Does XSharp have a console mode?

[xnetExplorer]

Hi,

Does XSharp have a Console option, like Harbour or Flagship?

In other words, is there a mode where commands like @ n,n PROMPT and Menu To will work?

[wriedmann]

Hi Dan,

in Windows, Console Mode has a different meaning. It means you can write and read to the console like a command line program. Since this is a standard Windows feature, X# can do that (like VO and Vulcan can do it).

The text mode output currently is not available in X#, but AFAIK Chris and Robert have implemented something for a customer. There these commands were translated to WinForms and WPF. So a standard Clipper/Harbour application was translated to a WinForms or WPF application.

For sure, the development team can give more informations.

Wolfgang

[robert]

Dan,

If there is really interest for apps in .Net that look like the good old Clipper apps on a console window, then we could certainly emulate that on the Console window from Windows.
But I doubt that there is interest for that.

For now you can use ? and ?? which are translated to calls to System.Console.Write() and System.Console.WriteLine().

Robert

[xnetExplorer]

Thanks Wolfgan and Robert,

I'm really only interested specifically in the Menu to interface. If there's one thing that I miss from the Dos days, it's the keyboard driven interface and menu system.

Although Alt-F is available universally, it's a very different feel. There's a feeling of 'Flow' from the older report writers and spreadsheets, where the navigation was driven mainly by motor memory in the fingers. The draaaaaaging of the mouse, although it's fine for certain things like copying blocks of text, is a step back (for me) in terms of convenience.

Although there are console interfaces and commands, it does sound like the answer is 'no' in general. At least in the .net world.


Regards,

[wriedmann]

Hi Dan,

it may be a bit more difficult than in the DOS days, but you can drive also Windows applications completely with the keyboard.
This is true for sure for Win32 and WinForms applications, and may be not valid for WPF applications.

I can only speak for my VO applications where I have put a considerable amount of time to implement keyboard handling, like changing from one field to another one using the Enter key, or the up and down arrows like in Clipper applications.

At least my customers are requiring a modern application style - and they consider Win32 applications as outdated. They like the WPF style and look.... and even WinForms applications are seen as old-style.

Wolfgang

[xnetExplorer]

I understand. Pretty much every Windows application has some hot key associated with the main function. But it's still a different feel.

I guess one of the things the old applications had, was a feeling of movement. So when you clicked a hot key to bring up the main menu, and the arrow keys to select a menu option on the top bar, and then clicked Enter to select a submenu, there was a distinct feeling that you were 'moving' objects around.

It just doesn't feel the same way, with modern windows.


Anyway, this is neither here nor there, just a side topic. I can code personal applications in any language that does the job, while my office requires php or a microsoft language.

[wriedmann]

Hi Dan,

unfortunately sometimes a modern look&feel conflicts with efficient handling, but since the target of our software is the user, we have to accomplish what they need.

I remember when many years ago during an application show at a VO conference in Germany we saw several very interesting applications, like one that controlled the entire sensors of the UNO headquarter in Vienna. After all these demonstrations, the Xbase++ guys demonstrated a project for the German Post that had moved a Clipper terminal application to OS/2 and Win32 with exactly the same black and white look as the original Clipper application.
While we all agreed that this was a technically valid demonstration, visually we all were shocked because it seemed a dinosaur coming from the past.

Currently, it is the web that sets the visual styles, and unfortunately we as Windows programmers have to follow these standards, and personally I see only the possibility to do something with WPF (if not changing to Electron and Javascript).

Wolfgang

[xnetExplorer]

Fortunately, none of that prevents any of us from coding our personal programs in any language we want, unapologetically.

But unfortunately, management often gets in the way of servicing the end user, when it comes to business. So I'm prevented from moving to php 7.x, which has better functional support. Or of using Groovy or Clojure instead of Java, in my last job. And the current job has one Access application, clunky but familiar, and they won't let me port it to .Net. They certainly won't let me use XSharp.

So, we have to work with the environment that's handed to us. For sure.
But nobody can stop us from using any environment we choose, when coding for our personal whims.

[TerryB1]

Dan

How right you are!

That was one of the reasons, behind a suggestion I made some time ago to change name/emphasis of XSharp to something more in tune with "Business-Management" thinking.

Sharp does not resonate with many Business Managers.

Terry

[xnetExplorer]

Good point.