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4glWorks: features

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This document has been prepared assuming that you have read the in-depth description.
If you haven't, now is a good time to do it.

4glWorks is a working application that serves no useful purpose other than maintaining printer tables but knows how to perform many common tasks.
Currently, 4glWorks components include:

• viewers:
  • a null (empty) viewer
  • a simple sql interpreter, built around two scrollers and one library
  • an application error log viewer
  • printer data maintenance viewers.
• Sample glue code (viewer spawner & menu structure). Apart from serving as an example, the glue code constitutes a good starting point to build new applications:
  Add viewers & services, taylor the menus & the main program to reflect your additions and pronto, your application is up and running.
  This is the closest I can get to an Application Framework using Informix-4gl.
• scrollers:
  • a table maintenance browser, capable of brief (e.g. code & description) or, with appropriate viewer aid, full record display
  • a similar many to many table maintenance scroller
  • a simple text browser with printing capability
  • a complex text scroller that displays data taken from different tables in various orders (table/record, record/table, etc) and maintains links to the original records, thus allowing for easy record modification or deletion
• A basic text editor, very much work in progress (the interface is likely to change).
• Horizontal and vertical menus support, with key trapping and viewer dependent help messages.
• Support for multiple timer generated messages.
• Single and multiple selection picklists. These can get their data from tables, pipes or multiple files, handle comments, return automatically if only one choice was found, position the cursor on the entry that is closest to the field contents and have a quick search capability.
• Printing support in the form of printer tables, and print library routines with the ability to produce variable length reports (not a novelty!) and to include byte data (i.e. images, logos, you name it...) in headers or footers.
• A Structured Query Scripting Language interpreter (SQSL reference here, Expansion Facility reference here)
• Text blobs manipulation routines
• Associative arrays
• File and os oriented routines
• Table and DB related functions, including table/db lock/unlock services.
• Text and display related functions (common dialogs, filters, etc)
• Language support that allows to run the same executable in different languages without modifications or recompilation.
• A complete error logging facility that includes tracking of unexpected messages and not found text files. Error log includes, as an aid to debugging, the complete message chain that led to the error and the identity of the user who encountered the error.