insert key to add a screen to the screen file: PRESS INSERT When you pressed the INSERT key the top line of the small window inside the "Work Screen" section turned into a data entry field with a blinking cursor in it. Turbo ScrEdit is prompting you for a screen name. Screen names must start with an alphabetical character and can contain only alpha or numeric characters or the underline character. If you are going to write a program to use a screen then the screen name that you specify here will be used as the record name inside your program, so be sure that the name conforms to the record naming standards of your compiler. TYPE "Test" and PRESS ENTER. Page T-1.9 We have just created our first screen. You can use the insert key in this fashion to add up to 128 screens to a screen file. Notice that the line that the screen name is on is a highlighted line. Whenever a screen name is being displayed on this line, it will be the active screen or the screen that is going to be edited, compiled, etc. Renaming a screen. ------------------------------------------------------------- Locate the highlighted label for the TAB key that has the word "Rename" next to it. Lets rename the screen that we just added from "Test" to "Test_One". PRESS TAB. The screen name line has gone blank, at the bottom of the screen the message "Rename <Test> to ?" has appeared. TYPE "Test_One" and PRESS ENTER. Now that you know how to add and rename screens, try one on your own. Lets see if you can add another screen named "Test_Two" by yourself. When you are finished "Test_One" should not be visible on the screen, but don't worry it is still there. Scrolling through screens in a file. ------------------------------------------------------------- Locate the "HOME" and "END" key labels next to the words "Next" and "Prev". When you have more than one screen stored in a screen file you will use these keys for scrolling the screen names. Experiment with the HOME and END keys to see how the screen names can be scrolled in and out of the highlighted line. Deleting a screen from the screen file. ------------------------------------------------------------- We have one more control key to try before we begin editing a screen. Scroll "Test_Two" to the top line of the screen window: PRESS DEL. The bottom line of the screen changes to read: "<Test_Two> Press <Del> Again to delete or <ESC> to abort" Turbo ScrEdit is giving you a chance to back out of deleting the screen by pressing the ESC key. PRESS DEL. The screen is deleted. COMPLETELY!! so be careful with this one. If you accidentally delete a screen you can retrieve it from the backup file that Turbo ScrEdit makes each time you begin to edit a file. I will show you more on this later. Lets re-add "Test_Two". Page T-1.10 And add another screen "Test_Three". Automatic backup files. ----------------------------------------------------------------- There are two more things I want to demonstrate concerning working with screen files. As I mentioned above, Turbo ScrEdit will automatically create backups of your work for you. To demonstrate this: PRESS F1. Notice that the edit file line went blank and the screen names have disappeared from the "Work Screen" section. Turbo ScrEdit is finished with the file that we were working on and is asking for a new screen file name. Lets just call back "TESTSCR.SCR" again. As you perform the next instruction, be sure to notice the message that will appear on the bottom line of the screen when you press the enter key. TYPE "TestScr" and PRESS ENTER. If you were quick enough you saw the message stating that a backup file of "TestScr" was being created. Turbo ScrEdit checked and did not find a backup copy of the screen file. A backup copy of a screen file will always have the same file name with a extension of ".SBK". Turbo ScrEdit will automatically create a backup of your screen files whenever a file is opened and no backup file exists in the same directory. Next lets look at what will happen when the screen backup file is present when the work screen is loaded. PRESS F1. Again the edit file name has gone blank and the screen names have disappeared from the screen. TYPE "TestScr" and PRESS ENTER. This time a backup file was found. The bottom line of the screen now displays a prompt asking you to decide whether or not you want to overlay the current backup file with the current copy of the screen file. If you respond by pressing the "N" key the backup file will not be updated. PRESS "Y". Well that pretty well covers the fundamentals of creating screen files, and adding screen records into the screen file. By now, if I have been clear in my descriptions, you should have a good understanding of how to: 1. Exit ScrEdit and return to DOS. 2. Use the help system. 3. Look at disk directories. 4. Create a screen file. 5. Add screens to the file. 6. Delete screens from the file. 7. Rename screens in the file. 8. Scroll through the screens in a screen file. 9. Select an existing screen file to edit. 10. Make and locate Turbo ScrEdit backups of your files. Page T-1.11 From this point forward I am going to assume that you know and understand the above list of ten items. If you are unsure of how to use any of the features go back now and review them until you are comfortable with them. Editing a screen record ----------------------------------------------------------------- Next we will look at the screen editing features of Turbo ScrEdit. Starting the editor (F2) ------------------------------------------------------------- Scroll the screen named "Test_Three" into the highlighted line of the screen names window. Selecting the F2 option of the main menu will invoke the screen editing facility. PRESS F2. The editor status line. ------------------------------------------------------------- The menu has disappeared and you are looking at a blank screen. The bottom line of the screen looks like: 1 1(=>) Ins <Off> Graph <Off> Back < 0> [**] For < 2> Esc=Exit F1Key=Help This is the screen editor status line. From left to right it tells you: the current row and column that the cursor is positioned on; if the keyboard insert mode is ON or OFF; if the keyboard graphics character mode is ON or OFF; the current background and foreground color codes. It also tells you that pressing ESC will return you back to the main menu, and pressing the F1key will display a help screen. The F1 key option here is a more local help screen, but remember that you can get detailed help on any function of the editor by holding down the SHIFT key and pressing any of the screen editor control keys that we are about to discuss. Cursor movement keys. ------------------------------------------------------------- As you perform the next examples be sure to notice that the row and column indicator on the far right of the status line changes