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[Michael]

JDK wrote:
> So that I am clear.
>
> If you type in "8:00" it changes it to "8:00 am".
>
> It is only if one adds the "am" that one gets the weird result.

Found it. I will be updating the installers tomorrow (Friday).

Ciao, Neil

[Michael]

JDK wrote:
> Consider the following function to load a form.
>
> //Loads the Main Form function SimpleForm(integer error) dataform1 f
> string filename; filename = "C:SIMPOLFormsPayrollForm1.sxf"
> string errtext; errtext = "" f =@ opendataform1(filename,
> error=error, errortext=errtext)
>
> end function f
>
>
> If I go to Personal and open the datasource for this form as
> ppcstype1 and then open form. Then modify form and save it as
> "PayrollForm2.sxf".
>
> I now have a form that accessess the TABLE as a ppcstype1.
>
> However, the above code won't work unless I have simpolserver.smp
> running with the proper .cfg file first.
>
> Right now, I'd have to do that manually.
>
> What would the code look like to run simpolserver.smp from within
> this function.
>
> In Superbase, I could either do
>
> CALL "C:SIMPOLbinsmprun32.exe
> C:SIMPOLUtilitiessimpolserversimpolserver.smp jdk.cfg"
>
> or I could do a shellexecute and pass the command line as rncmd$
>
> What do I do in SIMPOL?

I think the more important thing to consider, is do you want to have
that code inside the application? The server would normally be running
on a completely separate machine, so trying to run it locally if you
can't find it isn't necessarily going to help. Especially if this code
is on every user's machine. Even using PPCS with Superbase, you would
have had a completely separate instance of Superbase acting as the
server somewhere. PPCS is essentially a client/server protocol for
accessing ISAM databases.

To run an external command check out !execute().

Ciao, Neil

[Michael]

JDK wrote:
> I think that there is still a problem.
>
>
> If I type in
>
> "8:00 am"
>
> it changes it to "12:00 am"
>
> Obviously, that's not what you intended.

Weird. I will have another look. Thanks.

Ciao, Neil

[Michael]

Bert Lundberg wrote:
> Sorting wiht "scaninavian" characters (åÀö���) is not correct.
>

That is not terribly surprising. The current sort order is viable for
most European languages, but as I recall, in the Scandinavian sort
order, the special characters are sorted at the end of the alphabet,
rather than inline, which unfortunately directly conflicts with the sort
order as used in other European countries. The index order that you
require can be added to the product, we would just need to define it. It
would then appear as a sorting algorithm for the indexes.

Ciao, Neil

[Michael]

JDK wrote:
> Neil Robinson wrote:
>
>> No, the source to that library is also supplied. To debug into
>> that, import the project into the addressbook project. To do this,
>> right-click on the root node of your project in the project panel.
>> Select "Import Modules from Project". Pick the appframework.smj
>> from the file picker. Now you can debug into that source code as
>> well.
>
>
> Ok, but "application.sma" has a red X through and I can't seem to
> find that any place.
>
> Once, you import the modules, I can execute the program but I cannot
> debug it at all (I am pretty sure this is because the program can't
> find "application.sma").

You're right. It is missing from the installation. I have emailed it to
you, and will be trying to put up an updated installer with all the
recent corrections by the end of the weekend.

Ciao, Neil

[Michael]

JDK wrote:
> I have figured out why the "include"setting was not working. (Which
> by the way doesn't work in any of the tutorial examples)
>
> If you take a look at Settings > and the "includes and libraries"
> tab, you'll see under the include folders
>
> C:SIMPOLinclude
>
> But this is wrong. It should be
>
> C:SIMPOLinclude
>
>
> How did I figure this out. I manually when and added the
> C:SIMPOLinclude directory WITHOUT removing what was there. When
> you do this you will see both entries and the difference the ""
> makes. Because now the projects will build properly.
>
> My bill will be in the mail. 🙂

Thanks for that. I will double-check the installer script. These have to
be adjusted after the projects are installed, so it is the installer
script at work here.

