Full-View - Windows for Pick

(C) Copyright 1985-1996 Modular Software Corporation. All rights reserved.

Version 2.0 for AP - February 14, 1996

   Goto:  Table of Contents   Index
Chapter:  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

13: TERMINAL SUPPORT

FULL-VIEW provides user-definable support for a virtually unlimited variety of terminals. It does this by creating a terminal definition item which is used to store a terminal's characteristics. The terminal characteristics are established on a port-by-port basis. Any variety of terminals may be utilized with different terminals on each system port.

13.1: PORT TERMINAL DEFINITIONS

A program is provided to create, modify, and maintain terminal definitions. To utilize this program select it from the FULL-VIEW account menu. To use this function, enter the port number desired. The system displays the current name of the terminal driver and allows you to change the driver name. If you attempt to execute a FV-INITPORT command from any port that has not had a terminal driver set up for it, the FV-INITPORT command will exit with an appropriate error message.

13.2: BUILDING TERMINAL DEFINITIONS

The terminal definitions include elements for screen manipulation, graphics characters, cursor movements, video attributes, and function key programming. The terminal definitions are very versatile and allow you to utilize nearly any Pick compatible terminal. FULL-VIEW can look very strange if it is executed with an incorrect terminal definition. If you need to build a new terminal definition, start with a definition that has few features (i.e., no video attributes or graphics characters) and add features one at a time. It is also usually easier to copy a similar definition rather than build one from scratch.

Under release 1.4 and above, an improved terminal definition function is supplied. Prior to 1.4, all terminal control strings had to be entered as hexadecimal strings. With the current version, control strings can be entered as combinations of hex, ascii, decimal, and keyword strings. For example, the following string can be used for a clear-screen on a WYSE type terminal:

    ESC '*'
Elements in the control sequence are separated by any number of spaces. The following element formats are allowed:

KEYWORD
A number of keywords are allowed to signify control characters. Examples are ESC, NUL, BELL, and DC1.
HEX(..)
Hex strings may be entered in this manner.
CHAR(..)
Decimal control characters may be entered in this manner.
"..."
Quoted strings are allowed. Either single or double quotes may be used.

13.2.1: TERMINAL DEFINITION ELEMENTS

A FULL-VIEW terminal definition contains the following elements:

X,Y CURSOR POSITIONING

FULL-VIEW uses the SYSTEM-CURSOR routines which are a part of the operating system to perform X,Y cursor positioning. All that must be specified is the PICK TERMTYPE letter required for the positioning function. If your system has a definable cursor routine such as Accu-cursor, it may be used to create arbitrary X,Y positioning.

The X,Y positioning in FULL-VIEW always uses 0,0 as the upper left hand corner of the screen. The terminal definition function can be used to indicate where the X,Y positioning scheme places the upper left hand corner of the screen and allows FULL-VIEW to compensate. For instance, if your system specifies 1,1 as the upper left hand corner of a WYSE terminal, then you would set up the FULL-VIEW terminal driver with terminal coordinates from 1 to 80 horizontally and 1 to 24 vertically. If 0,0 is the upper left hand corner of the screen than you would use 0 to 79 horizontally and 0 to 23 vertically.

FULL-VIEW does not use the X-only cursor positioning sequence. It does support X-only cursor positioning from within applications, but actually outputs X,Y positioning sequences to the terminal.

EMBEDDED TERMINAL ATTRIBUTES

FULL-VIEW will support terminals with embedded attributes without requiring any program consideration within applications. If a terminal has embedded attributes, enter the letter 'E' in this field. Otherwise, leave this field blank.

PRINT CONTROL STRINGS

Control strings for the following functions are required in order for FULL-VIEW to run properly:

The control strings for BACK, FORWARD, UP, and DOWN may be specified as F0. This will cause an X,Y cursor position to be performed instead of trying to utilize a cursor-move string. This method is useful on systems where cursor-move functions are destructive (they erase characters on the screen). Port 0 on an IBM-PC (XT or AT) are among these.

