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Character Mode Dialog System

  • October 30, 2017
  • 37 replies
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37 replies

D

The character based Dialog System is available with the latest Visual COBOL PE. Looking at the  Dialog System Character Mode Guide the Tutorial Section makes reference to many example programs (*.s, *.err, *.sl, *.cbl, *.mf, *.cpb etc.)

Is there a website where I might download these programs as they are not included in the Visual COBOL release?

Thanks

Sorry I've only just noticed this: The format of those DSRUN error messages is only used by the GUI version of Dialog System, so it appears the environment must still be directing the call to that version of dsrun rather than the character-mode one.

-Jon.
Paul Richards
  • Paul Richards
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  • January 16, 2018

The character based Dialog System is available with the latest Visual COBOL PE. Looking at the  Dialog System Character Mode Guide the Tutorial Section makes reference to many example programs (*.s, *.err, *.sl, *.cbl, *.mf, *.cpb etc.)

Is there a website where I might download these programs as they are not included in the Visual COBOL release?

Thanks

Setting a breakpoint on the accept statement shows modules DSRUN.dll, DSGRUN.dll, dsexcept.dll and DSGRUN.dll (again) and Program1.cbl.. However they are all shown (excepting Program1.cbl) as being called from \\Micro Focus\\Visual Cobol\\bin (not DSChar\\bin)

Paul
Paul Richards
  • Paul Richards
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  • January 16, 2018

The character based Dialog System is available with the latest Visual COBOL PE. Looking at the  Dialog System Character Mode Guide the Tutorial Section makes reference to many example programs (*.s, *.err, *.sl, *.cbl, *.mf, *.cpb etc.)

Is there a website where I might download these programs as they are not included in the Visual COBOL release?

Thanks

See my reply to Gael. So how do we/can we get an option to load either the character version or the GUI version of Dialog System? Since DS was included in Visual Cobol to allow people to migrate from DS system apps to Windows/.NET versions surely many people will want to run the character version.

Paull
Gael Wilson
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  • Gael WilsonRocketeer
  • Rocketeer
  • January 17, 2018

The character based Dialog System is available with the latest Visual COBOL PE. Looking at the  Dialog System Character Mode Guide the Tutorial Section makes reference to many example programs (*.s, *.err, *.sl, *.cbl, *.mf, *.cpb etc.)

Is there a website where I might download these programs as they are not included in the Visual COBOL release?

Thanks

Paul,

If you definitely started devenv.exe from the command prompt in which dscharenv.bat had been run I would expect you to get the character version of DS loaded, as that is what was loaded when I tried the sample. As that does not appear to be the case for you I will have to drop out of the discussion as I don't think there is any more info I can provide.

Sorry.

Gael
Paul Richards
  • Paul Richards
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  • January 17, 2018

The character based Dialog System is available with the latest Visual COBOL PE. Looking at the  Dialog System Character Mode Guide the Tutorial Section makes reference to many example programs (*.s, *.err, *.sl, *.cbl, *.mf, *.cpb etc.)

Is there a website where I might download these programs as they are not included in the Visual COBOL release?

Thanks

Gael

I have followed your example precisely - my last post was incorrect in that I just loaded the DSCHAR.sln via the normal 'windows' version of VSCOBOL - my error :-(

So I copied test1.cpb and test1.s (renaming the originals so as to avoid confusion) into the same folder as that in which Program1.cbl resided. Adjusted the path etc and ran devenv.exe. Set the working directory to the one containing test1.* and Program1.cbl. Ran debug, just got a blank command window - no error message. Setting a breakpoint at ACCEPT and then looking at Debug -> Windows -> Modules showed

PROGRAM1.CBL and DSRUN c:\\Program Files (x86)\\Micro Focus\\Visual COBOL\\DSChar\\bin\\DSRUN.dll .... DSChar.exe: c:\\workarea\\dsvcproj\\dsproject\\dschar\\dschar\\bin\\x86\\debug\\DSChar.exe.

There were no otherfiles shown.

So the character version of DS was loaded. The program finishes with:

The thread '<No Name>' (0x2280) has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The program '[10188] DSChar.exe: c:\\workarea\\dsvcproj\\dsproject\\dschar\\dschar\\bin\\x86\\debug\\DSChar.exe' has exited with code 0 (0x0).

So no error message. I don't follow why you are getting the screenset to load and show and I am not. As far as I can see we have both set the project up identically.

Paul
Gael Wilson
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  • Gael WilsonRocketeer
  • Rocketeer
  • January 18, 2018

The character based Dialog System is available with the latest Visual COBOL PE. Looking at the  Dialog System Character Mode Guide the Tutorial Section makes reference to many example programs (*.s, *.err, *.sl, *.cbl, *.mf, *.cpb etc.)

Is there a website where I might download these programs as they are not included in the Visual COBOL release?

Thanks

Paul,

Did you check the values in the DS-OUTPUT-FIELDS of DS-CONTROL-BLOCK after the call to DSRUN, in particular DS-SYSTEM-ERROR-NO and DS-VALIDATION-ERROR-NO ? Are either non-zero ?
Paul Richards
  • Paul Richards
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  • January 18, 2018

The character based Dialog System is available with the latest Visual COBOL PE. Looking at the  Dialog System Character Mode Guide the Tutorial Section makes reference to many example programs (*.s, *.err, *.sl, *.cbl, *.mf, *.cpb etc.)

