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TRAFFIC-20.DOC -- CHANGES FROM V2A TO V4
February 1984
COPYRIGHT (C) 1978, 1981, 1984 BY
DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION, MAYNARD, MASS.
THIS SOFTWARE IS FURNISHED UNDER A LICENSE AND MAY BE USED AND COPIED
ONLY IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TERMS OF SUCH LICENSE AND WITH THE
INCLUSION OF THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICE. THIS SOFTWARE OR ANY OTHER
COPIES THEREOF MAY NOT BE PROVIDED OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE TO ANY
OTHER PERSON. NO TITLE TO AND OWNERSHIP OF THE SOFTWARE IS HEREBY
TRANSFERRED.
THE INFORMATION IN THIS SOFTWARE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE
AND SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED AS A COMMITMENT BY DIGITAL EQUIPMENT
CORPORATION.
DIGITAL ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE USE OR RELIABILITY OF ITS
SOFTWARE ON EQUIPMENT WHICH IS NOT SUPPLIED BY DIGITAL.
TRAFFIC-20 V4 DOCUMENTATION Page 2
TRAFFIC-20 -- Changes from V2A to V4 FEBRUARY 1984
1.0 SUMMARY
TRAFFIC-20 is a system of subroutines and utilities which allow a
program to use TOPS20's IPCF facilities and which allow a program to
interface with a VT100 terminal in a forms filling manner.
This release of TRAFFIC-20 contains a number of major enhancements
over the previous version (Version 2A). The new version number is 4
in order to avoid confusion with preliminary local releases of
TRAFFIC-20 in Europe.
These notes provide a summary of the new features and installation of
TRAFFIC-20 and list any incompatibilities with previous versions. The
major enhancements are the addition of full VT100 support, an overall
revision of screen handling, in-line data validation, and support for
the use of TRAFFIC-20 with MACRO and FORTRAN. Note that TRAFFIC-20
provides no IPCF support for FORTRAN.
2.0 CHANGES TO THE PREVIOUS VERSION
o The data file produced by TFR has a different format from
that of the previous version. This means that in order to
use the new TFRCOB with an existing form, the old form
description file must be recompiled with TFR.
o The new TFRCOB is slightly larger than the previous version
and now has a high-segment of approximately 11 pages.
o The use of COBOL version 11 or earlier is no longer
supported, and the version of COBOL must be at least 12.
o Numeric fields return a leading sign instead of trailing
overpunched. If the default field description has been used
(from the Record Description File), then no problems will be
encountered since COBOL can determine the format during a
conversion from DISPLAY-7 to COMPUTATIONAL.
o Alpha-numeric fields do not accept punctuation characters.
The field type must be changed to ANY-CHARACTER in order to
achieve this. ANY-CARACTER is the default.
TRAFFIC-20 V4 DOCUMENTATION Page 3
3.0 KNOWN BUGS AND DEFICIENCIES
There are no known bugs with any of the TRAFFIC-20 components.
The following restrictions should be noted:
o The data file produced by TFR has a different format from
that of the previous version. This means that in order to
use the new TFRCOB with an existing form, the old form
description file must be recompiled with TFR.
o The FULL and NO-AUTO-TAB attributes should not be applied to
the same field.
o The TALL attribute must only be applied to fields which are
PROTECTED.
o IPCF does not work with FORTRAN.
4.0 INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
The installation instructions for Version 4 of TRAFFIC-20 are similar
to those for Version 2A. The user needs to have the following files
available in order to use TRAFFIC-20.
TFR.EXE -- Forms compilation utility
TFRCOB.REL -- Screen formating subroutines
IP20.REL -- IPCF message routing subroutines
DUMVET.REL -- Data Vetting routines
These files are built using the batch stream TRAFFIC-20.CTL. They
should be copied into the SYS: area or some other library area
available to all potential users. This control file also contains
information which should be read before it is submitted.
