Is anyone out there currently using VB to put a GUI onto a
mainframe text-based application?  I am having some success using a
product called QuickApp from DCA, but am looking for other people to
swap ideas with.  Are there any other reasonably high-level comm
libraries available that might also do the job?

I am currently putting together a screen-scraper program ... er, GUI front
end.  I am basically rolling my own using HLLAPI API calls -- I don't know
 if that qualifies as "reasonably high-level" or not.  However, I need async
dial-up access and the product already in place here (we are using a Renex
protocol box and their proprietary product Rlink for Window) has the
HLLAPI there.

We will undoubtedly be re-tooling the mainframe to make the data passing
easier to manage.  I am also starting to sniff around APPC availability
as that seems to be the "wave of the future" but do not yet know if the
tools are in place to support that in our environment.

How high-level is QuickApp?  Does it support async?

I would enjoy hearing about what you are up to.
Charlie Stevens                    

Compu$erve:  75673,1216               cannot be distinguished from magic."

Hi Darren,

I'me currently using Affinity Visual from Bull to put a GUI on
our Bull mainframe screens. The mainframe is a water-cooled
DPS9000 running GCOS8, TP8 monitor delivering DKU7107 emulation
to the screens.

Affinity interfaces to VB via a set of DLL's and a VBX.

I'd be delighted to swap ideas with you.

What's your platform and what are the objectives of your
'screen scrape'?

Seamus Shortall
Systems Analyst
Office of the Revenue Commissioners
Dublin, Ireland

: Is anyone out there currently using VB to put a GUI onto a
: mainframe text-based application?  I am having some success using a
: product called QuickApp from DCA, but am looking for other people to
: swap ideas with.  Are there any other reasonably high-level comm
: libraries available that might also do the job?

Try Attachmate's VB Add-On.  I don't have their number, but from my
experience that is the most popular tool for screen scraping on the market.

Brad
________________________________________________________________________
                           Bradley S. Murray
 Princeton Computer Consulting, Inc.      Phone: (609) 799-5300
 20 Lorrie Lane  Box 7345                   Fax: (609) 275-5651

I use a terminal emulator called Rumba from Wall Dataand its accompanying
set of HLLAPI APIs to put a GUI on mainframe.  Another similar product I
have seen is Attachmate from Irma.

I find that GUI programs built this way are difficult to maintain, and
there are many more ways for things to go wrong. For instance, the
network connection may suddenly fail, or the mainframe takes too long,
causing problems related to timing.

DCA and Attachmate have just 'merged'. It sounds a little more like a takeover by Attachmate
to me, I'm not sure what the new name is though.

Tony.

We are not doing exactly this, but something else, that might interest you.
If your mainframe text-based application is not complex, and if the
World-Wide Web (i.e. Mosaic) is an acceptable frontend, you might
look at http://www.inf.ethz.ch/department/IS/ea/tsp/tsp.html

Basically, we are putting an intermediary between an information-system
with a text-based user-interface and any Web-browser, so that browser can
access the text-based information system.
Of course, the provider of the text-based information system has to describe
his interface.

Louis Perrochon

--

Institut fuer Informationssysteme, ETH Zurich, Switzerland ++41 1 632 7282
URL: http//www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/perrocho/louis.html