Is there a website where I might download these programs as they are not included in the Visual COBOL release?

Thanks

Gael

I modified the code thus:

main-process.
perform program-initialize
perform call-screen-manager
display DS-OUTPUT-FIELDS
display DS-SYSTEM-ERROR
display DS-VALIDATION-ERROR-NO
accept dummy
stop run.

The output was 08224.

Adding the DISPLAYs showed a number of other programs in the modules window i.e. ADIS, ADISINIT, mFFH etc.

Paul
Paul Richards
  • Paul Richards
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  • January 29, 2018

The character based Dialog System is available with the latest Visual COBOL PE. Looking at the  Dialog System Character Mode Guide the Tutorial Section makes reference to many example programs (*.s, *.err, *.sl, *.cbl, *.mf, *.cpb etc.)

Is there a website where I might download these programs as they are not included in the Visual COBOL release?

Thanks

Gael

I modified the program to:

procedure division.
main-process.
perform program-initialize
perform call-screen-manager
display DS-ERROR-CODE
display DS-VALIDATION-ERROR-NO
accept dummy
stop run.

The ouput was still 08224. What does this tel you?

Paul
Gael Wilson
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  • Gael WilsonRocketeer
  • Rocketeer
  • January 30, 2018

The character based Dialog System is available with the latest Visual COBOL PE. Looking at the  Dialog System Character Mode Guide the Tutorial Section makes reference to many example programs (*.s, *.err, *.sl, *.cbl, *.mf, *.cpb etc.)

Is there a website where I might download these programs as they are not included in the Visual COBOL release?

Thanks

Paul,

In order to progress this further you will need help from somebody that knows about character Dialog System. That is not me, sorry. I originally posted to provide information on how to set the environment up to allow use from the IDE. Beyond that I can't help unfortunately.

Apologies,

Gael
Paul Richards
  • Paul Richards
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  • January 30, 2018

The character based Dialog System is available with the latest Visual COBOL PE. Looking at the  Dialog System Character Mode Guide the Tutorial Section makes reference to many example programs (*.s, *.err, *.sl, *.cbl, *.mf, *.cpb etc.)

Is there a website where I might download these programs as they are not included in the Visual COBOL release?

Thanks

Gael

Many thanks for your help - I appreciate it.

Given that Micro Focus included the Dialog System with the latest release of Visual Cobol and were, presumably, assuming that it would be used (if only to move from DS to .Net/Windows forms), I find it hard to understand that they do not have DS-knowledgeable resources available to provide assistance.

Paul
Chris Glazier
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The character based Dialog System is available with the latest Visual COBOL PE. Looking at the  Dialog System Character Mode Guide the Tutorial Section makes reference to many example programs (*.s, *.err, *.sl, *.cbl, *.mf, *.cpb etc.)

Is there a website where I might download these programs as they are not included in the Visual COBOL release?

Thanks

Paul, you are confusing the GUI Dialog System with the character based Dialog System. The GUI Dialog System is designed to run under Windows and was widely used by customers. The character-based Dialog System, even in Net Express was only available in the Unix Option and it was documented as being supported in production only on Unix based systems.

Neither the GUI Dialog System nor the character-based one were available in early releases of Visual COBOL. We added them into the product because of the customer requirement to be able to run their existing native applications in Visual COBOL. We added some enhancements to the GUI Dialog System to allow for updating the GUI components to a more modern look and feel. Other than that, these should only be used to run existing applications and are not really intended for any new development. For new development, you should be looking at Windows Forms, WPF or other means.

That being said, the character-based Dialog System does work for us and we are not able to reproduce the problem that you are experiencing. If you have a maintenance contract, I would suggest that you open up a support ticket with Customer Support so we can perform some more in-depth troubleshooting of the issue.

The real questions that I have though is what is it that you really are trying to do? Do you really want to make use of the old character-based Dialog System so that you can run your application under Linux/Unix or are you looking at creating a GUI interface for use with a native COBOL application?
Paul Richards
  • Paul Richards
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  • January 31, 2018

The character based Dialog System is available with the latest Visual COBOL PE. Looking at the  Dialog System Character Mode Guide the Tutorial Section makes reference to many example programs (*.s, *.err, *.sl, *.cbl, *.mf, *.cpb etc.)

Is there a website where I might download these programs as they are not included in the Visual COBOL release?

Thanks

Chris

In answer to your original question, I replied - on 31st October, 2017 -"I have an interest in these legacy dialog systems and am wanting to do some personal development. I am aware of the more 'modern' approaches, in COBOL and C#, but I merely want to try out the Dialog System and have never had access to it before now. So, simply interest."

I don't think there was any mention in the subsequent exchanges of the character mode DS being available only in the Unix option. If there had been then a lot of wasted effort by JonS and Gael would have been avoided. If it still remains the case that it is only available under Unix, and it appears to be, from what you have said, then I have been down a cul-de-sac with no chance of ever successfully using the DS system. I'll just put it down to experience :-)

Paul

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