ATTRIBUTE CONTROL STRINGS

FULL-VIEW utilizes control strings for setting up terminal video attributes. Video attributes are characteristics such as DIM and BLINK. The following video attributes are definable:

When defining video attributes, you must enter the control strings for every possible combination of the attributes. Some terminals may not be able to support all of the combinations and for these you must design your terminal definition in order to produce the most pleasing display.

TERMINAL GRAPHICS CHARACTERS

FULL-VIEW supports terminal line graphics characters. These characters are used to define window borders and may also be utilized from within your applications for drawing boxes. The definition for graphics characters is in two parts. First, there is a graphics on and off sequence. This is used for terminals that have two different modes. Next, there are the eleven graphics character sequences that actually output the characters. If your terminal cannot simultaneously display graphics and text data, you will need to assign a non-graphics characters such as the ']' to the graphics characters.

TERMINAL @(-xxx) ASSIGNMENTS

FULL-VIEW allows you to define the meaning of the @(-xxx) functions. This allows FULL-VIEW to be customized to operate with your particular software or Pick installation. The following functions are definable:

GRAPHICS CHARACTERS

If these fields are left blank, the terminal definition program will default them to values which are commonly used for these characters. However, they may not exactly match your implementation.

13.2.2: INPUT KEY ASSIGNMENTS

FULL-VIEW allows re-definition of the terminal's keyboard. This feature permits replacement of any keyboard character or string of characters with any single output character. Typically, the key assignment feature is used to:

  1. Assign function keys to single control keys for easier processing.
  2. Assign keys like INS, DEL, PRINT, and SEND to single keys for easier processing.
FULL-VIEW expects the following keys to be defined for proper operation:

    F1        CHAR(129)
F1 is used as a screen-exit key and should return a CHAR(129) to applications programs. 
    F2        CHAR(130)
F2 is used as a screen-abort key. 
    F3        CHAR(131)
F3 is used for screen-related help. 
    F4        CHAR(132)
F4 is used for field-related help. 
    F5        CHAR(133)
F5 is used in the screen label painter function to insert a line. 
    F6        CHAR(134)
F6 is used in the screen label painter function to delete a line. 
    F7        CHAR(135)
F7 is used in the screen painter function to scroll the image up. 
    F8        CHAR(136)
F8 is used in the screen painter function to scroll the image down. 
    F9        CHAR(137)
F9 is used in the screen painter function to scroll the image left. 
    F10       CHAR(138)
F10 is used in the screen painter function to scroll the image right. 
    INS       CHAR(161)
INS is used to insert characters within the data-entry function. 
    DEL       CHAR(162)
DEL is used to delete characters within the data-entry function. 
    DEL-LINE  CHAR(164)
DEL-LINE is used to erase lines within the data-entry function.
In addition, characters for the Hot-Key and Print-Screen functions should be defined.

Key assignment definitions are set up by entering the character to be defined, along with the sequences of character(s) that the terminal sends in order to specify that character. Either a single or multiple character sequence can be specified.

Please note that it is impossible to set up some combinations of keys on some terminals. For example, on WYSE-type terminals, keys like INS and DEL begin with the ESC character. In these cases, it is impossible to define these keys and at the same time set up the ESC key since the system does not know whether an entered key is the ESC key alone or simply the lead-in key for an ESC sequence key. A method which usually works is to define the ESC key as two ESC keys in a row.

13.3: LISTING TERMINAL DEFINITIONS

Terminal definitions are stored in a multiple data portion file named:

    FV.CONTROL,TERMINAL.DEFS
This file may be listed or sorted from any FULL-VIEW enabled account to display or print the terminal definitions that are available. In addition, a PROC called LIST-TERMINAL-DEFS is available to list the valid terminal definitions.

In addition to being stored in FV.CONTROL,TERMINAL.DEFS terminal definitions are also stored in FV.CONTROL,TERMINAL.SOURCE. This second data file stores the new, easier to enter form of the terminal definitions.

   Goto:  Table of Contents   Index
Chapter:  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15