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 DESQview 2.0 API Tools  QuarterDeck 01.10.88

Набор инструментальных средств для разработки программ, совместимых с DesqView 2.0. Включает в себя ряд утилит и интерфейсные библиотеки для ASM/C/TP.
Using the DESQview 2.0 API, a program can use all the DESQview 2.0 menu functions available to the user as well as the power-packed capabilities built into DESQview--multitasking, windowing, intertask communications, mailboxes, shared programs, memory management, mousing, data transfer, menu-building, and help.



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Introducing DESQview 2.0 API Tools Bringing new power to DOS. For us, it's an unveiling of pleasure. In the DESQview 2.0 view of the world there are three kinds of DOS programs. There's the DESQview-oblivious program, such as 1-2-3 or AutoCAD, written with no consideration of DESQview, but still compatible with DESQview. There's the DESQview-aware program. It has been modified slightly so that it runs efficiently in DESQview and concurrently with other programs. Paradox, dBASEIII, and WordPerfect are DESQview-aware. Then there's the DESQview-specific program, like the DESQview Datebook. It's written to take advantage of DESQview's power. We've kept the knowledge of how to write DESQview-specific programs under wraps too long. But if you look closely, you'll discover DESQview 2.0 behind ICL North America's point of sale system, MCI International's communication workstation, and Strawberry Software's market research program, A-Cross, to name only a few. For you, a cornucopia of treasure. Hidden deep inside DESQview 2.0 is a powerful API (Application Program Interface) that lets programs control and interact with DESQview and with other programs running in DESQview. For MIS and DP departments building workstation solutions, the DESQview 2.0 API provides enormous benefits. For it brings OS/2 capabilities (and even OS/2 look and feel if desired) to DOS. Using the DESQview 2.0 API, a program can use all the DESQview 2.0 menu functions available to the user as well as the power-packed capabilities built into DESQview--multitasking, windowing, intertask communications, mailboxes, shared programs, memory management, mousing, data transfer, menu-building, and help. So DOS programs can now act alone or together. Either within a window or hidden behind one, they can do chores in silence or in chorus, all the while utilizing the full power of DESQview, all the while bringing you treasures you only dreamed 'til now were possible. The inner power of DESQview A program taking advantage of the DESQview 2.0 API can display information in windows and control the color, dimensions, position and ordering of windows on the screen. It can disable, limit or enhance the standard DESQview user interface. Which means that you can have DESQview-like menus in your program. Or menu bars and pull-down menus. Or IBM SAA-like menus. It can let DESQview handle all keyboard and mouse input to menus and forms--yet still process keyboard and mouse input directly when necessary. It can schedule processing after a certain time interval or at a certain time. It can spawn subtasks for performing background operations such as printing, recalculating, and communicating. It can communicate between the various tasks in the system. Multitasking DESQview supports true multitasking of existing DOS programs in addition to programs written specifically for DESQview. So a user can run multiple programs (Lotus 1-2-3, dBASE III and others) and DESQview-specific programs (DESQview Datebook, Calculator, your own program) concurrently. So a user can switch to whichever program needs input and switch away while the program recalculates or sorts in background. Under DESQview, each program runs in its own "virtual machine", thinking it has exclusive access to DOS, the keyboard, etc. DESQview calls these virtual machines "processes". DESQview calls the portion of a process that keeps track of which instruction to execute next and what the register contents are a "task" (or "thread"). Every program running under DESQview consists, initially, of a single process running a single task. DESQview-specific programs may create additional tasks within their own processes and additional processes. Additional tasks allow a portion of your program, the part that controls the printer for example, to be run in background. Additional processes allow whole new programs to be loaded and run concurrently. Presentation Management Because DESQview lets you run more than one program at a time, DESQview provides a way to view more than one program at a time on the screen. DESQview does this by mapping each program into its own "window" and by managing the display of multiple windows on the screen. To DESQview, windows are rectangular areas of displayable information. They may be moved, resized, colored, and reordered by either the user or by your program. Everything that is displayed on the screen under DESQview is