TRAFFIC-20 V4 DOCUMENTATION Page 4
5.0 INTERNAL CHANGES
5.1 IP20 CHANGES
o IP20 messages are now displayed in lowercase.
o All corrections issued since the release of TRAFFIC-20
Version 2A have been made to IP20.
6.0 NEW FEATURES IN TRAFFIC-20
The following sections describe the new features which have been added
to TRAFFIC-20. Where noted, some of these features are available only
to users with VT100 terminals and have no effect on the VT52.
6.1 TFR Features
o All messages from TFR are now in lower case.
o More information is presented in the summary and record
description files. In particular, the name of the original
form description file and the date of compilation have been
added to the header. Also, an 01 level form data area name
has been added to COBOL format record description files.
o The form file specification may contain wildcards in order to
ease the compilation of a large number of forms. Also, the
file specification may now be edited with any of the standard
editing characters - Control-U, Control-W, or Delete. Note
that Escape has no effect here.
o The file type of the Record Description file determines the
language used when writing the file. .FOR produces a FORTRAN
compatible file which will always have word-aligned field
data, .MAC produces a MACRO compatible file, and all other
file types produce COBOL compatible files.
TRAFFIC-20 V4 DOCUMENTATION Page 5
6.2 Major Changes To TFRCOB
o All messages from TFRCOB are now in lower case.
o A screen optimizer has been added which has the job of
finding the best way in which to update the screen. The
update takes place from top to bottom, left to right. This
improves the visual effect of repainting the screen and
reduces the number of characters sent to the terminal. This
latter effect reduces the loading on the front-end processor.
o The VT100 family of terminals is fully supported. This
allows the use of all the video attributes, including tall
and wide characters, 132 column mode, alternate character
sets, and a scrolling region.
o The implementation of a help function.
o TFRCOB will display the form on a terminal other than the
controlling terminal for the job. This can be done either by
defining a logical name which describes the terminal to be
used (VT100 or VT52), or by defining a general logical name
and passing this to TFRCOB in a call to TFRSTP (see below).
o TFRCOB may be called from FORTRAN or MACRO programs. In the
case of FORTRAN, the form data file must be word aligned.
This will happen either when the WORD-ALIGNED attribute is
used (see below), or when the record description file has a
type .FOR. In order to simplify the use of MACRO programs, a
universal file (TFRCAL.UNV) is supplied which defines
argument block definition macros, calling macros, and error
and termination codes.
o The handling of subfields has been rewritten. Subfields will
be filled and justified as required when either the subfield
is filled by the operator or a valid separator is typed.
Characters are checked on entry to ensure that they are of
the correct type (ALPHABETIC, NUMERIC, etc.) and the
subfields of DATE and TIME fields are validated as they are
completed. Also, fields may be defined with non-standard
subdivisions (see the DESCRIPTOR command below).
TRAFFIC-20 V4 DOCUMENTATION Page 6
6.3 Special Characters
The VT100 does not have colored keys as does the VT52. These have
been replaced by the function keys PF1, PF2, and PF3. The translation
is as follows:
Blue - PF1 - backup one field. Red - PF2 - backup to the beginning of
the section. Black - PF3 - rewrite the screen.
The following new special keys are also handled:
o Control-P - this causes the screen to be copied to the file
or device with the logical name TFRLPT:. This is useful for
compiling reports, demonstrations, or training manuals. If
the logical name is not defined, this character is illegal.
o Control-W - erases the current field. This is similar to PF1
(Blue key) in that it will cause the current field to be
reread if data was already present.
o PF4 - causes the help message defined for the field to be
displayed on the error line. If no help is available, this
will be indicated.
o Query (?) - has the same effect as PF4.
TRAFFIC-20 V4 DOCUMENTATION Page 7
6.4 Form-wide Commands
o CHARACTER-SET - defines a character set to be used for the
whole form. This may be US, UK, ALTERNATE, or GRAPHIC. (The
GRAPHIC character set is switched off for the error line.)
