Release Overview
Version 6.0

New and Enhanced Library Routines

Some new library routines and enhancements to existing routines are included in this version of ACUCOBOL-GT. These runtime library routines are described in detail in Appendix I in Book 4, ACUCOBOL-GT Appendices.

C$SOCKET

A new library routine, C$SOCKET, can be used to communicate with other processes on remote or local hosts. This provides an interface to inter-process communication via sockets. Three sample programs illustrating the use of this routine, "sockcli.cbl", "socksrv1.cbl", and "socksrvm.cbl", are included in the AcuGT/samples subdirectory of your Version 6.0 installation.

M$COPY

M$COPY is a dynamic memory routine that copies a region of memory from one location to another. While it is functionally similar to the C$MEMCOPY routine, M$COPY expects its arguments to be passed by reference instead of by value.

M$FILL

A new library routine, M$FILL, can be used to set a region of memory to a constant value. This routine was added as part of our support for Vision 5.

W$BITMAP

The W$BITMAP library routine has been enhanced with two new operations, WBITMAP-LOAD-IMAGELIST and WBITMAP-DESTROY-IMAGELIST. These operations treat a bitmap file like a Windows API data type called an "ImageList". An ImageList is a bitmap file containing a series of fixed-width images. This provides a simplified way to load and destroy ImageLists when you are running in a thin client environment.

W$KEYBUF

The W$KEYBUF routine now recognizes the "alt-" and "shift-ctrl-" keys used by Windows. Additionally, the W$KEYBUF routine is now supported in thin client environments. W$KEYBUF provides routines that allow the program to manipulate the keyboard input buffer in several ways, including adding to the buffer and recording and playing back the buffer. Among other purposes, W$KEYBUF allows a program to simulate user input.

In thin client environments, W$KEYBUF operates in the same way as in the standard Windows environment, except for OP-CODEs 7, 8, and 9. In thin client environments, OP-CODEs 7 and 8 cause keys typed by the user to be recorded in a temporary local file on the thin client. The file is automatically uploaded to the server when recording is stopped with OP-CODE 5. If OP-CODE 8 is used, the file is first downloaded from the server to the client, appended to, and then uploaded to the server on OP-CODE 5.

OP-CODE 9 causes a previously recorded file to be played back. When OP-CODE 9 is used, the thin client first tries to open the file locally using the path specified in the CALL statement. If the file is not found, the thin client requests that the file be downloaded from the server. In this case, the path specified in the CALL statement refers to the server machine's file system. The specified path can be an absolute path or a path relative to the current working directory, as specified in the alias file. If the file is found, it is downloaded to the client machine and stored in the thin client's temporary cache directory (the directory specified by the TEMP environment variable; often "C:\WINDOWS\TEMP"). If the TEMP environment variable is not set, the files are stored in the client's current working directory. The file is not downloaded again unless it changes or is deleted from the client.

For more information, see Appendix I, in Book 4, ACUCOBOL-GT Appendices.

W$MENU

If you call W$MENU using the WMENU-DISABLE option and pass a menu's main handle to W$MENU without specifying the ID of an item, the entire menu bar is disabled. This feature of W$MENU is now supported under the thin client.

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