as the cursor moves. PRESS DOWN ARROW (a few times). PRESS UP ARROW (a few times). PRESS LEFT ARROW (a few times). PRESS RIGHT ARROW (a few times). The arrow keys move the cursor one screen position in the respective directions each time a key is pressed. PRESS TAB (a few times). PRESS SHIFT TAB (a few times). This time the cursor moves in 5 character increments. PRESS ENTER The enter key always causes the cursor to move to the first character of the next line. Page T-1.11.1 PRESS BACKSPACE The backspace key has the same effect that the left arrow key did. Page T-1.11.2 Changing the direction that the cursor travels. ------------------------------------------------------------- Normally as characters are typed into the screen, the character keyed appears in the screen location where the cursor is blinking and the cursor moves right to the next screen location. When you are designing screens and drawing boxes or vertical lines, you find yourself having to use at least two arrow keys and doing a lot of "finger fumbling" to move the cursor to the next location of the next line character. One of the user of Turbo ScrEdit sent in a suggestion that it would be nice if the cursor could be redirected so when a character was typed, the cursor could move up or down or to the left. In the status line there is a arrow between a pair of parentheses. The arrow point out the direction the the cursor will travel after the next key is typed. Locate the (=>) in the status line next to the cursor column position indicator. PRESS CTRL DOWN AND TYPE "D". Notice that the arrow inside the parentheses has become highlighted and is now pointing down. Notice also that a message is displayed on the extreme right side of the status line that indicates the other cursor control keys. TYPE A VARIETY OF CHARACTERS. After each character is typed the cursor advance to the next row down on the screen. If you continue typing you will se that the cursor wraps back to the top of the screen. PRESS CTRL DOWN AND TYPE "U". The typing a variety of keys again and you will see that the cursor is moving up on the screen. PRESS CTRL DOWN AND TYPE "L". This time as you type characters the cursor moves to the left across the screen. PRESS CTRL DOWN AND TYPE "R". This time the message that had been displaying the cursor control keys has disappeared and the arrow inside the parentheses has return to normal text color. If you type a few characters you will see that the cursor travel has returned to the normal left to right. Page T-1.12 Insert and overtype modes. ------------------------------------------------------------- Next to the row and column indicators of the status line is the insert mode indicator. Observe how this indicator changes as you perform the next example. PRESS INSERT (a few times(key pad 0)). Notice that the Insert mode indicator toggles between <Off> and <On >. When insert mode is ON the characters that you type will be inserted into the current line of text and the characters to the extreme right of the line will disappear as they scroll off the line. When Insert mode is OFF the characters typed will overwrite any characters on the line. Keyboard graphics mode. ------------------------------------------------------------- PRESS F2 (a few times) Notice that the Graph indicator toggles between <Off> and <On> each time you press F2 key. When GRAPH mode is ON, the keyboard will type graphics characters instead of numbers and alphabetical characters. When GRAPH mode is OFF, normal keyboard characters are typed. Quick reference editor help screen. ------------------------------------------------------------- PRESS F1 The local screen editor help screen is displayed. This screen is used as a quick reference for accessing the editors special functions. The help screen is divided into three sections: 1. Fkey assignments. 2. Keyboard graphics and line drawing assignments. 3. Other special key function to control color selection, and cursor movement. PRESS ANY KEY - to return to the screen editor. Page T-1.13 Switch between GRAPHICS mode and character mode. ------------------------------------------------------------- PRESS F2 until GRAPH <OFF> shows on the status line. PRESS ENTER - to get to the start of the next line. TYPE "1234567890 abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" and press ENTER PRESS F2 (GRAPH <ON >). TYPE "1234567890 abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" and press ENTER This time we typed graphics characters instead of numbers and alphabetical characters. PRESS F1 Examine the "Keyboard Graphics Character Assignments" part of the help screen. In the top part of this section you see the various extended graphics characters, each with a regular keyboard character to it's left. In the bottom portion of this section you see a group of boxes. These boxes are arranged to make it easy to locate any of the special line drawing characters you may need when drawing screen forms. Notice that some of the characters in each of the boxes are highlighted with regular keyboard characters to their immediate left. Typing the highlighted keyboard character while in graphics mode will produce the line drawing character to it's right. Notice also that a upper case character or shifted key will produce a different characters that the lower case character or a un-shifted key. Press any key to return to the screen that we are editing. PRESS ANY KEY Next, take a few minutes and draw some lines and boxes. Use the F1 help option to determine which keys to use. Turbo ScrEdit has line and box drawing functions, but this exercise is intended to let you get comfortable using the quick reference screen, so draw these boxes by typing in the characters that you choose for the quick reference screen. Mix some text in with the graphics characters by toggling graph mode ON and OFF as you type. Experiment all that you wish before continuing. Change character color attributes. ------------------------------------------------------------- PRESS THE F1KEY again. Locate the Video Color Control keys in top part of the lower right hand area of the screen. You see that pressing these keys will change the foreground and background colors of the characters that you type. Press any key to return to the editor screen. Locate the "Back < 0> [**] For < 2>" part of the status line. Notice the changes that occur here as you perform the next example. TRY PRESSING THE HOME, END, PGUP, and PGDN keys. Page T-1.14 The "[**]" part of the status line changes to reflect the current background and foreground color attributes that will be used for the next characters typed on the screen. Now Type some characters and graphics characters in different colors (or shades on a monochrome monitor.) Now move the cursor up into one of the lines that you have typed and experiment with