This is only applicable to the VT100 series.
o E-ATTRIBUTES - allows video attributes to be defined for the
error line. These may be BOLD, BLINKING, UNDERSCORE, or
REVERSE. This is only applicable to the VT100 series.
o F-ATTRIBUTES - allows the whole screen to be defined as
NORMAL-VIDEO or REVERSE-VIDEO. This is applicable only to
the VT100 series.
o HIGHEST-SECTION-NUMBER - specifies the maximum section number
which can be used in the form definition. This affects the
final structure of the form data file. The absolute maximum
section number is 360, and the default is 72.
o SIZE - specifies the maximum screen area that will be used by
the form. Any field which would extend beyond this area will
be truncated at run time.
o TERMINALS-ALLOWED - specifies which of ALL, VT52, VT100, or
VT132 may be used by the the application program. VT132
implies a VT100 terminal with the Advanced Video Option, and
will be used in 132 column mode if specified alone.
o WORD-ALIGNED - forces the field data to start on word
boundaries. This is required for application programs
written in FORTRAN.
TRAFFIC-20 V4 DOCUMENTATION Page 8
6.5 Section Specific Commands
o HIDDEN-FIELD - causes the whole section of which the field is
a member to become HIDDEN. These sections will not be
displayed until read or written specifically by a section
read or write (TFRRD or TFRWRT). Any number of HIDDEN
sections may occupy the same area of the screen and only one
is displayed at a time. This allows parts of the screen to
be logically overlaid.
o MULTIPLE - defines a scrolling region on the screen. This is
only available on VT100 terminals. The region acts as a
window into a larger array of data which may have up to 99
elements. A MULTIPLE section may contain up to 16 fields,
one of which must be an INDEX-FIELD. This acts as a pointer
into the data array and is useful both to the operator and
the application program. Only one MULTIPLE section is
allowed.
o NO-INIT - is a synonym for HIDDEN-FIELD above.
TRAFFIC-20 V4 DOCUMENTATION Page 9
6.6 Field Specific Commands
o ALLOW-LOWERCASE - allows lowercase characters to be entered
into an ALPHABETIC or ALPHANUMERIC field.
o ANY-CHARACTER - specifies that the field will accept any
printing character as input.
o AUTO-TAB - specifies that when the field is filled the cursor
will move to the next available field. This is the default
condition.
o BLINKING - is applicable only to the VT100 terminals fitted
with the Advanced Video Option and specifies that the field
will flash when displayed.
o BOLD - specifies that the field will be displayed at above
normal brightness. This is applicable only to VT100
terminals fitted with the Advanced Video Option.
o DATA-VET - specifies for the field a data vetting subroutine
which will be used to verify the data or to perform some
other operation with the data (for example, column addition,
extended help, etc.).
o DESCRIPTOR - defines the format of the field in a manner
similar to the PICTURE clause in COBOL. The "picture"
implies both length and type for the subfields defined.
o ECHO - is the default case for all fields and allows data
entered by the operator to be displayed on the screen as it
is entered.
o HELP - specifies a single line help message that will be
displayed on the error line when the PF4 key (on the VT100)
or the query (?) key is pressed.
o NO-AUTO-TAB - specifies that when the field is filled a TAB
must still be pressed before the cursor can move to the next
field.
o NO-ECHO - this prevents data from being echoed on the screen.
This is useful for secure information such as passwords etc.
o NO-RENDITION - indicates that the field will be displayed at
normal brightness, white on black, not blinking, and not
underlined. This is the default condition and is the only
possible condition for a VT52.
o NORMAL-VIDEO - is synonymous with NO-RENDITION above.
o RAISE-LOWERCASE - is the default case for all fields. This
specifies that all alphabetic characters will be translated
to uppercase on entry.
