Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!pioneer!pstevens
From: pstevens@pioneer.arpa (Paul Stevens RCE Sterling)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: re: FMS
Keywords: FMS, SMG
Message-ID: <5050@ames.arpa>
Date: 22 Feb 88 17:14:10 GMT
Sender: usenet@ames.arpa
Reply-To: pstevens@pioneer.UUCP (Paul Stevens RCE Sterling)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Lines: 20


 
Having used both of SMG and FMS to create `window-like' applications I
figure it's time to throw my two cents in...

FMS based applications which use the basic type of windows (highlighted
options, scrolled display, field entry) are definitely less work to 
develop than the equivalent display in SMG.  That is to say that there are
more things to be handled by the SMG code.  Another plus to FMS based
applications is that often changes to the forms (layout, style, language)
can be made without any change to the code.

The down side to FMS is that since it is not standard with VMS the
resulting code may not be portable to some site later on.  (Wouldn't
it be nice if you paid for FMS development license, but the run-time
i/f was included in VMS).

For fancier applications (like the drop down menu's mentioned earlier)
I think SMG may be the only choice.  I'm not sure but I also think that
SMG may be better at handling different types of terminals.