the insert (INS) and delete (DEL) keys. When you toggle Insert ON the characters that you type are inserted into the line, with insert OFF you overtype characters. The delete key deletes the character at the cursor. Inserting blank lines into a screen. ------------------------------------------------------------- PRESS F3. This key inserts blank lines into the screen. Deleting lines from the screen. ------------------------------------------------------------- PRESS F4. This key deletes lines from the screen. Saving and Undoing screens. ------------------------------------------------------------- Turbo ScrEdit has an undo feature that lets you restore a screen to its original state if you happen to make a mistake and delete the wrong line or characters, or type in the wrong thing on a screen. In order to make the undo feature work for you, you will want to store a screen occasionally as you design it. To demonstrate this, we know that when we started we started with a blank screen, so lets store the screen as it look right now. HOLD DOWN ALT and PRESS F5 Turbo Scredit prompts you on the bottom line of the screen with: "Okay to store N/Y" PRESS "Y" We have just stored the screen as it now appears. The ALT - F5 keys are used in conjunction with the F5 undo feature. Any changes that you make to a screen can be un-done back to whatever the screen looked like when you entered the editor or back to what the screen looked like the last time you used the ALT - F5 keys to store it. To demonstrate this: TYPE SOME TEXT ON THE SCREEN - anything you type will do. PRESS F5. Page T-1.15 The bottom of the screen displays the message: "Are you sure you want To Undo screen (N,Y)" PRESS "Y". The text that you typed on the screen disappeared. It was un- done. AGAIN TYPE SOME TEXT ON THE SCREEN - anything you type will do. HOLD DOWN ALT and PRESS F5 PRESS Y PRESS F5. The bottom of the screen displays the message: "Are you sure you want To Undo screen (N,Y)" PRESS "Y". This time the text that you typed was not removed from the screen because ALT - F5 made the changes permanent. You don't have to always use ALT and F5 to store the screen. When you exit the screen editor back to the main menu you will have the option of storing the screen. You only need to use ALT and F5 when you are happy with the screen in progress and don't want to take a chance of losing it to a power failure or some other accident. Cutting and pasting screen text. ------------------------------------------------------------- Next lets look at the the cut and paste functions. It is often desirable to be able to replicate or move portions of the screen as you are creating it. USE THE ARROW KEYS TO MOVE THE CURSOR TO ONE OF THE LINES THAT YOU HAVE TYPED ON. PRESS F6. F6 key starts the process of copying blocks, or lines, or moving blocks of text around on the screen. Notice that the message line of the screen now reads: "*Current Screen* Copy:lock <L>ine <M>ove:block <S>wap - <ESC> Resume" Copying a block of text . ------------------------------------------------------------- For our first experiment lets use the "B" option and copy a block of the screen. PRESS "B". The message line of the screen has changed to: Page T-1.16 "** Highlight a Block of Text ** F1key = Help Escape = Exit ". The message tells us that pressing the Escape key will abort the block copying procedure and return you to the editing mode, Or pressing the F1 key will invoke the on-line help system and display the manual text describing copying and moving blocks of text. Copy text is a four step procedure: first we must highlight a section of the screen that we want to copy; second we press the enter key to grab the highlighted section of the screen; third we move the block of text to the position on the screen where we want to place it; fourth we press the enter key to make it permanent. So lets begin with the first step. The blinking cursor has now become a highlighted character. The term highlighted here means that the characters that are being selected to be copied will be shown in inverse colors. If the text of the screen normally has a black background then it will be highlighted with white background and a black foreground. Or if the characters being highlighted have a non-black background color, then they will be highlighted as bright white characters on a black background. PRESS the RIGHT ARROW 10 to 15 times. The highlighted area expanded horizontally each time you pressed the right arrow key. PRESS the DOWN ARROW 5 or 6 times. The highlighted area expanded vertically to cover more text each time you press down arrow key. PRESS the LEFT ARROW 2 times. The highlighted block of the screen is reduced horizontally. PRESS the UP ARROW 2 times. The highlighted block of the screen is reduced vertically. So we see that the arrow keys are used define the size of the area that we will be copying. The screen text that is inside the highlighted area will be the text to be copied. The highlighted block may be repositioned anywhere on the screen by using the arrow keys while holding down the shift key. HOLD DOWN ONE OF THE SHIFT KEYS. PRESS UP 3 times to move the highlighted block up. PRESS DOWN 3 times to move the highlighted block down. PRESS RIGHT 3 times to move the highlighted block right. PRESS LEFT 3 times to move the highlighted block left. Remember Step one was to highlight the area of the screen Page T-1.17 that we want to copy. Take time now to use the keys described above to highlight a section of the text that we typed earlier. The second step is to "grab" the section of the screen highlighted by pressing the enter key. PRESS ENTER. The highlighted block has disappeared and the screen has changed back to its original appearance. On the bottom of the screen there is now a message asking you to position the block where you want it on the screen and press the enter key. Remember this is step three. PRESS DOWN ARROW a few times to move the block of text down. PRESS UP ARROW a few times to move the block of text up. PRESS RIGHT ARROW a few times to move the block of text right. PRESS LEFT ARROW a few times to move the block of text left. The Text that was highlighted now moves around on the screen freely without disturbing any of the text that it passes over. Move the text to another part of the screen using the keys listed above. Step four was to press enter to make the text permanent on the screen. PRESS ENTER. The block of text is now permanent in that position of the screen. Remember these four steps. They will always be the same using any of the text copy or move operations. Copying a line of text. ------------------------------------------------------------- This time lets look at the "L" option for copying a line of the screen. PRESS F6 PRESS "L" Notice this time that the entire line of the screen where