Ciao, Neil

[Michael]

JDK wrote:
> I'm looking at the Address Book example.
>
> I'm using the debugger to follow what is going on.
>
> But once you get into
>
> app.run()
>
> you are basically blind as to what is happening as functions get
> called from menu or toolbar.
>
> If I understand correctly that is because most of the "guts" of what
> is happening is being handled by the appframework.sml which we really
> can't look at.
>
> So for example, if I want to see what you are doing in
>
> checkandsave()
>
> I'm out of luck.
>

No, the source to that library is also supplied. To debug into that,
import the project into the addressbook project. To do this, right-click
on the root node of your project in the project panel. Select "Import
Modules from Project". Pick the appframework.smj from the file picker.
Now you can debug into that source code as well.

Ciao, Neil

[Michael]

JDK wrote:
> Moving on (with my work around to build)
>
> An error is through because the form (I think) can't locate the .png
> logo in drive "X:etc, etc" which is probably the name of your drive
> where the png logo was located.
>
> Presumably that .png should have been included in this directory:
>
> C:SIMPOLProjectstutorialsbairbin
>
> and "checkin.sfx" would need to be modified to point to the correct
> location of the .png
>
> Am I on the correct path?

Thinking a bit more about this, I am going to update the formlib.sml to
check the current directory if it cannot resolve the path. It already
does this when opening tables.

Ciao, Neil

[Michael]

JDK wrote:
> I am working on a sample example, that I'd like to post: :"a baby
> payroll system". (There things that still need to be "worked out" but
> that might be done as a group FORUM activity.)
>
> However, I'd like to know the protocol that's being followed.
>
> In your tutorial examples; you put the form(s) and .sbm(s) in the bin
> directory under the project in question.
>
> What I have been doing is creating two directories C:SIMPOLData
> where I put all the .sbm files and C:SIMPOLForms where I put all
> the .sfx files.

That might be ok if you only have one project on your system. What I
tend to do is create a directory for a project. Then if that project has
multiple sub-projects (see the Projectsssp directory), I then place
each project in that directory. If there is only one code project, then
I put everything required in that projects bin directory. Otherwise, I
create a secondary bin directory below the main project directory, as
well as an include and a lib directory, and I put things that are
project-specific into those directories.

By using this approach, I can move a project and all its important
pieces around as a unit without worrying about missing something.

> Obviously, everybody can program the way they want. But it might be
> nice to have a "standard" way of doing things, to facilitate the flow
> of learning. Since this is a "new thing", it might be useful for the
> Forum and/or SIMPOL LTD to agree on the way things normal should be
> done. E.g., where do you normally put the forms and the data.
>
> As another organizational method, I follow something similar to the
> SBAIR example.
>
> I have the ProgramName.sma but which includes only function main()
> function quit()
>
> Then, I have
>
> MainForm.sma SecondaryForm.sma (This is how I'm handing the
> deficiencies of the current detailblock) Menu.sma ToolBar.sma
>
> Then, so that I can follow the functions better I have an sma for
> each Menu, e.g.
>
> FileMenuFunctions.sma EditMenuFunctions.sma ViewMenuFunctions.sma
> SortByMenuFunctions.sma NavigationMenuFunctions.sma
>
> Since all form buttons or toolbaritems have a corresponding menu
> equivalent. These functions handle the function whether it is called
> from the menu, the toolbar, or a form button.
>
> There is quite a bit of rummaging around (at least for me) in the
> SBAIR example to find out how the functionality is working. My way
> sort of cuts down on this for me. I sometimes have trouble following
> my own code much less code from somebody else.
>
> Guidance? Suggestions? Thoughts?

In the SBAir example, all the functions from the menu would best be
loacted in the menu sma, but I think they are not, yet. All the toolbar
code is in the toolbar.sma, except the code for the tool bar combos,
which is in the tbcombos.sma. Much of the real working code is, of
course, in the appframework project.

If you have a really huge menu, it might be useful to break things up
the way that you describe. I think that this will end up being an issue
of personal choice, really.

Ciao, Neil

[Michael]

JDK wrote:
> Moving on (with my work around to build)
>
> An error is through because the form (I think) can't locate the .png
> logo in drive "X:etc, etc" which is probably the name of your drive
> where the png logo was located.
>
> Presumably that .png should have been included in this directory:
>
> C:SIMPOLProjectstutorialsbairbin
>
> and "checkin.sfx" would need to be modified to point to the correct
> location of the .png
>
> Am I on the correct path?

Goodness. Thanks for that. Yes, the png path probably needs to be
removed so that it looks in the current directory. I will adjust the
sample and update the installer. It also is strange that it is not
finding the errors.sma and uisyshelphdr.sma if the correct include path
is present.

