Managing screens: altering screens for DOS applications

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Altering screens for Adlib DOS applications

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In Adlib applications for DOS (so called character set mode applications) a number of screens are used, that today, in Adlib applications for Windows have become obsolete. You might still find them in your Adlib folders or in your application settings, but their functionality has now been integrated in the executable itself or somewhere in the application setup; so altering these screens has no effect.

When editing an Adlib DOS application however, it's necessary to know about these screens, and their functionality.

Unlike screens for Windows, for DOS you can edit not only edit brief display screens and tabs in the detailed display, but also the welcome screen, selection screens, and search screens. Modification of the following screens in particular should be handled with extreme care:

setup1.fmt	Selection screen for ADSETUP and DBSETUP: not used in Axiell Designer.
setup2.fmt	Setup screen for ADSETUP and DBSETUP: not used in Axiell Designer.
setup4.fmt	Setup screen for ACSETUP: not used in Axiell Designer.
link.fmt	Screen used to display available keys to a linked database.
help.fmt	Screen for displaying help texts.
control.fmt	The function key layout screen.
controlm.fmt	The shifted function key layout screen.
print.fmt	Selection screen for the output facilities.
point.fmt	Selection of pointer files.

These screens were supplied with every Adlib DOS application and cannot be used for other purposes.

Some screens were supplied with Adlib as examples; it is not compulsory to use these, but their names are reserved:

welcome.fmt	Default welcome screen.
dbselect.fmt	Default dataset menu.
acselect.fmt	Default access points menu.
search.fmt	Default search screen.
brief.fmt	Default brief display screen.

There are also a number of module-specific screens used only in individual Adlib modules (loans, acquisitions, serials). You are, of course, free to modify these, but you should take care not to alter the operation of the modules when doing so. The names of these screens are not fixed, so it is advisable to take special care when altering screens here.