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                    *          DB/C Newsletter          *
                    *           January 2002            *
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                              News and Comments

     Whew!  We final made it - DB/C DX 12.0 has been released.  This month's
article provides details about this much awaited release.  The beta testing
process was quite time consuming, but the result is excellent.  It has lots
of new features, while still maintaining the dependability and performance
of previous releases of DB/C DX.

     Last year we phased out the ability of owners of DB/C 8 licenses to
receive a reduced price when upgrading to DB/C DX.  This year the same thing
will happen for DB/C 9.  Thus, the price to upgrade from DB/C 9 to DB/C DX
was increased on January 1st; it will be increased again on July 1st; and no
credit will be available after December 31st of this year.  The price details
can be found at www.dbcsoftware.com.

     There are now about 60 people subscribed to the dbctalk email list.
It's quite a lively bunch.  The volume of messages started out with between
10 and 20 emails per day, but has decreased to a few per day.  If you've
never used an email list before, you should try dbctalk.  See last month's
newsletter for how to subscribe.  Once your a subscriber, just send an email
to 'dbctalk@dbcsoftware.com' and it will go to 60 knowledgeable DB/C folks who
are really friendly.  Don't be shy and don't be worried that your question is
too dumb - most likely several of the dbctalk readers will have bumped into
the issue and will have a quick answer for you. 

                                                     don.wills@dbcsoftware.com


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                            DB/C DX 12.0

     DB/C DX release 12.0 contains many new features.  The focus of the new
features is enhanced support for Smart Client and enhanced GUI programming.
As usual, existing DB/C programs and data files are upwardly compatible.
The index and aimdex file format is unchanged from DB/C DX 11, so no reindex
is required.  Here is a list of the new features:

. Smart Client communication now uses strong encryption by default.

. Smart Client allows printing to printers located on the client machine,
  in addition to printers on the server.  This feature is specified by the
  dbcdx.print.destination configuration property and/or by the DEST=
  option of the SPLOPEN statement.

. With Smart Client, the client may specify the effective user id and current
  directory of the DB/C DX runtime task running on the server.

. Smart Client supports the SOUND statement.

. The dialog and panel TREE control is a new feature.  This control provides
  for a nested, hierarchical list of items.  It is the control used by Windows
  Explorer to traverse disk directories; it is the list with little plus/minus
  boxes to open and close views of subordinate lists.

. The ability to close the console window that is created by KEYIN, DISPLAY
  or ROLLOUT in DBC.EXE has been added.

. Support for tabs in DROPBOX controls is a new feature.

. The ability to change a window position is a new feature.

. The ability to change the color of individual lines is new in LISTBOX,
  DROPBOX and MLISTBOX controls.

. The color of RVTEXT and VTEXT may be changed with the CHANGE statement.

. The text of radio buttons and checkboxes may be changed with the CHANGE
  statement.

. New QUERY functions provide the resolution and bits per pixel for various
  types of image files.

. The PANEL and dialog resource PLEDIT control combines the PEDIT and LEDIT
  functions.

. ICON resources may have transparent color pixels.

. The icons associated with the DB/C runtime may be changed with the CHANGE
  statement.

. The text shown on the Windows taskbar for the button associated with the
  DB/C DX runtime may be changed with the CHANGE statement.

. Several new GUI cursor shapes are available.

. The NKEY message is now provided when the ESC key is pressed and there is
  no active ESCPUSHBUTTON.

. When running under DBC.EXE, BEEP and DISPLAY *B now makes the Windows alert
  sound.  The dbcdx.beep=old configuration option turns this feature off.

. The debugger window position and size is saved for future invocations of
  the debugger.

. The draw statement REPLACE control code changes the color of all pixels
  that have a specific color to a new color.

. The print statement *COLOR control code now supports <numvar> as a value
  in addition to the 8 fixed colors supported previously.  This allows for
  24 bit color printing.

. Support for printing color images to Postscript files is new.  Support for
  printing black and white images to Postscript and PCL files is new.

. Support for specifying pixels per inch in Postscript files with the
  SPLOPEN statement is new.

. The GETPAPERBINS verb allow for retrieving the names of the paper bins
  available on a printer for use in the SPLOPEN statement.

. The CRLF file type provides support for CR/LF text files in FILE, IFILE and
  AFILE statements and with the -T option on the text processing utilities.

. OPEN and PREP of files with non-portable file names (drive or directory as
  part of the file name) may be directed to a DB/C FS server with the
  dbcdx.file.prefix.<server> configuration property.

. The STATERESTORE, STATESAVE, SCRNSAVE, WINSAVE and CHARSAVE statements
  are ignored in DBC.EXE if no KEYIN or DISPLAY statement has been executed.

. The inline utilities are now linked into the runtime.  That is, the SORT,
  REFORMAT, INDEX, etc. statements in a DB/C program execute inside the
  runtime (i.e. they no longer do a ROLLOUT to the corresponding utility).

. The UNIX SIGHUP and SIGTERM signals are now handled correctly.

. The REFORMAT -B option provides for an easier way to insert blanks into
  a record.

. The DELETE utility now gives a message if the file to be deleted does not
  exist.



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                             DB/C Class Schedule

   Class:     DB/C DX and JX Language Fundamentals
   Date:      February 4-6, 2002
   Location:  Oak Brook, Illinois

For information, send email to admin@dbcsoftware.com.


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