HI-LI still uses FORMSPEC so it is not an alternative.   HI-LI was an
attempt to simplify and consolidate the VPLUS  intrinsic calls.  I tried it
back when and decided to stick with the standard, tried & true VPLUS that I
already had in COPYLIBS.  I saw no advantage to HI-LI.

There are 4GL development environments that do not use VPLUS.  Speedware is
one of them.  I've seen very efficient and successful application written in
Speedware.

Back around 1982-1984, I was designing & writing an applications on a 3k
series 42.   I did not have the luxury of block mode terminals.  (I recall
the price of a block mode terminal at about $3,500).  My application had to
use 2621 terminals.  There was a third party utility at that time that had a
screen handler and was also able to convert view screens to character mode
for use on non block mode terminals.  I don't remember the name of that
product and doubt that it is still available.  What I ended up doing was
writing my own screen handler consisting of two modules.   TERMIN and
TERMOUT, one to accept data from the screen and one to display the results
on the screen (both in character mode).  The input/display field
characteristics were hard coded in the calling COBOL program.  Each field
characteristic was several bytes long and contain row & column addresses,
min & max length, type (alpha, numeric, etc), enhancements,  etc.  It's been
so long that I don't remember too many other details but it worked great and
had a live feel to it (rather than the static feel of a VPLUS form).   The
initial screen display took two passes, one for the labels and one for the
fields (if in display/change mode).  In add mode the screen labels would be
displayed and the cursor would just move to the first input field, display
enhancement and dots and wait for character mode input.
Unfortunately, after holding on to the 9-track tapes for more than 10 years,
I trashed them two years ago when I moved.  Otherwise, I would have been
willing to share the code with you.



                -----Original Message-----
                From:   Ron Wallace [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
                Sent:   Wednesday, August 12, 1998 5:17 PM
                To:     [log in to unmask]
                Subject:        VPLUS -REPLY

                n <[log in to unmask]>
                [log in to unmask] writes:

                > Ok.. we use VPlus to build screens with... Is there
another
                > product that can be used instead of Vplus???
                >
                > TIA.

                I have not used it in years but HP had a product similar to
VPLUS called
                HI-LI ( I am sure I have Misspelled).  It was like view but
did not require as
                many calls.

                Ron (been a while since I did that one) Wallace
                NAVMED
                209-446-6888