All, The DP2.6Y is now available for download from the site http://www.dataperfect.nl and trough this direct link http://www.dataperfect.nl/files/dp26y.zip. Lew's comments are packed in the ZIPped file as readme.txt.
Regards, Udo Tjalsma 2008/6/14 Ralph Alvy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > I have just sent Udo the latest official versions of DP, for posting on the > DP Users Web site. Here are Lew's comments about it, which he wants > distributed with those versions: > > --- Lew's message follows here --- > > Here is a new zip file that includes two versions of DataPerfect that only > differ by a single byte. The versions of DP2.6Y are DP26YI.EXE and > DP26YU.EXE, and the only difference is in the web text output for a text > field having a format suffix of ;;W – the first version surrounds underlined > text with <i> ... </i> and the second with <u> ... </u>. Those used to HTML > will note that these are the codes for italics and underline. Perhaps I > should add italics support to DP in addition to that for bold and underline, > but as an old DOS application, DataPerfect is already far beyond it's > initial goals, and adding italics would severely stress it. I think I'd > rather try to make progress on a Windows version. > > [There is a bug remaining that I wanted to fix before sending this out, but > I need your help if I am to fix it. When report output is sent to a file in > WordPerfect format, it includes a header that sets the margins. Evidently > this is not always wanted, or else it is not done correctly, or something. I > would like to fix it, but I don't know what is wanted. And we need to be > careful no to break DPSpool. Help!] > > The main purpose for DP2.6Y is to better support scripting, so it will be > more useful in web based applications and desktop application which are > driven by scripts. Scripting programs usually form a chain communicating > with STDOUT / STDIN -- "standard" output and input, so now DataPerfect will > write the output from reports to STDOUT when the report is executed within a > transaction log processed using the /EI command line option. If you are not > using this in a scripting application, you will simply see this output to > STDOUT as "printing" or "typing" to the console / display. This is quite > different from the "normal" output from a DP report. Also, a b ug was fixed > so that multiple reports can be run from a transaction log. > > [The following from Brian Hancock.] "For example if you run the DOS DIR > command at a DOS screen the output streams onto the console screen, and > after DIR has finished you can still read the output on the console. In > contrast a DP report printing to the screen only displays while DP is > executing, and is removed from the screen after you exit the report and > before DP exits. There are a couple of advantages to being able to output to > STDOUT (or the console). Firstly at present to use output from DP in another > program you first have to save it to a file in DP, and then open the file > with another program to use the data. It is currently not possible to pipe > data from one application into another. Many DOS users would be used to > piping the output from DIR to the MORE command so you can view the output a > page at a time. There are many advanced text processing tools which could be > used with DP more quickly and efficiently, such as AWK and SED, etc. The new > version allows piping to secondary processes. > A major advantage of using STDOUT for output from DP is that data can be > sent directly to a web browser or other Internet application. At present you > need to save the output from DP into a file, and then with another program > read the file and output it to the web browser. This has two problems, > firstly, there are more steps to getting data to the browser and so is > slower, and secondly, until a report finishes and DP exits nothing can be > sent to the browser, so there is often a long period of inactivty until the > web browser's screen suddenly fills with data. (users often think a problem > has occurred with this delay). Using STDOUT, output from DP reaches the web > browser screen as it is output from DP, so even a long slow DP report can > present results to the user while it is still running." > > [More later about difficulties experienced by Brian.] > There are many bug fixes, and other changes include: > the ;;W field output formatter will act on An as well as AmAn fields > > ;;W acts on all of the XML/XHTML predefined entities, & & " " ' > ' < < > > > > the ;;W transforms a single line break (carriage return) in a AxAy memo > type field to a <br /> instead of <BR> to conform more with XML and XHTML > standards. > > the ;;W transforms two consecutive line breaks in an AxAy memo field to two > line breaks <br /><br / instead of a single <p>. This also makes it more > conforming to XML and XHTML standards. > > the ;;W transforms bold markup in an AxAy field to <b>...