displayed in a window. Multiple windows are not only useful for displaying several programs simultaneously, but may also be used within a single program to display menus, help screens, error messages. DESQview provides facilities for storing complete descriptions of such windows, (known by DESQview as "panels"), on disk or in your program and displaying them with a single call to the API. These panels may be as simple as one-line error messages or as complex as data entry forms with multiple-choice and data entry fields. Once a panel has been displayed, your program can ask DESQview's "field manager" to process all user input to the panel including mousing and data entry editing. The field manager returns the results to your program in a simple, field-oriented format, independent of the appearance of the panel. The use of panels and the field manager not only simplifies the job of programming an application, but gives a consistency to the user interface that makes the learning of new applications easier. Intertask Communications So that DESQview-specific programs can rapidly exchange information, DESQview provides a wide range of intertask communications facilities. These facilities allow several concurrently running tasks to exchange information or signals, to lock access to common resources, to share common code and data, and to interrupt each other to handle critical events. These tasks can be in either the same or in different processes. Intertask communication is the key to building complex applications in a multitasking environment. Let's say, for example, you are building a point of sale system, that handles a dozen cash registers for a department store. Using DESQview you could break your application up into fourteen tasks; one for each of the cash registers, one to handle access to the pricing data- base, and one to track sales and generate management reports. The cash register tasks would process keystrokes from the clerk until an item price is needed. They would then send a message to the database task requesting the price. The database task would log the sale and return the price to the sender of the request. Meanwhile, the store manager could interact with the reporting task to monitor sales, clerk performance, etc. Data Transfer DESQview supports two types of user-initiated data transfer. The first type, called Mark and Transfer, lets a user mark text in any window and transfer that text to any other application. The application receiving the data can be DESQview-oblivious, seeing the data as normal keyboard input. More sophisticated transfers are possible between DESQview-specific applications that support the DESQview Scissors command. When the user marks data in such an application, DESQview notifies the application that data has been requested and lets the application determine exactly what data to supply. The application may supply anything including text, formulas, or even graphics images. When the user instructs DESQview to Paste the data into another application, that application is also notified so that the data can be handled appropriately. The applications involved in a Scissors transfer can even use DESQview's intertask communication facilities to setup a "hot-link" between themselves so that subsequent changes to the data are automatically reflected in both applications. Memory Management Programs running under DOS are typically given all of a PC's memory to do with as they please. In a multitasking environment, memory must be managed so that more than one program can be loaded at a time and so that no single program is given more memory than it needs. DESQview provides this management in a way that adapts to the type of memory hardware available on your PC. If your PC has 640K of conventional memory, DESQview is able to multitask as many programs as will fit in memory at the same time. Additional programs can be loaded but will cause the least recently used programs to be suspended and swapped to disk to make room in memory for the new ones. If you have EMS 3.2 (Lotus-Intel-Microsoft Expanded Memory), DESQview will swap programs to expanded memory instead of to disk. This is so much faster than swapping to disk that the swap time is almost not noticeable. If you have EMS 4.0 or EEMS (AST-Quadram-Ashton Tate Enhanced Expanded Memory) or a 386-based PC with an EMS 4.0 driver, DESQview can actually multitask as many programs as will fit in conventional and expanded memory. This can be as high as 32-Megabytes worth of programs. DESQview can also run a large part of itself in expanded memory, giving a much larger maximum program size. Customization Although DESQview is best known for its ability to run off-the-shelf software concurrently, DESQview is an ideal platform for developing customized vertical market applications and workstations. In addition to providing multitasking and windowing services, DESQview can be customized to provide the user interface appropriate to a particular application. This customization can take