the cursor was setting is now inverted. Actually the "L" option works much like the "B" option, except it will do the first step for you and highlight the entire line of text. If you only want to copy the highlighted line of text, you can proceed to step two (press enter), three (position the line on the screen), and four (press enter to make the line permanent.) But, if you decided that you wanted more or less text than what is highlighted, you can use the same keys described in step one of the "B"lock option to change the size of the block of text to copy, and then proceed with steps two through four. Page T-1.18 Moving a block of text. ------------------------------------------------------------- PRESS F6 again This time try the "M"ove option on your own. It works just like the "B"lock option only it will actually cut the block of text out of the screen and move it. Take time now to play with these features until you are satisfied that you have mastered cutting and pasting. Drawing and painting lines and boxes. ------------------------------------------------------------- Next lets look at the line and box drawing, and painting features of Turbo ScrEdit. The F7, F8, and F10 keys are used for drawing lines, boxes, and painting areas of the screen. The line and box process will always begin by using the F10 key to specify the type of character that the line or box is to have as a border. Then the F7 key is used to mark the left extreme end of a line or corner of a box, and the F8 key is used to mark the right extreme end of a line or corner of a box. When both the F7 key and F8 key have been pressed Turbo ScrEdit will draw the line or box between the two points. Lets start by drawing a line. First we must tell Turbo ScrEdit what type of line we want to draw. Pressing the F10 key begins the process. PRESS F10. The message line now displays: "Enter ASCII Char code 00-255 or <S>ingle <D>ouble old aint" Turbo ScrEdit is prompting for the type of character that you want to use to draw the line with. You can enter any ASCII character code (0 thru 255), or select the extended line drawing characters for <S>ingle line, <D>ouble line, or old line. For this example lets draw a single line. PRESS "S" and PRESS ENTER. USING THE ARROW KEYS MOVE THE CURSOR TO ROW 5 AND COL 1. PRESS F7. The message on the bottom of the screen tells you to position the cursor on the extreme bottom right corner of the line that we are about to draw. ** NOTE ** The following is a very important concept to understand about drawing lines verses boxes. In text mode our screen consists of 24 rows and 80 columns. Turbo ScrEdit will draw lines horizontally across the screen when both the F7 and F8 keys are used to mark positions on the same row of the Page T-1.19 screen. Likewise vertical lines are drawn on the screen when the the F7 and F8 keys mark position on the same column of the screen. USING THE RIGHT ARROW KEY, MOVE THE CURSOR TO COLUMN 80 OF THE SAME ROW 5. PRESS F8. A line was drawn horizontally across the screen. PRESS F10 again. PRESS "S" again. USE THE ARROW KEYS TO MOVE THE CURSOR TO ROW 1 AND COLUMN 40. PRESS F7. USE THE DOWN ARROW KEY TO MOVE THE CURSOR TO ROW 24 AND COLUMN 40. PRESS F8. This time the line was drawn vertical on the screen. Use the HOME key to change the current background color and press the F7 key or F8 key again. The line that we just drew will change according to the current colors. Using this feature you can try different colors until you find the one that suits your needs. Next lets draw some boxes on the screen. PRESS F10. PRESS "D" for Double line and PRESS ENTER. USE THE ARROW KEYS TO MOVE THE CURSOR TO ROW 10 COLUMN 10. PRESS F7. USE THE ARROW KEYS TO MOVE THE CURSOR TO ROW 20 COLUMN 70. PRESS F8. ScrEdit is now asking you if it should paint the area with the current color. PRESS "N". Using the HOME or END keys select the background (Back< 1>). Using the PgUP or PgDn keys select the foreground (For <15>). PRESS F8. This time answer yes to the "Paint?" prompt. Page T-1.20 PRESS "Y". Using the paint option is very much like using the box option. Next we will use the F10 key again and select the aint option. The paint option works just like box drawing only it does not draw a border around the area, it just paints the current colors into the defined area. Go ahead and try painting the entire screen with different colors. Using the HOME or END keys select the background (Back< 7>). Using the PgUP or PgDn keys select the foreground (For <15>). PRESS F10. PRESS "P" AND PRESS ENTER. USE THE ARROW KEYS TO MOVE THE CURSOR TO ROW 12 COLUMN 15. PRESS F7. USE THE ARROW KEYS TO MOVE THE CURSOR TO ROW 18 COLUMN 65. PRESS F8. Turbo ScrEdit has painted the current area with a bright background and bright white foreground. That pretty well describes using the line, box, and paint options of the screen editor. There are some cautions you should keep in mind when using the line and box drawing features. 1. NEVER erase a box or screen by using 0 foreground and 0 background colors. It leaves the characters on the screen, you just don't see them. The correct way to erase a line or box is to re-draw it using spaces: a. Press F10, type 32 and PRESS ENTER. (Remember 32 is the ASCII code for Space). b. Using the F7 and F8 keys mark the corners for the new box on the corners of the old box or line that you want to erase. Typing an ASCII character code not assigned to the keyboard. ------------------------------------------------------------- We have one key left to explore. When the extended graphics characters were assigned to the keyboard for use in graphics mode, there was not enough keys to accommodate all the characters codes. To give you access to the full ASCII character set, Turbo ScrEdit will let you assign any ASCII code 0 thru 255 to the lower case "v" key. PRESS F9. The message line displays the prompt: " Enter "v" an ASCII character code (0 thru 255) " TYPE 17 and PRESS ENTER. PRESS F2 (until Graph mode is ON.) Page T-1.21 PRESS "v" The "v" key now types a left pointer. PRESS ESC. The message line now prompts: " Save Screen (Y/N) - <ESC> to resume editing" PRESS "Y". Our editing session has ended and we are back to the main menu screen. Turbo ScrEdit has stored the screen and is ready for another task. The exercise that we just finished has given you a little sample of all the editing functions supported by Turbo ScrEdit. Now lets use what we have learned to draw a more serious screen and discuss how to define data entry and display fields on a screen. Here is a list of the rules for defining screen fields: 1. A screen field starts with a left bracket "[". 2. A screen field can be from 1 to 78 characters in length. 3. A screen field cannot span lines on the screen. 4. A screen field name cannot exceed 16 characters and must conform with the rules that apply to naming fields in a record for your particular compiler. 