Applied Research Corporation Page 1
DECUS VAX SIG Tapecopy Submission 28 April 1989
Applied Research Corporation
Suite 920
8201 Corporate Drive
Landover, Md 20785
(301) 459-8442
Submitted By
Don Stevens-Rayburn
Director of Computer Services
1 Overview Of This Submission
This area contains a variety of user-mode programs and programming utilities
that have been written at Applied Research Corporation and that we have found
useful. Included is the full source code for each of the programs and
utilities along with both object code and, where appropriate, executables. In
addition, more-or-less complete user manuals and programmer manuals are
included.
The major components of the submission are described in the following
sections.
1.1 Address Database Management
The address database managment system provides a powerful set of software for
automating address/telephone lists. This system supports private address
databases, group-wide databases and corporate-wide databases. This program is
based on the A.R.C. Forms Management System and is completely menu-driven.
It has the capability of searching a database on any field or combination of
fields, including up to 6 key words that are part of each record in the
database. For example, is is a simple matter to request the system to display
all of the entries in the database that refer to people who (1) have names
beginning with the characters ST and (2) live in the state of Maryland and (3)
have the key words "FORTRAN", "MACRO" and "DCL" in their record. Finally, the
program can print the selected records in a variety of ways: (1) the complete
record; (2) only that part of the record that the U.S. Postal Service needs,
formatted for direct printing on mailing label stock; and (3) as a telephone
list containing just the name and up to 2 telephone numbers.
As well as two standalone programs that implement the system, there are two
separate callable interfaces to make it easy to incorporate address database
management into larger menu driven systems.
1.2 Documentation Utilities
Included are two routines which we use here to assist in maintaining
programming documentation.
CLEANMEM is a simple program that reads a ".MEM" file produced by Digital
Standard Runoff and strips off the imbedded <CR><LF> characters that DSR
leaves in the file. This is useful when you wish to use multibuffer editing
to proofread DSR output. You can put the original ".RNO" file in one buffer
and the "cleaned" ".MEM" file in another. The ".MEM" file can be scrolled
through and read easily without the distracting control characters at the end
of each line and, when you find an error or an edit that you wish to make, you
switch to the buffer containing the ".RNO" file and make the change directly.
At our site, this routine saves a lot of paper and a lot of wear and tear on
the laser printer.
DOCUMENT is a routine that searches an entire directory and extracts the
comment header blocks from all of the source code files in that directory,
formatting them as a DSR input file. This routine assists in maintaining
programming documentation. This requires that the programmer use a
standardized comment block in each program module. Each source code module in
this submission contains such a block and several templates are provided.
1.3 Forms And Menus
The Applied Research Corporation Forms Management System is the major part of
this submission. The ARC FMS consists of a suite of subroutines and a set of
FORTRAN include files contained in a text library. It is designed to assist
in the coding of programs that are menu driven and/or rely on forms
manipulation for data entry and editing. This set of routines is the basis
for all of the menu/forms based programs included in this submission as well
as a variety of other systems in production here.
The ARC FMS is based on the Digital Screen Management Facility but, for
example, allows you to design and manipulate forms and menus with only a few
subroutine calls. For example, one can present a form to the user and allow
the user to edit any field on the form with a single call to one of the FMS
subroutines.
1.4 The Form/Menu Demonstration Program
The Form/ Menu Demonstration Program is an example of how the ARC FMS can be
used to provide a completely menu-driven system to non-technical users of a
VAX. The program presented here is, in fact, a copy of the program that our
finance group uses daily. The only modifications that I have made to the
program prior to submitting it are to remove any proprietary software that
gets run from the system.
While it is unlikely that this program will be of direct use at your site, it
does provide a framework for a complete menu-driven system. Should you be
required to write such a system, you will find this program worth reviewing
and you may be able to re-use large chunks of it.
1.5 The Make Facility
This is yet another implementation of a Unix-like MAKE facility. It is
provided here mainly because we have used it to build all of the executables
in this submission and is the easiest way for you to rebuild them if you wish
to modify them. MAKE is provided in two forms: first as an executable, with
source code and as a DCL command file.
1.6 Portwatch V2.0
Portwatch V2.0 is yet another idle terminal killer. This version is a total
rewrite of an idle terminal killer that appeared on an earlier SIG tape
submitted by J. B. Fischer. This version maintains a database of each
terminal port on the system. For each port, you may specify whether processes
running at that terminal are eligible for deletion and at which hours of the
day. In addition, you may specify whether or not warning messages are
broadcast to the terminal before process deletion.