TRAFFIC-20 V4 DOCUMENTATION Page 10
o REVERSE-VIDEO - causes a field to be displayed black on white
(unless the screen is in reverse video). This is only
applicable to VT100 terminals.
o SAME-AS - allows fields to be copied or duplicated in other
parts of the form without having to re-enter all the
information again. Only the field name is not copied.
o SECURE - this is a synonym for NO-ECHO above.
o SIGNED - allows a leading sign to be entered into a numeric
field. This is the default case for MONEY fields.
o TALL - causes the field to be displayed in double-height,
double-width mode when used on a VT100. A VT52 will display
two identical fields on consecutive lines.
o TEXT commands - The TEXT commands specify the VALUE,
POSITION, and ATTRIBUTES for protected title or descriptive
text which is associated with the field. This text cannot be
changed by the application program but reduces the number of
fields which need to be defined in the form.
o TIME - specifies that the field will be divided into two or
three 2-digit numeric subfields. The data entered will be
verified to ensure that only legal times are allowed.
o UNDERLINED - specifies that the field will be displayed with
an underline below each character. This is applicable only
to VT100 terminals.
o UNDERSCORE - is a synonym for UNDERLINED above.
o VALUE "TODAY" - when used with a DATE field causes the field
to become PREVIOUS-DUPE and to be initialized with the
current date when displayed.
o VET-NUMBER - this is a synonym for DATA-VET above.
o VIDEO-ATTRIBUTES - specifies the attributes which will be
applied to the field. These may be BLINKING, BOLD,
REVERSE-VIDEO, UNDERSCORE, TALL or WIDE. This command is
only applicable to the VT100 terminals.
o WIDE - causes the field to be displayed in double-width mode.
This is applicable only to the VT100 terminals.
TRAFFIC-20 V4 DOCUMENTATION Page 11
6.7 Copying Commands
o INCLUDE - may be placed between fields anywhere in the form
definition file and causes secondary definition files to be
included in the form at that point. This saves duplicating
the work done in defining areas common to a number of forms
and makes the alteration of such areas easier.
o SAME-AS - this is described above.
TRAFFIC-20 V4 DOCUMENTATION Page 12
6.8 New TFRCOB Routines
o TFRBLK - provides a simple method of clearing the screen
without changing the state of any of the fields which were
displayed. The screen can be restored by using TFRRWT. This
is useful when the application program, or a DATA-VET
subroutine, needs to display large amounts of data.
o TFRGET - enables FORTRAN and MACRO programs to easily access
non word aligned data.
o TFRPUT - enables FORTRAN and MACRO programs to easily change
non word aligned data.
o TFRRSL - reads a line of data from the screen. This is
useful when copies of areas of the screen are required (for
reports and demonstrations etc.)
o TFRSTA - allows FORTRAN and MACRO programs to be restarted.
It also provides a method of passing the logical name of the
terminal to be used to TFRCOB.
o TFRSTP - is required at the end of all programs which call
TFRSTA. It clears the screen, resets the terminal, and frees
any allocated memory.
o TFRWTL - causes a copy of the screen to be sent to a file or
device with the logical name TFRLPT:.
o INPDAT - converts the various date formats into a 5-digit
ASCII (or DISPLAY-7) number which is the number of days since
1-Jan-1900. This simplifies date comparisons and can reduce
the space required in data files.
o OUTDAT - converts from the 5-digit date format described
above into the standard date formats.
TRAFFIC-20 V4 DOCUMENTATION Page 13
7.0 LOCAL LANGUAGE IMPLEMENTATIONS
TFRCOB may display a number of messages during the completion of a
form. By default these messages are in English. The default language
may be changed by setting the parameter FT%LAN in the parameter file.
Values for the languages included are as follows:
0 English
1 French
2 German
8.0 SUGGESTIONS
The user should install the four modules, TFRCOB.REL, IP20.REL,
DUMVET.REL, TFR.EXE in the <SUBSYS> area when checkout has been
completed in order that all users can have access to them.
[END of TRAFFIC-V4.DOC]