fnf@estinc.UUCP (Fred Fish) (05/24/89)
Can anyone recommend any menu builder type programs for use under
SCO Xenix. The basic idea is to build a menu system with a minimum
of hassle. Some of the desired features, not necessarily in the order
of importance, are:
(1) Ease of use for the developer. Most menu systems I have seen
use some sort of "menu language" in which you describe the
menus and the actions to be taken in a custom language. This
language should be reasonably powerful and well documented.
(2) Presentation quality. In other words, does it use some of the
fancier graphics capabilities to draw boxes, scroll bars, etc.
Drawing boxes with the '|', '+', and '-' characters is only
marginally acceptable. Something along the lines of SCO's
sysadmsh program is more reasonable. (speaking of which, does
SCO provide any sort of development package that would allow
one to build the equivalent of sysadmsh?)
(3) Reasonable runtime licensing. If you wish to distribute binary
copies of your system, and such distribution requires the inclusion
of some sort of licensed runtime code provided by the vendor, the
licensing should be "reasonable". I.E., $100 per binary copy is
not "reasonable".
(4) Context sensitive help and selection. If a particular field in
the menu system or one of its "forms" requires user input, the
user should be able to request help describing the required input,
and if possible, a list of items to select from. I.E., if a file
name is required a pop up window with a list of file names to select
from would be nice.
There are probably other factors that I haven't thought of that would
be important. Having never built such a system before, I probably would
not discover them until I was about half way through the implementation.
Feel free to point them out if you have experience in building menu systems
for use by relatively inexperienced users.
-Fred
--
# Fred Fish, 1835 E. Belmont Drive, Tempe, AZ 85284, USA
# 1-602-491-0048 asuvax!{nud,mcdphx}!estinc!fnflouis@cs.AthabascaU.CA (Louis Schmittroth) (05/28/89)
In article <89@estinc.UUCP>, fnf@estinc.UUCP (Fred Fish) writes: > Can anyone recommend any menu builder type programs for use under > SCO Xenix. Please summarize your replies for this group. I must not be the only other person looking for a nenu building system. I do it now with a shell script, but that's primitive. Thanks
bob@consult.UUCP (Bob Willey) (05/30/89)
In article <601@aurora.AthabascaU.CA> louis@cs.AthabascaU.CA (Louis Schmittroth) writes: >In article <89@estinc.UUCP>, fnf@estinc.UUCP (Fred Fish) writes: >> Can anyone recommend any menu builder type programs for use under >> SCO Xenix. >Please summarize your replies for this group. I must not be the >only other person looking for a nenu building system. I do it >now with a shell script, but that's primitive. Thanks Here is one input. It is a product developed by Terry Keene at TRG in Atlanta GA. 1 (800) 248-8649 or is 800 not available 1 (404) 664-9000 and ask for Chris O'Neal. They have a product called ATvanced Office System, which is GREAT, and they are about to release a NEW product called Menu Maker which will be even hotter. -- .. Computer Consulting Service .. Bob Willey .. .. P.O. Drawer 1690 .. uunet!consult!bob .. .. Easton, Maryland 21601 .. (301) 820-4670 .. ...............................................................
shevett@labii.UUCP (Dave Shevett) (05/30/89)
In article <601@aurora.AthabascaU.CA> louis@cs.AthabascaU.CA (Louis Schmittroth) writes: >In article <89@estinc.UUCP>, fnf@estinc.UUCP (Fred Fish) writes: >> Can anyone recommend any menu builder type programs for use under >> SCO Xenix. > Wang provides an interesting 'shell' called 'wsh' with their distribution of Xenix. I believe it's probably available seperately. It consists of the wsh executable, and a wsh.dat, which is the customizable menu file. Each user may have his/her own copy of wsh.dat, and alter it as they like it. If wsh is run and $HOME/wsh.dat doesn't exist, it reads it from /usr/bin. It allows space-bar selection of up to 12 items per screen, with each selection having the capability of bringing up another menu or executing a command. It also allows for prompt for parameters to commands (Ala a menu pick may be 'list the files in a directory', and the menu system can prompt the user with something like Enter the directory to list: ) Wang is headquartered in Lowell, Massechusetts. I believe any of the Xenix product managers up there can help (the name Rod Rogers comes to mind). /----------------+ "The shortest distance +----------------------\ | Dave Shevett | between two puns is a | Labyrinth II BBS | | W. Trenton, NJ | straight line..." | shevett@labii.UUCP | \----------------+ - Doc Webster +----------------------/
fnf@estinc.UUCP (Fred Fish) (06/07/89)
In article <601@aurora.AthabascaU.CA> louis@cs.AthabascaU.CA (Louis Schmittroth) writes: >In article <89@estinc.UUCP>, fnf@estinc.UUCP (Fred Fish) writes: >> Can anyone recommend any menu builder type programs for use under >> SCO Xenix. > >Please summarize your replies for this group. I must not be the >only other person looking for a nenu building system. I received several good leads (thanks everyone!). Of them, the one that seemed the most interesting is called "MenuAgent", from DSI. After playing with it for several days, it looks like it will fit our needs quite well. DSI can be reached at: DSI Communications, Inc. 333 West Merrick Road Valley Stream, NY 11580 (516) 872-3535 -Fred -- # Fred Fish, 1835 E. Belmont Drive, Tempe, AZ 85284, USA # 1-602-491-0048 asuvax!{nud,mcdphx}!estinc!fnf