5. A screen field must end with a right bracket "]". 6. You can define from 0 to 128 fields on a screen. (a screen with no fields might be used for menus, help screens, etc.). Since we were experimenting with "Test_Three", lets use the screen "Test_One" for our next example. Use the HOME and/or END keys to scroll "Test_One" to the top line of the "Work Screens" window. PRESS F2. As we re-enter the screen editor, the screen has gone blank with only the editor status line showing on the bottom of the screen. The screen that you are about to draw will demonstrate defining and using screen fields. As you draw the screen, experiment by adding lines and boxes to section off the areas of the screen. Make it look the way you like a screen to look. Page T-1.22 Purchase History: ---------------------------------------------------- Year Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4 ---- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- [Yr_1] [Qt_1a ] [Qt_2a ] [Qt_3a ] [Qt_4a ] [Yr_2] [Qt_1b ] [Qt_2b ] [Qt_3b ] [Qt_4b ] [Yr_3] [Qt_1c ] [Qt_2c ] [Qt_3c ] [Qt_4c ] ---------------------------------------------------- Customer: --------------------------------------------- Name....[Name_Field ] Address.[Address_Line_1 ] [Address_Line_2 ] City....[City ] State...[St] Zip Code...........[ZipCode ] Phone...[Ph1]-[Ph2]-[Ph3 ] --------------------------------------------- When you are finished: PRESS ESC (To exit to the main menu). PRESS "Y" (To save your work). Compiling the screen (F4). ----------------------------------------------------------------- We have a screen now, but Turbo ScrEdit does not know anything about the screen accept what it's name is and where it is stored. The next thing we want to do with our screen is compile it using the main menu F4 option. When a screen is compiled several things happen: 1 - The screen is scanned to locate any fields that have been defined on it. The field name and it's row and column coordinates are placed in a table along with other information. 2 - Turbo ScrEdit then allows you to define what type of data each field will be allowed to contain. During this step you can assign a field help message and data validation ranges and procedures. 3 - Finally when you are finished Turbo ScrEdit creates a file of source code definitions for the buffers written in the programming language of your choice. If you load this file into your text editor you will find the fields of your screen are defined as fields in a record definition. Ok, now that you have an idea of just what is about to happen: PRESS F4. The main menu screen has disappeared and the compiler screen is displayed. In the bottom section of the screen Turbo ScrEdit is displaying the current default values that will be used by the screen compiler. Page T-1.23 Selecting the compiler you are using. ------------------------------------------------------------- Turbo ScrEdit needs to know which language compiler you are working with. In the bottom part of the screen there is a line that starts with a highlighted "L" on the word "Language". Pressing the "L" key will scroll through the language selections currently supported by Turbo ScrEdit. PRESS "L" (a few times) Notice that each time you press the "L" key, the language description changes. The programming language that Turbo ScrEdit will use when creating source code is displayed on this line. Languages currently supported are: Turbo Pascal 4.0, 5.0, 5.5 Turbo C 1.5, 2.0 Now select your language before continuing on. Setting the default field data type. ------------------------------------------------------------- Next you will specify for Turbo ScrEdit what default data type it will use for any new fields on a screen. It is important that you understand here that these defaults will only apply to any field names that have been added to the screen since the last time it was compiled. Any field types that have been assigned to screen fields in a previous compile session will remain as they were originally defined. Locate the line on the screen that begins with a highlighted "F" in the word "Field Type". There are nine possible data types: 0 : Integer values (A real number with decimals truncated). 2-7 : Specifies the absolute decimal position for the field. 8 : Alphabetical characters (A-Z,a-z,space). 9 : Any keyboard character is accepted. PRESS "F" (a few times) Notice that each time you press the "F" key a different field type is described. For type 0 thru 7 an example is shown that illustrates the position of or absence of the decimal position. For instance with a type of 3 the example shows "0000.00". The decimal position is in the absolute third position of the field. PRESS "F" (until the line shows <3> and 00000.00) With this setting all the new fields on the screen will be defined as numeric fields of type real. Of course we know that the fields in the name and address section of the screen certainly will not contain numeric values. But we will fix that in a minute. The important thing here is that the default we selected will meet the need for most of the fields on the screen. Next, locate the last line that begins with a highlighted "D". Use the "D" key to set the default field type to either "data entry fields" or "display only fields". The term "data entry" means that the user of your program will type a value into the field on the screen. The term "display only" Page T-1.24 means that your program will only be able to show the user information in these fields. The user of you program will not be able to change the contents of a display only field, he can only look at it. When the words DATA ENTRY are displayed in upper case, all new fields will default to data entry fields. When the words DISPLAY ONLY are displayed in upper case the field will not allow data to be entered into it. PRESS "D" (a few times..Stop when the line reads "display only/DATA ENTRY") Defining fields types and processing specs. ------------------------------------------------------------ Now on the bottom of the screen we see the prompt: "Accept values as shown? (Y) F1=Help". Before you continue make sure that the language type is set correctly for your compiler, and that the default field type is set to 3 (00000.00), and that field type will be DATA ENTRY. When you have check these values you may continue. PRESS "Y" Turbo ScrEdit will perform a number of checks on the screen as it compiles it. If any error conditions are detected an error listing will be displayed. Study the error messages before returning to the main menu, or if you prefer you can print a hard copy listing of the errors. Pressing any key will return you to the main menu where you can use the F2 option to make the needed corrections to the screen. When the screen compiles