Question about MF Panels and Dialog...
Go for the Dialog System, I you _have_ to do it i Cobol. We have tried out
DS for sone time now, and it works, but is hard to use, and even if
Micro-Focus calls it version 2.5, I would call it beta. The programs it
creates works fine nevertheless, so my "bad feelings" are all about
the development environment, not the programs it creates.
Except for printers, you can do w/o knowing anything about Windows API.
The printing is documented in the MF-file PRINT.DOC, and is no problem
at all.
We have decided not to use Dialog System, and are in the process of
giving up our Cobol-code and use Delphi. It will take some time before
we get there, but after writing the first program I'm confident I made
the right decision.
So once again: If you absolutely have to do it in Cobol: Use Dialog System.
If not, then go for another programming language.
And the royalties: No fees for programs written in Dialog System. But
if you calls Panels directly from your program: Royalties! And if you
use the Toolset or OSX ( Operating System eXtensions) : Royalties!
All royalty information is for Denmark only, and are provided with
no warranty for accuracy of any kind, but should be valid for Europe. For
complete details you should contact MicroFocus.
All the above views are those of mine and my company. Anyone can have them
if they want.
: >I'm quite new to the pc COBOL arena - my experience in COBOL is on VAX/VMS. I
: >have the opportunity to participate in a programming project which entails
: >writing a program(s) for another company to distribute with their own product
: >line. The program will be initially written for MS Windows, then eventually
: >for other platforms. I've been looking into using Panels to overcome my lack
: >of knowledge of the Windows API - but have found that I would owe a royalty to
: >Micro Focus in order to ship a program that contained calls to Panels... I
: >have also just started looking at Dialog - having just recently requested some
: >product information. So, after this rather lengthy introduction... what would
: >you pc COBOL programmers recommend? Has anyone dealt with MF on royalties? If
: >I were to use Dialog, does that require a royalty? Is there a fairly
: >straight-forward way to understand the Windows API? What would you recommend
: >to help a non-Windows programmer (at least not yet ;) ) get started with
: >Windows programming? Any/all advice is appreciated. Thanks...
: As far as I am aware, there is no royalty payable for applications created using
: Dialog System (provided you don't make calls to Panels2 as well). If you have a
: copy of our COBOL product, then take a look at wincalc.cbl if you want an idea of
: Windows API programming in COBOL.
