Re: Where do I start?

Hmm a full screen contact list.

Heh heh,  that's something I started awhile ago, there are many pieces to
it.

A  full screen "contact list", actually has two big components / hurdles to
over come :

1) The  file handling

2)  The full screen stuff

If you don't know Cobol or any other language, that's another hurdle in
itself.

With #1, you can either use  "flat files" and cobble up your own indexing /
"database" system, or use VSAM with one of it's native "keyed" methods..

So you might start with just a simple flat file app.   The file  reading,
 positioning , scanning etc.syntax will vary with different languages.  You
might look into how Fortran does files, as you're already familiar with the
language.

For something simple  just reading the whole file into memory / arrays is
the simplest, then writing out the whole file, to a new file.  Not elegant,
but simple to start with.

The next step up might be to look into VSAM files

http://www.jaymoseley.com/hercules/vstutor/vstutor.htm

If you install Jay's vsam "patch" for Cobol, that will get access to VSAM,
he has some example programs you can work from too:

<http://www.jaymoseley.com/hercules/vstutor/vstutor.htm>
http://www.jaymoseley.com/hercules/compiling/vscobol.htm

<http://www.jaymoseley.com/hercules/compiling/vscobol.htm>Once you have the
file handling working,  there are four options that I know of for adding the
full screen stuff :

1) Manually

http://tommysprinkle.com/mvs/P3270/index.htm

This program will display the "buffer address", that you can then plug into
your data stream
http://tommysprinkle.com/mvs/P3270/input.htm
<http://tommysprinkle.com/mvs/P3270/index.htm>
2) http://tommysprinkle.com/mvs/fsi/index.htm
    "FSI" is suposed to be a full screen helper app.  I couldn't get it to
compile,  but others may have it working

3) http://home.gci.net/~mike-noel/KICKS/   Kicks for the Turnkey.

    I installed this, and ran the examples, but didn't get too far with
being able to compile my own screens / programs.

4) http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/CedarLakeEmporium/    Cedar Lake
 "Map3270" program.

 This is the most "polished" of the 3270 stuff I've found   It has a nice
setup program, and decent documentation and Ed is very helpful in his forum.

Mike

On Sun, May 23, 2010 at 3:43 PM, Ron Hudson <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
> Hey everyone,
>
> Time for the next great leap forward!  I want to write a simple full screen
> application..
>
> One that keeps a contact list perhaps....
>
> What language would be best for this?
>
> I am guessing Cobol as I have heard it associated with
> full screen apps.
>
> Ron
>  
>