GUI ScreenIO Features

It's difficult to summarize everything that GUI ScreenIO can do, because there's so much of it.  The short answer is, you can easily develop Windows applications using COBOL and GUI ScreenIO.

It's just COBOL, folks.  If you've been avoiding the move to Windows, you really need to consider GUI ScreenIO.  There's no mystery to it. You just move your data to the panel fields (which use YOUR data names), and then call our runtime subroutine.  We take it from there.  Who needs Visual Basic or C when you have COBOL?

The best way to get a detailed look at GUI ScreenIO is to look at the documentation, or better yet, download the product and try it out.  You'll find it's very easy to get started, particularly if you use the program generator to create your first program.

General

Automatic support of standard Windows behavior

The GUI ScreenIO runtime does many things for you automatically; it manages scrollbars, saves the size and position when the user moves a window, and restores it, automatically, the next time it is displayed. 

GUI ScreenIO will also launch standard Help systems automatically.  No code is required on your part.

You can display messages on the status bar or in a message box by simply moving the text to a panel data field and setting an 88-level item to TRUE.  You can also select a customized message box if you need more options.  It's trivial to use these facilities.

GUI ScreenIO seamlessly supports standard Windows keyboard shortcuts, Copy/Paste functionality, and much more.

Multiple language support

If you work in a multi-lingual environment, you'll love GUI ScreenIO's multiple language support. 

If your end-users speak a variety of languages, you can provide translations for the text in your application (within the panel editor) and the end-user can select the language they want to use.  You no longer need to provide a separate version of your application for each target language!

If you're in a country that is bilingual - Canada or Switzerland, for example - you can provide a single application that suits both languages.

You can embed up to ten languages in your application and switch freely between them.

Panel copybooks

The panels that you design are saved as COBOL copybooks, which contain all of the data needed to display and run the panel.  GUI ScreenIO does not use external screen files or supplementary copybooks to provide runtime information.  It's all in the panel copybook.

Document-centric panel storage

This one-copybook-per-panel document-centric organization is logical, familiar (think in terms of a word processor document), and easy to work with.  It's nicely compatible with version control software.  Furthermore, if you lose a panel, you can recover it from a program listing!

No screen files

Since the panel copybooks are completely self-contained, all of the runtime data is compiled into your program executables, which improves performance and eliminates the need to ship a screen file with your application. 

Panel Editor

The GUI ScreenIO panel editor is an easy to use, WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) graphical editor that is used to define your panels.  It works like most Windows document-oriented applications.  Create a new panel, set its properties (how it's supposed to work), then draw controls on your panel to interact with the user.

• Work on up to 50(!) panels at once. 
• Provide text in more than one language so that your application can operate in several languages.  The user can select the desired language at runtime.
• Create standard Windows controls; assign your COBOL name; specify how the control is to behave at runtime. 
• Specify default values for controls.
• Copy controls or menus from one panel and paste them to another. 
• Move controls around on your panel. 
• Use tools to align controls on your panel.
• Specify the tabbing order. 
• Specify defaults for your panels via an application profile. 
• Set fonts and colors. 
• Create arrays of controls. 
• Define ToolTips and Help for the panel and controls. 
• Execute your panel within the editor and try it out.  

Program generator

GUI ScreenIO's Program Generator uses a simple template to determine how to create a COBOL program, subprogram, or COBOL SECTION that will handle your panel.  The template that we supply will produce a program to handle your panels that will compile and run. 

All you need to do is to add your business logic, and we've set up an excellent framework for that, too.  You'll find the panel generator is a great productivity aid.

You can easily modify the template or create your own so the program generator will create code that suits your standards or preferences. 

Legacy Conversion

GUI ScreenIO includes a Conversion Tool to quickly and accurately convert your Legacy ScreenIO (DOS or Windows) applications to the new format for GUI ScreenIO.  The converter translates your panels from your legacy system into GUI ScreenIO panels and then revises your programs to use the new panels.

Demo Driver

You can demo your proposed system for Management "walk-thrus" or customer progress meetings without writing a line of COBOL by driving the panel copybooks with our GSDemo driver and a simple batch file.

Runtime distribution

We do not charge royalties or runtime fees for distributing applications that you develop with GUI ScreenIO.