successfully, Turbo ScrEdit will display the top portion of the screen with the first field, "Yr_1", underlined with a row of carats "^^^^^". Notice that the row and column position of the field, and the length, type, and display type for this field are being displayed. The blinking cursor is on the type field. Inside the type section of the screen you will see descriptions for the value that is allowed in the type field (0, 2 thru 9). This is a year field, we know that year will be an integer value so we must change the "3" to a "0". PRESS 0 The cursor advanced to the field labeled "display only". Lets make all the purchase history fields on this top line display only. PRESS "D" and PRESS ENTER PRESS TAB PRESS "D" and PRESS ENTER PRESS TAB PRESS "D" and PRESS ENTER PRESS TAB Page T-1.25 PRESS "D" and PRESS ENTER PRESS TAB PRESS "D" and PRESS ENTER The cursor should now be on the field "Yr_2" on the next line. Define this field as 0 then PRESS the ENTER key until the line of carats underlines "Yr_3". Define "Yr_3" as 0 also and PRESS the ENTER key until the carats under line the "Name_Field". As the name implies, this is a name field so we know that we must be allowed to key in alphabetical characters and in some cases numbers. We need to change the default from 3 to 9 so we can key any characters into this field. PRESS "9" and PRESS ENTER The next field "Address_Line_1" is now displayed with the row of carats under it. Address_Line_1 and Address_Line_2 should also allow any key to be keyed into it. Change them to type 9 also. PRESS "9" PRESS ENTER PRESS "9" PRESS ENTER Now "City" is the field that is underlined by carats. We will restrict this field to only allowing alpha characters: PRESS "8" PRESS ENTER For "St" lets do the same: PRESS "8" PRESS ENTER The phone fields should be defined as integer type 0. No decimals will be allowed in these fields. Enter zeros for each of these fields. Now turn your attention to the function key labels that fill the middle of the screen. PRESS F1 (Help) A help menu is displayed notice that pressing different keys will give you help on different topics about using the screen compiler. If you press one of these keys you will invoke the on-line help system and the topic that corresponds to the key will be displayed. PRESS ESC - to return to the compiler screen. Page T-1.26 PRESS F5 Pressing this key will always place the line of carats under the FIRST field of the screen. PRESS F6 Pressing this key will always place the line of carats under the LAST field of the screen. PRESS F7 (a few times) Pressing this key moves the carat prompt to the PREVIOUS field on the screen. PRESS F8 Pressing this key moves the carat prompt to the NEXT field on the screen. As you can see the F5, F6, F7, and F8 keys allow you to scroll around through the screen fields. Be aware that if you press the F8 key when the carat prompt is positioned on the last field of the screen you will end the compile and return to the main menu. Now I want to give you a taste of using screen validation procedures. Let's define a user help message for the "Name_Field", and make it a required field. Don't worry about understanding the next few instructions just now. I will explain them to you later in detail. Scroll through the fields until the line of carats is under the field "Name_Field". PRESS F2 The middle line in the bottom portion of the screen has changed to a highlighted field with the blinking cursor waiting in it. Notice also that the function key labels have changed. On the bottom line of the screen the keyboard toggle key status is displayed. TYPE HELP 'Fill out this field with a customer name.' and PRESS ENTER TYPE "REQUIRED" and PRESS ENTER PRESS ESC The highlighted field has disappeared but the lines that we typed are still displayed. We are done for now so lets return to the main menu: PRESS ESC A series of messages will be displayed as ScrEdit creates the source code for the screen buffer, and performs the "house work" in the screen file. The time taken to do the "house Page T-1.27 work" will increase as the number of screens in the screen file increases. When ScrEdit is finished, the main menu screen is displayed. Now that the screen is compiled we can test it. Testing a screen (F10). ----------------------------------------------------------------- PRESS F10 - The test screen option of the main menu. Your screen is displayed, notice that all the fields have been removed, and the cursor is positioned on the name field. The phone number fields now have zeros in them and the fields in the purchases history section of the the screen show ".00". PRESS TAB (a few times) Notice that pressing the TAB moves the cursor through the fields on the screen in left to right and top to bottom order. PRESS SHIFT and TAB (a few times) Now the cursor moves to the previous field on the screen each time these keys are pressed. PRESS ENTER The cursor moves to the name field and a message is displayed on the bottom line saying that this field is required. Remember the REQUIRED statement that we associated to this field? Later we will take an in-depth look at using field validation statements, and how they work. TYPE A ? and PRESS ENTER We see that our help message is displayed. You can assign help text to any data entry field on a screen. PRESS TAB to move to the first address field. TYPE A ? and PRESS ENTER A message is displayed that says no help is available for this field. This is the default message that the user of your program will see if he try's to get help on a field that has no help message assigned to it. Turbo Scredit allow extensive field validation. We will take a closer look at these features in PART TWO of this tutor. Next notice that by default when you enter a screen the cursor is always positioned on the first data entry field of the screen. Notice also that the cursor moves to the next field to the right of the current field each time the TAB key is pressed. Or if you use SHIFT and TAB the cursor moves to the field to the left of the current field. The order that Page T-1.28 fields are accessed by default is top to bottom and left to right. In some cases you will want to change this order. Take this screen for instance. It would be nice to have the cursor begin on the name field. Next lets look at how Turbo ScrEdit allows you to redefine this order. PRESS ESC. The main menu is displayed. Changing a screens field order. ----------------------------------------------------------------- PRESS F6 - The resequence field order option of the main menu. The main menu screen is replaced again by our screen. PRESS SHIFT F1 Read this section about changing the field processing order. When you are finished PRESS ESC to return to our screen. Your goal here will be to make the cursor begin on the name field of our screen and move