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Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!cornell!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!cadre!pitt!cisunx!jcbst3
From: jcbst3@cisunx.UUCP (James C. Benz)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: printf, data presentation
Keywords: printf, terminals, fixed format screens
Message-ID: <14698@cisunx.UUCP>
Date: 3 Jan 89 17:39:57 GMT
References: <19@xenlink.UUCP>
Reply-To: jcbst3@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (James C. Benz)
Organization: Univ. of Pittsburgh, Comp & Info Sys
Lines: 19

In article <19@xenlink.UUCP> tony@xenlink.UUCP (Tony Field) writes:
>
>
>(I am posting this on comp.lang.c and comp.unix.wizards.  If this is
>inappropriate for either group, my mistake.)
>
>I wonder why C i/o functions - including curses - do not provide a simple
>method of accepting 'fixed format' screen input?  The following example
>illustrates the problem and also shows a simple solution.

The Perform program released by Informix with the original non-SQL non-4GL
version 3.30 does just that - you feed it a text file with the screen image
you want, and it sets up a data-entry screen for the user.  Although it
is specifically for use with Informix type data files, the concept is one
that I would also like to see in a standard library, because this package
routine often allows the user access to functions that I would prefer to
restrict (like remove of data records) and to functions that are either
confusing or superfluous to the desired application. (like Current, or
the Screen command on one-screen forms).