</b> in place of > <B>...</B> to make it conform to standards. > > The Beep function is removed – and this leads us to the second area of > concern when trying to use DP as a scripting engine. > > DataPerfect uses "spin" coding while waiting for keyboard input. It does > this so that, in a network environment, it can remain "alive" and show > changes made by others. However, this uses the CPU completely and doesn't > share CPU cycles like normal Windows programs. This, or perhaps the file > locking primitives, causes the following problem experienced by Brian: > > "I have tried to get DP 2.6Y working on a Windows IIS webserver, but still > no luck. I was hoping that with the removal of BEEP functions, and > eliminating support for Hercules cards that it might not have polled > hardware as much, which was a stab in the dark I was having about why it was > not working. > The error message from Windows is "The system cannot execute the specified > program." > I can execute other DOS internal commands and even other external DOS > applications/commands successfully. > If the Windows webserver is running Apache rather than IIS, then it works. > The error message "The system cannot execute the specified program." is > generally used when an application can't find depende ncies, such as missing > DLL's etc. It can also be permission issues. Since I can run other DOS > applications in the same folder, I know I have general permissions to do > this, which now has me wondering about things like the DP.SYS file. If it > was just that DP.EXE could not find DP.SYS I would get other errors from > DP.EXE such as "Can't find DP.SYS", and since the message "The system cannot > execute the specified program." is not contained withing the DP.EXE or > DP.SYS it really does have to be coming from the operating system or IIS > itself. > This leads me a few questions. What is in DP.SYS? Does DP.EXE dynamically > load DP.SYS only when needed, or does it always load it, and does it unload > DP.SYS for other memory intensive operations. Why does DP.SYS need to be > separately loaded? > I know these are stabs in the dark about DP.SYS. Do you think there might > be other mechanisms at play. For instance I know DP has some form of phone > dialer, does it prove hardware for the presence of COM ports, or even > printer ports? > The really nice thing about getting DP to run on Windows with IIS is that > it can natively run DOS applications, and so unlike Linux/Unix/BSD, you are > not dependent firstly on loading an emulator like DOSEMU, but for commercial > hosting, the hardest thing is to find is someone who will actually install > it on their server. I have searched the world for commercial webhosters that > run Windows with Apache as that would solve many things, but alas they are a > very very rare breed, if they do at exist - I think I might find a Yeti > first. " > > I don't know what is causing Brian's problem. Do any of you? Is it the file > locking? I don't think it is DP.SYS, which is simply a file of text > fragments that is sort of an analog to the "help" file for a Windows > program. > > Perhaps I should make a special version of DP without the "spin" code. Such > a version would only check for modifications on the network when a keystroke > is pressed. It would u se DOS keystroke input and would not execute quite > the same. > > Anyway, DP2.6Y cures a lot of problems and hopefully will be very useful. > > And now, back to work! > > Lew Bastian > > _______________________________________________ > Dataperf mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.dataperfect.nl/mailman/listinfo/dataperf > -- Met vriendelijke groet, DynamiXS Ltd Udo Tjalsma DynamiXS Internet en DynamiXS Telecom zijn handelsnamen van DynamiXS Ltd A Postbus 87, 4130 EB Vianen (Ut) B Klaverkamp 21, 4133 TD Vianen (Ut) T +31 (0)88 DYNAMIX (+31 (0)88 3962649) F +31 (0)88 3962699 U http://www.dynamixs.eu E [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************* N.B.: op (de inhoud van) deze e-mail is een DISCLAIMER met belangrijke VOORBEHOUDEN van toepassing: zie http://www.dynamixs.com/index.php?id=disclaimer This e-mail and its contents are subject to a DISCLAIMER with important RESERVATIONS: see http://www.dynamixs.com/index.php?id=disclaimer *************************************************************
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