through the address, city, state, zip and phone section of the screen, then the purchasing information. Hint: Use the TAB key to place the cursor on the name field and: PRESS ENTER PRESS SHIFT TAB PRESS ENTER PRESS SHIFT TAB. PRESS ENTER Continue until you have pressed the ENTER key on every field of the screen. Notice as you proceed from field to field and press the ENTER key that the field indicator on the bottom of the screen is counting the number of fields defined. When you are finished you will automatically be returned to the main menu. PRESS F10 - The test screen option of main menu. This time the prompt should start on the name field on the screen. Pressing the TAB key should cause the cursor to move through the rest of the address fields and then jump up to the YR_1 field. PRESS ESC when you are finished playing. Changing the field color attributes. ----------------------------------------------------------------- There is one more area with which you can customize the way your screens are processed. Each field of the screen will always be in one of three possible states: - a field can be empty (lets call this "normal"), - a field can be receiving key strokes (lets call this "prompt"), Page T-1.29 - or a field can be displaying a value (lets call this "display"). Turbo ScrEdit allows you to define a different color attribute for each of these three states. By default empty fields and fields that contain data will be displayed in the color that was used when the screen was created, and by default when Turbo ScrEdit is accepting data into a field the background color is black (0) and the foreground color is set to bright white (15). Thus we have three states for a field; normal, prompt, and display. You can change the color attributes for "prompt" and "display". "Normal" will always be whatever color you used when you originally designed the screen. PRESS F8 - The change field color option of the main menu. The main menu screen is replaced by the screen that we are editing. You will see one field on the screen that is filled with small dots. This is the prompt field for this screen. To modify a fields colors you must first place the prompt in the field to be changed. You can use the Tab and SHIFT TAB keys to move from field to field. The status line is displayed on the bottom line of the screen. Locate the labels [Normal], [Prompt], and [Display]. To the left of each of these labels you will find two fields surrounded by greater than and less than symbols and prefixed by a "B" or "F". These fields will display the current "B"ackground color and "F"oreground colors for the current field in each of it's three possible states. Notice also the blinking arrow by the [Prompt]. This arrow indicates that you will be changing the color definitions for the [Prompt] state. By pressing the keypad left or right arrow keys this arrow will toggle between [Prompt] and [Display]. ** NOTE ** Turbo ScrEdit will not allow you to define the prompt color for a field that has been defined as DISPLAY ONLY. PRESS SHIFT and F1. Read the help section on changing field color attributes. Lets change some of the field colors to whatever appeals to you. I will step you through the first one. PRESS ESC to return to our screen. Use the keypad arrow keys to position the blinking arrow next to the [Prompt] part of the status line. PRESS HOME. When you pressed HOME, the current screen field and the status line [Prompt] label should have changed to reflect the new color codes. Page T-1.30 PRESS RIGHT ARROW. The blinking arrow now has moved to the DISPLAY part of the status line. PRESS HOME twice. This time the [Display] label on the status line and the current field is changing to show the display color. Select any color combination that you wish for this fields display state. Move the cursor to another field and define the colors for that field. Continue for as many fields on the screen as you wish to practice on. PRESS ESC to return to the main menu when you are finished. Next we can return to the screen test mode and see how the screen uses the colors we defined. PRESS F10 - The test screen option of the main menu. Try typing values into the screen fields and erasing the values from the fields (Backspace) and see how the colors change. Remember you must type only numbers for numeric fields. PRESS ESC when you are finished. You should now be looking at the main menu screen again. There are still three main menu options that we have not discussed. Next Lets look at how you can get a hard copy of your screen. Printing a screen listing. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ** Skip this section if you do not have a printer ** PRESS F5 - The screen listing main menu option. On the bottom line of the screen you are offered a chance to cancel the print screen option. If you press ESCape the print operation is aborted. PRESS ENTER The screen listing will be printed on your printer. Copying text from other screens. ----------------------------------------------------------------- When you are developing a system that has several screens, you may want to copy all or portions of other screens into the screen that you are editing. Turbo ScrEdit provides a way of doing this. Scroll the screen "Test_Three" to the edit screen line. This is Page T-1.31 the screen that you experimented with. It should still have the lines and boxes in it that we placed there in the previous example on editing screens. This will be the "target" screen that we want to copy text to. Next we will define the "source" screen that we want to copy text from. Locate the section of the screen labeled "Copy Screen". This section of the screen is used just like the "Work Screen" area is used. Only Here we define the screen files and screens that we want to copy text from. PRESS F3 - The define copy screen main menu option. The blinking cursor is now waiting on a blank line inside the copy screen section. At this point you could type in any screen file name that exists on your system. You can include drive and path information if necessary. For the purpose of this example we are going to use the same file that we are editing: TYPE "TESTSCR" and PRESS ENTER The copy screen file is opened and the screens in the file are displayed. You can use the PgUp and PgDn keys to scroll the copy screens in the window. The screen name that appears in the highlighted line is the screen will be the source that you will be copying screen text from. Use the PgUP key to scroll "Test_One" to the top line of the screen names window. PRESS F2 - The edit screen main menu option. The main menu disappears and the first screen that we experimented with, "Test_Three" is displayed on the screen. PRESS F6. This time the screen "Test_One" is displayed on the screen. So we see that when a "Copy Screen" is defined on the main menu, it becomes the screen that is accessed in the screen editor when we perform text copy or move functions. PRESS "S" Pressing the "S" key will SWAP between the copy screen and the screen that you are editing. PRESS "S" again. Answer the prompt with your choice and copy a portion of the text into our edit screen. PRESS ESC when you are finished. PRESS "Y" to save our work. PRESS F3. PRESS ENTER. Page T-1.32 The copy screen line has returned to "Undefined". If you were to re-enter back into the editor, and access the copy screen again, you would find that the copy screen has returned to the current screen that is being editing. Generating source code. