das@trac2000.ueci.com (David Snyder) (05/15/91)
In article <59135@sequent.UUCP>, lugnut@sequent.UUCP (Don Bolton) writes: > Some stuff deleted > I refer to fgl_drawbox() and eflastkey.. Have these animals been around > long? Like when Informix the next generation airs, will I be "SOL"[1]? > I have been informed by my Informix rep. that in Informix TNG... not only will eflastkey be documented, but they will also write and support a function that will return eflastkey to your 4GL program (I know we've ALL already done that). The fgl_drawbox() function is a new one on me, tell you what... you tell me about fgl_drawbox() and I'll tell you about _EFWINDOW (can you say "screen print"). DAS -- David A. Snyder @ UE&C - Catalytic in Philadelphia, PA UUCP: ..!uunet!trac2000!das INTERNET: das@trac2000.ueci.com
aland@informix.com (Colonel Panic) (05/22/91)
In article <59135@sequent.UUCP> lugnut@sequent.UUCP (Don Bolton) writes: >I am wondering about a few functions I have been forced to use in order >to have desired operation in my programs that are un-supported >undoccumented yet prove essential in any more than crude screens.. > >I refer to fgl_drawbox() and eflastkey.. Have these animals been around >long? Like when Informix the next generation airs, will I be "SOL"[1]? > >eflastkey is a godsend given their available input control stmts. I got >spoiled using Oracle forms and being able to act acordingly based on >the keys used. At least being able to "read" what key was pressed allows >a developer to handle conditional actions properly and can define mech- >anisims like "POST-CHANGE", proper form traversals when skipping over >non-modifyable fields using the BEFORE FIELD stmt.. I'm referring to >basic keys here not command keys... RETURN up, dn, left and right arrow >you know, the ones users use to navigate the forms :-) Starting with version 4.10, 4GL and 4GL Rapid Development System will provide a function call (get_lastkey()) to determine the last key pressed in any context except a MENU statement. Using this is preferable to checking _eflastkey because (1) it is supported and documented, and (2) it is portable between compiled 4GL and RDS. A related function will generate the key value for any actual or functional key for use with comparing the returned value from get_lastkey(). This lets you check if the last key pressed was the HELP key or ACCEPT key or NEXT page key or PREVious page key or whatever, regardless of what physical key is assigned to it. (For example, if you reassign HELP to F1, get_lastkey() would return the logical HELP directive rather than the specific value for F1.) Clear as mud, eh? The 4GL 4.1 Supplement doc will explain this thoroughly. (It had BETTER; a couple of us have been spending the better part of the last few weeks on it, grrrr...) I'll say nothing about availability dates; it ain't shipping yet. As for fgl_drawbox(): since it has been used in *demo* programs, even, I suspect that yanking it out could be life-threatening... -- Alan Denney aland@informix.com {pyramid|uunet}!infmx!aland "In the cafeteria just after lunch, (well, not *just* after, more like *during* lunch, about 12:28; say 12:30, give or take a few minutes), I leaned back in my chair (it was one of those aluminum chairs, good strength-to-weight, like titanium but not quite; but then of course titanium would be a bit of an overkill). Anyway, I heard one of the girls talking about how boring she thought engineers could be."