As an example, here we are not so much worried about people tying up terminal
lines since (at least for the moment) every terminal has its own port. But we
are concerned, for security sake, that everyone log off before leaving for the
day. Therefore, most interactive sessions are protected from deletion during
the hours 08:00 through 18:00. If you are logged on after 18:00 but inactive,
it is assumed that you have gone home and your process becomes eligible for
deletion.
The major exception to the above is those ports which are connected to modems.
Since we only have a few modems and since, if your process is connected to a
modem line but has been inactive for more than 30 minutes, it is likely that
you have lost the connection and away goes your process.
Finally, while it is nice to warn people before killing their process, this is
not always possible. For example, if you attempt to warn a process running on
a port connected to a Hayes compatible modem (or most other modems) but for
which the connection has been lost, all you will accomplish is to set up an
interesting dialog of error messages flashing back and forth between the VAX
and the modem. In addition, we have a bunch of Professional 350's that
function mostly as standalone workstations but which occasionally connect to
the VAX via async lines. If the operator of one of these work stations exits
the terminal emulator without logging off the VAX, attempting to send a
warning sets up a similar dialog. Therefore, Portwatch was written in such a
way that you can specify on a port-by-port basis whether to broadcast a
warning message prior to process deletion.
1.7 QMS Kiss Driver
QMSPRINTV2 is both command-line and a menu-driven interface to one of our
laser printers. Again, this routine will probably not be directly useful at
your site unless you happen to be running a QMS Kiss laser printer in QUME
emulation mode; however, it does provide an example of how to make the full
power of a laser printer available to users who have access only to EDT and/or
EVE on a dumb terminal. For example, we also have an LN03 driver that was
written in about a day simply by copying the QMSPRINT code to a new directory
and modifying it.
1.8 Show Purge
There are three small programs that make up this set. First, there is the
SHOWPURGE program itself which has a command line interface and which takes
most of the same parameters and qualifiers as does the DCL PURGE command.
However, it does not actually delete anything; rather it informs you, by
default, how many files would be deleted by a PURGE and, optionally, which
files.
The second and third programs work together as a gentle way of reminding users
to purge old versions. The first merely creates an indexed file with room for
a username and a quadword time; the second, which is run at login time via
SYLOGIN.COM, determines the username of the person logging on. It then looks
up that username and time in the ISAM file. If the time recorded for that
username is less than a month ago, the program simply closes the database and
exits, thus slowing login by only a fraction of a second. On the other hand,
if either the username is not in the file or if the time recorded is more than
a month ago, the program enters the user name and the current time in the file
and closes it. It then searches the user's directory tree and displays a
message of the form:
Purging ddcn:[directory...]*.* would delete nn files occupying mm blocks.
This serves as a gentle reminder about purging outdated files and has met with
good success here.
1.9 Telephone
TELEPHONE is a autodial routine that dials a modem without the user having to
know anything about which port the modem is on or even about what kind of
modem it is. It is implemented as a DCL command and does allow the user to
specify all of the communications parameters, including baud rate, parity etc.
In addition, it can use a variety of terminal emulations/file transfer
protocols and even implements a "telephone" book by using DCL symbols. For
example, if you were to include the line:
$ ARC :== "1-301-nnn-nnnn"
in your LOGIN.COM you could issue the command
$ TELE[phone] ARC
and TELEPHONE would call up our machine. Once a connection has been
established, TELEPHONE spawns a subprocess running the terminal emulation
system of your choice. When you exit that subprocess, TELEPHONE gets control
again. It makes sure that the modem has hung up properly and that it is reset
to power-up defaults.
The current version of TELEPHONE supports Hayes compatible modems as well as
DEC DF112 modems and works whether or not the port that the modem is on has
even minimal modem control lines.
1.10 Time Management System
TMSV41 is a time management system that allows you to keep track of what you
should do and when you must do it. It also can keep track of what you have
done and when you did it. The Time Management System is based on the ARC FMS
and has both a command-line interface and a fully menu-driven interface.
1.11 Utilities
Finally, there are a collection of utility routines. These include routines
in several categories:
o CLI routines for parsing the command line. These routines make it
easy to determine what the user wants your program to do.
o Lexical functions. Included are callable implementations of the
following DCL lexicals:
o F$EDIT
o F$FILE_ATTRIBUTES
o F$GETGPI
o F$INTEGER
o F$LENGTH
o F$MODE
o F$PARSE
o F$PID
o F$SEARCH
o F$USER
o Various functions. A small collection of functions that perform a
variety of tasks such as declaring exit and AST handlers. Some of
these routines have been modified from routines that others have put
on previous SIG tapes.