the form of restricting access to certain DESQview menus, taking special action when certain menu items are selected, or, in the extreme, disabling all access to DESQview menus and providing the entire user interface as part of the application. In this latter case, the only part of DESQview that the user sees is a copyright screen during start-up. Portability DESQview with its entire API runs on 8088, 8086, 80286 and 80386 PCs as well as the IBM Personal System/2s. This means that an application that you write to be DESQview-specific can run on any PC from a laptop dual-floppy PC to the very latest 386-based PC. It can even run over a network on a diskless PC. Thus, the market for your DESQview-specific application extends to the entire base of existing and future DOS PCs. DESQview 2.0 API Tools Quarterdeck is developing a full set of tools to assist developers in creating DESQview-specific programs and workstations. The first five of these tools are: DESQview API Reference Manual This is the primary source of information about the DESQview API. It contains all you need to know to write assembly language programs that take full advantage of DESQview's capabilities. The Reference manual comes with an include file containing symbols and macros to aid you in development. AVAILABLE NOW! DESQview API C Library The DESQview API C Library provides C Language interfaces for the entire set of API functions. It supports the Lattice C, Metaware C, Microsoft C, and Turbo C compilers for all memory models. Included with the C Library package is a copy of the API Reference Manual and source code for the library. AVAILABLE NOW! DESQview API Pascal Library The DESQview API Pascal Library provides Pascal Language interfaces for the entire set of API functions. It supports the Turbo Pascal 4.0 and 5.0 compilers. Included with the Pascal Library package is a copy of the API Reference Manual and source code for the library. AVAILABLE OCTOBER 88 DESQview API Debugger The DESQview API Debugger is an interactive tool that enables the API programmer to trace and single step through API calls from several concurrently running DESQview-specific programs. Trace information is reported symbolically along with the program counter, registers, and stack at the time of the call. Trace conditions can be specified so that only those callls of interest are reported. AVAILABLE NOW! DESQview API Panel Designer The DESQview API Panel Designer is an interactive tool to aid you in designing windows, menus, help screens, error messages, and forms. It includes an editor that lets you construct an image of your panel using simple commands to enter, edit, copy, and move text as well as draw lines and boxes. You can then define the characteristics of the window that will contain the panel, such as its position, size, and title. Finally, you can specify the locations and types of fields in the panel. The Panel Designer automatically generates all the DESQview API data streams necessary to display and take input from your panel. These data streams may be grouped together into panel libraries and stored on disk or as part of your program. AVAILABLE OCTOBER 88 DESQview API Pulldown Menu Manager The DESQview API Pulldown Menu Manager is an interactive tool to aid you in designing pulldown menus. This DESQview API tool assists you in giving your DOS program an OS/2-like look and feel. System Requirements Personal Computers: IBM PC, PC-XT, PC-AT and Personal System/2 and 8088-, 8086-, 80286-, 80386-based personal computers that are 100% compatible with the IBM Personal computer. Video Displays: monochrome, color graphics (CGA), enhanced color graphics (EGA), video graphics array (VGA) of the IBM Personal System/2, Hercules Memory; available separately: Micro Display Systems Genius video driver 640K memory recommended Expanded Memory (optional): Intel AboveBoard and compatibles (EMS 3.2) Expanded Memory Specification 4.0 and Enhanced Expanded Memory (optional): AST RAMpage and EMS 4.0 boards; recommended for power users wishing to multitask beyond 640K or to run programs larger than 435K Disk: Two diskette drives or one diskette drive and a hard drive Mouse (optional): PC Mouse, IBM Mouse, Microsoft Mouse and Microsoft Mouse compatibles Communication port (required for DESQview Link) Modem (for Auto-dialer and DESQview Link): Hayes Smartmodem or compatible Operating System: PC-DOS 2.0-4.0; MS-DOS 2.0-3.3 DESQview memory overhead: 640K PC's and 8088 & 80286 PC's without expanded memory: 145K; 80286 PC's with extended memory: 85K; 8088 & 80286 PC's with enhanced expanded memory or 80386 PC's: 40K for PC's with EGA/VGA displays; 0-10K for PC's with monochrome or CGA displays DESQview Companions memory requirements: Datebook: 55K; Calculator: 30K; Notepad: 35K; Link: 80K; Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager-386: 1.5K; Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager-50/60: 16K Media: DESQview and DESQview Companions available on either 5 1/4 inch or 3 1/2 inch floppy diskette