Re: [open-cobol-list] Screen section under htcobol vs. cobc.

[john Culleton]

On Wed, 8 Feb 2012 12:15:16 -0500 john Culleton
<address@hidden> wrote:

> The program below is taken from the test.prog/test23
> subdirectory of the tiny-cobol 66 files. It compiles and runs
> under htcobol with no problems (to be expected.) It compiles
> and runs via Open Cobol only with modifications:


After further experimentation I find that I cannot reconcile this
program with the requirements of cobc. It just works differently. 

There is another way to achieve a user interface. Whereas the
implementations of the Screen Section vary wildly, another Open
Source program, Tcl/Tk, is pretty constant in its requirements.
And it allows for radio buttons and the like without elaborate
special programming. 

Tiny Cobol has an example of a C language interface to a Tcl/Tk
program. But there are two simpler approaches. A master screen
written in Tcl/Tk with radio buttons can select one of a series
of Cobol programs for execution. This replaces without pain all
those programs we have written over the years to do the same
thing. Yes, I wrote one in RM Cobol years ago. 

For the program that calls one or more screens for data entry the
program hierarchy can be reversed. A Tcl/Tk program can be called
via a "system" call and the data stored in a one line file to be
read right after the call. 

Both Tiny and OC can use the same screens without modification.
I will work up some examples and post them. 

John Culleton