From: ronl@pdact.pd.necisa.oz.au (Ron Lees)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
Subject: Re: Where's my Reverse field
Date: 10 Sep 92 00:48:04 GMT
Reply-To: ronl@pdact.pd.necisa.oz.au (Ron Lees)
X-Informix-List-ID: <list.1436>

I have already mailed the following reply direct to Bruce, but given
the diversity of some of the other replies I thought post it and some
further comments as well.
There is definitely something screwy with this REVERSE attribute.

Bruce wrote:

>I have a field on a form I have specified as REVERSE, but it just comes
>up blank.  I know Informix knows about the reverse video on my terminal
>because my menus come up reverse.  In fact, I have some Informix
>executable from another person and its fields are reverse.  Does anyone
>know why this is happening?  Below is my form description file.
>
>I have tried this from the console, from an xterm, and from a vt220. 
>None work.  I am just starting out and this is my first form.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>database formonly
>screen
>{
>			Summary of Client/Matter Activity
>			
>			
>		As-of Period [a]
>				
>}
>end
>attributes
>a = formonly.begdt TYPE CHAR, REVERSE;
>end
>instructions
>delimiters "<>";
>end
>				
>
>-- 
>Bruce Momjian                      |  830 Blythe Avenue
>root%candle.uucp@bts.com           |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026 
>                                   |  (215) 353-9879(w)  853-3000(h)

To which I replied:
|WOMM (Works On My Machine :-)
|
|Bruce, I tried your form out using xterm, ansi, vt220 and vt100 on a 486
|running SCO ODT and Informix 4.00. It worked fine.
|
|However, you are using "<>" as delimiters, which is what Informix uses
|if it thinks it can't display reverse video.  So perhaps you could
|try using other delimiters and see whether you still get < > displayed.
|It doesn't solve your problem directly, but it might tell you whether
|Informix might be using some other terminal type.
|
|BTW do you have your INFORMIXTERM set to terminfo or termcap? Mine was
|set to terminfo.
|
|Good luck.

Bruce was using terminfo.


Dave Synder replied that he didn't use attributes in 4GL forms. I'd be
interested to know if his solution works. I've never used syscolatt...

}table.  Can you put attributes in the form specification file?

Sure can.

Michael Gordon <maint72@saad-emh1.ARMY.MIL> wrote:
: 
:Your form looks good with the exception of the ATTRIBUTES line a =
: 
:I don't know about using data field types in the attributes code, try
:this modification:
:


Field types can be used.


David Cortesi (cortesi@informix.com) wrote:
]> delimiters "<>";
]  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ this is your problem!!!
]> end
]
]I ran your form on the handiest thing, a Sparc, and as you say,
]the field was not reversed but plain.
]
]Then I noticed in the manual where it says, (page 4-51)
]"on terminals that do not support reverse video, fields
]having the REVERSE attribute are enclosed in angle brackets (<>)"
]
]So I thought, hmmm, wonder if 4GL is trying to use angle
]brackets, and it doesn't show because he has set angle brackets
]manually?   So I changed the form to read: delimiters "{}" and
]lo & behold! The field came up in nice reverse video!  
]
]I can't figure out if this should be called a bug or a
]documentation error! It is screwy enough for a bug, yet the
]screwiness has a certain air of logic to it, somehow...
]anybody know more?

Nope, "<>" isn't _always_ the problem. As I discovered it works fine
on my configuration, but obviously not on David's Sparc.

I tried "||" and "[]" using the same reasoning and all three forms worked OK. 

So, Informix, what's the story? It looks like the exact specification
of REVERSE with "<>" is not clear and as a result the implementation
differs across various ports.

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Ron Lees                                        rlees@pdact.pd.necisa.oz.au
Software Development Centre (Canberra)                 Voice: +61-6-2516411
NEC Information Systems Australia Pty Ltd                Fax: +61-6-2516947
PO Box 244, Belconnen ACT 2616, AUSTRALIA                  A.C.N. 002068546
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