ANNOUNCE: ISDK V2.0.0beta2 has been released

From: Szilard Hajba <szilu(at)revai(dot)hu>
To: gtk-app-devel-list(at)redhat(dot)com, pgsql-announce(at)postgresql(dot)org
Cc: blkhfc(at)chiara(dot)csoma(dot)elte(dot)hu
Subject: ANNOUNCE: ISDK V2.0.0beta2 has been released
Date: 1999-06-03 20:19:50
Message-ID: 19990603221950.C27337@genius.revai.hu
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ISDK V2.0.0beta2 has been released. This is the first public release of this
software. A mailing list will be created soon (I hope it'll start on friday).
In one or two weeks I'd like to start a discussion on ISDK3, which would be
the next version. The actual version can be downloaded from:
ftp://ftp.revai.hu/pub/isdk/isdk-2.0.0beta2.tgz

Szilard Hajba <szilu(at)revai(dot)hu>

General information
===================

This is ISDK version 2.0.0.
The Information System Development Kit gives the developer a
platform-independent method of creating Information Systems with data
forms, SQL database access, database-browsing support and many other useful
features. ISDK is now in a development stage and it is available only
for the Linux operating system. The form module now works on text terminals
using the ncurses library, and on the X-Window system using the
GTK+ toolkit. (Sorry, ncurses version doesn't compile now :( )

Installation
============

See the file 'INSTALL'

Modules
=======

DB:
The DB module handles the database connections and connect the databases
with the forms on the screen. Currently only one database driver is
supported, PostgreSQL.

BROWSE:
SQL databases doesn't support table browsing, so we have a module for it.
We distinguish two types of database browsing and these are implemented in
two different ways.
The first method is used when we have to display large
tables. For example we have a large phonebook table and we need to display
it very often. ISDK solves this problem using browse-servers. On a
large WAN-network browse-servers can be installed on each LAN-network.
Browse-servers provide local mirror-copies of this tables and
automatically refreshes the changes.
The second method is used when we have to display the results of a search.
In this case we can't optimize database access, so the data is handled
locally to the client.

API:
The API module is the Application Interface for the ISDK
applications. It can be a wrapper around a graphical user interface (for
example GTK+) or it can be implemented using a lower level interface
(for example ncurses).

REGISTRY:
This module implements the ISDK object registry. The
object registry is used for accessing ISDK objects (forms, widgets,
functions, event-handlers, etc.) with their name. With the registry it is
much easier to load data from database records into forms and it makes
possible to build forms from Form Markup Language:isdk_fml files.

PARSER:
The PARSER module is used for parsing Form Markup Language (FML) files.
Here is an example FML form:
-------------------------->8-----------------------------
(form x=50 y=50 name=person title="Personal datas")
(vbox pad=1 spacing=1 fill)
(hbox)
(label text="Name:" fill)
(entry name=name size=30 maxlen=50)
(/hbox)
(hbox)
(label text="Age:" fill)
(entry name=age size=8)
(/hbox)
(/vbox)
(/form)
-------------------------->8-----------------------------
REPORT GENERATOR:
ISDK contains a fully featured (hope so ;) report generator.
There is also a simple print filter program, what can be configured to
handle any type of printer.

Development
===========
ISDK is not only a library, but a development kit, so it has some
useful utilities:
ecpp:
The C programming language doesn't support type extensions, but ISDK
gives some powerful types into the programmers hand. ecpp is
a C preprocessor. It makes it very easy to access and manipulate ISDK's
built-in data structures. In the future the preprocessor should be replaced
with an interpreted language.
ec2man:
This utility is used to generate the ISDK documentation, but it also
can be used to generate documentation for the developed application.
ec2html:
This utility is used to generate HTML documentation. It uses the same
source as the ec2man utility.
ectags, fmltags, sqltags:
These utilities collect tag information from .ec, .fml, .sql files and
saves a tags file which can be used for example with the vi editor,
which is suggested for ISDK development.
fmlbrowser:
This utility is used to display FML-forms from an FML file.

ISDK also provides extensions for the VIM editor, for example FML, EC, ESQL
syntax files.

How to report bugs
==================

To report a bug, send mail to szilu(at)revai(dot)hu(dot)
In the mail include:

* The version of ISDK

* Information about your system. For instance:

- What operating system and version
- What version of X
- For Linux, what version of the C library
- What version of GLib/GTK+
- What version of PostgreSQL

And anything else you think is relevant.

* How to reproduce the bug.

If you can reproduce it with the recipe program that is
distributed with ISDK, that will be most convenient. Otherwise,
please include a short test program that exhibits the behavior.
As a last resort, you can also provide a pointer to a larger piece
of software that can be downloaded.

* The text that was printed out (Debug information).

Patches
=======

Patches can be sent to Szilu <szilu(at)revai(dot)hu>.
Please include your name and email address.

If the patch fixes a bug, it is usually a good idea to include
all the information described in "How to Report Bugs".

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