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Now that you have used all the options that apply to editing and creating a screen, lets press on and let Turbo ScrEdit generate the source code necessary to access and use the screens that you have developed. PRESS "G" - The generate source code main menu option. The source code generation screen is divided into two sections. The top section is labeled "ScrEdit Source Generation Configuration". The bottom section is labeled "Source Code Generation Screen Selection". Selecting a source code language. ------------------------------------------------------------- First lets look at configuring the source code generator. The blinking cursor should be position in the "Language" field. Notice that below the prompt there is text that describes the acceptable values for this field. PRESS PGDN (a few times) Notice that the different language possibilities are scrolled into the language field each time you press PGDN. You can also type in the label that describes your compiler. Set the this value for your compiler. You can use PGDN to select the label that describes your compiler, or you can type code you select from the list in the field description. If you type in a code the prompt will automatically advance to the next option. If you use PGDN to make your selection your will have to press the TAB key. Suppressing skeleton file comments. ------------------------------------------------------------- The skeleton files that comes with Turbo ScrEdit contains numerous comments that are designed to help you begin merging your logic into the code that Turbo ScrEdit generates. When you become proficient with using Turbo ScrEdit you will probably want to suppress the comments. If you place a "Y" in this field, most of the comments in the skeleton will not be included in the source file generated. For now we do not want the comments to be suppressed so: PRESS "N" Options for using screen buffers. ------------------------------------------------------------- Next we must decide if we want the screen buffers to be copied into our source code or if we want them included at compile time. Again, the possible answers for this option are described below the prompt line. Page T-1.33 If you answer this prompt with a "Y", all the code necessary to define and initialize the screen buffers will be copied directly into the generated source code. If you answer with "N" the source code generator will place {$I} include compiler directives in the source code and the screen definitions will be included at compile time. Let's have the screen definitions copied into the file that we are going to generate. PRESS "Y" Controlling character case in the new source file. ------------------------------------------------------------- Next you can specify the character case that the code will be generated in. If you answer this prompt with a "U" then the entire source file generated will be in upper case characters. If you reply with "M" then the source will be in mixed upper and lower case just as it appears in the skeleton file. If you are programming in "C" use the "M"ixed option. Upper case characters will not compile with an ANSI standard "C" compiler. Specifying the skeleton file locations. ------------------------------------------------------------- Finally you must tell Turbo ScrEdit where it can locate the skeleton files that it must use during source code generation. Specify the drive and path where you have stored the files "Skeleton.C" or "Skeleton.P". Okay, we have now configured Turbo ScrEdit for your personal needs. Turbo ScrEdit will remember these settings until you change them again. Selecting the screens to be used by the new program. ------------------------------------------------------------- Next we will want to select the screens that will be accessed in the program Turbo ScrEdit is about to generate. Locate the "Source Code Generation Screen Selection" section of the screen. Notice that the screens in the screen file are displayed in a small window. Also notice that the first screen in the window has an arrow to its left. When Turbo ScrEdit sees a screen name that is flagged with this mark it will generate the necessary code to access the screen. You may flag one or all the screens in a screen file. The up and down arrow keys are used to move the highlighted bar from one screen name to another. We know that there is Page T-1.34 another screen in this file so let's scroll it into the window. PRESS UP ARROW - until all the screen names are in the window. PRESS HOME (a few times) Each time you press the HOME key, a mark appears next to the screen name and the highlighted bar moves to the next field. PRESS UP ARROW (until the highlighted bar is on the first screen name). PRESS END (a few times) Each time you press the END key the mark next to the screen name disappears and the highlighted bar moves to the next screen name. Now use the arrow keys and HOME key to flag "Test_One" and "Test_Three" for inclusion in the source code generation process. PRESS ENTER The message "GENERATING SOURCE CODE" should be flashing on the bottom line of the screen. When it is Turbo ScrEdit finished generating the program, you will be returned to the main menu. PRESS ESC to exit Turbo ScrEdit back to DOS. Take time now to load the program generated by Turbo ScrEdit into you favorite editor and examine the source file that Turbo ScrEdit generated. Load "TestScr.Pas" or "TestScr.C", depending on the type of compiler you are using, into you editor. Take time to examine the source code Turbo ScrEdit has generated. When you are done looking over the code, compile and run the program. Try keying data into the screen fields, and pressing different combinations of special control keys. You will see that Turbo ScrEdit lets you easily detect almost any combination of key strokes. Well, that concludes the basic look at Turbo ScrEdit. You should now be able to produce any screens that you need, and generates the basic skeleton program ready to receive you custom logic. In the next part of this tutor we will look at the field validation language that is supported by Turbo ScrEdit.