Ciao, Neil

[Michael]

Anthony Brea wrote:
> I haven't purchased SIMPOL yet, but I am considering it.
>
> I see the licensing comes from SIMPOL Limited. Is there a way where
> SIMPOL Limited's involvement is kept transparent from my client?

Not sure what you mean. You purchase the development environment from
Simpol Limited, and potentially for deployment multi-user database
engine licenses (with the installation software). There is no license
required for the single-user engine, and no license for the standard
runtime components.

> I also notice mention of "trial limited" or "time limited" use of
> SIMPOL. Who decides the time or feature limits?

The time limit is for the development environment. It does not time
limit the programs that are created.

Ciao, Neil

[Michael]

Bert Lundberg wrote:
> I have installed the last version of Simpol Professional and try
> again to import CSV files in Simpol Personal. First I test with the
> same file as in the earlier version. The textfile has 17468 records.
> When the progress dialog leave after 145 sec. Simpol Personal hang up
> and only Alt+Ctrl+Delete will close the program. After restart the
> imported file is ok. 145 sec. is very slow, in Superbase Ver 2.1,
> import av the same file take less than 3 sec. inclusive modifying
> fieldnames A, B, C…. to real names.
>
> The other testfile has only 19 records. Simpol Personal hang up after
> import and after restart, the table is empty.
>

Hi Bernd,

The initial import/export library has been written in SIMPOL, rather
than in C. String parsing is a processing-intensive process. We fully
intend at a later stage to implement the import/export filters in C, but
for now we have to use the ones written in SIMPOL. If you are importing
from Superbase, there is now a faster tool that directly reads in SBF
files. Please check the new Quick Start Guide handbook. We are not happy
about the import speed, but took the view that importing data is a much
rarer occasion than other things that we needed to place a priority on.

Can you send me the 19 record table so that I can test the problem here?

Ciao, Neil

[Michael]

Eddie Hann wrote:
> Thank you Neil for that information.
>
> I was expecting that it might be a very large program, but if your
> estimation is near the mark, the download shouldn't take very long at
> all.
>
> Could I be so forward as to enquire when the stand-alone product
> might become available?

Eddie,

We are still deciding that. SIMPOL Personal as a standalone end-user
product will probably need a lot more to make it interesting for that
market, such as wizards, templates, etc. That is still a bit down the
road. At the moment it is already useful for creating databases, forms,
and doing some basic reporting, plus import and export.

Ciao, Neil

[Michael]

Eddie Hann wrote:
> Hello
>
> I was wondering when Simpol Personal is released, whether it will be
> available in DVD (Boxed) form, or if it will only be by download?
>
> If by download, what size file will it be (Approximately)?
>
> Thanking you in anticipation of reply

Hi Eddie,

SIMPOL Personal is currently available as part of SIMPOL Professional.
When it is finally released as a standalone product, it will be a
download (at least in the early days). I would not expect it to exceed
10MB in size.

Ciao, Neil

[Michael]

Neil Robinson wrote:
> JDK wrote:
>> I think the bug is actually worse. Don't have time to document
>> fully, but if you change the display format to 24 hour (i.e.
>> uncheck am/pm) (and you can make it apply – there is a different
>> bug here noted below) and then enter a time in pm format using "pm"
>> (e.g. "12:42 pm") the whole thing shuts down.
>
> I will have a look. This is all from the code in the date library,
> time library amd db1util actually, all of which are supplied in
> source. The functions are val2string(), fieldval2string(),
> string2fieldval(), etc.

I had a look at this, and it turned out to be a problem in the
assigntimeval() function. I have fixed this and checked it with a number
of different time values, so it should be ok now. It will be part of the
imminent release.

>> When trying to modify table and changing display format, you won't
>> always get OK or DISPLAY buttons (they remain disabled) until you
>> change the field to indexed (and back to not indexed if you don't
>> actually want the field to be indexed but just want to change the
>> display format.)
>
> Hmmm. That sounds like the problem is that the oncellchange is not
> firing until after you leave the cell where you made the data type
> selection. I will have a look.

I looked at this, although you may select a new value in a combo in the
grid, or enter data in the edit control in a grid position, the
oncellchange event does not fire until the edit control is exited, or in
the case of the combo box, until focus is placed on another cell.

Ciao, Neil

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