FAQ's

Older versions of the DOS shell allowed printer redirection of program output. For example:

sagerep test > prn
            

would send the output to the standard printer. Later version of the DOS shell supplied with windows do not support this. There are some commercial add-ons that can restore this functionality but the simplest thing to do is to make use of a power shell script.

For Sculptor 2 programmers still working with DOS who wish to continue using printer redirecton of sagerep output, the easiest thing to do is put the sagerep command in a Power Shell script and call Power Shell itself with the script as parameter from a DOS shell. It is not usually workable to dispense with a DOS shell altogether in favour of a Power Shell because the 'exec' command and command lines in menu files do not work. Sculptor attempts to call another DOS shell to execute commands.

The procedure then is:

1. Create a Power shell script, say test.ps1, and use the power shell printer redirect facility with optional command line parameters $args[]:

   # test.ps1 - send sagerep output to a named printer using three application level parameters
   sagerep test nullp $args[1] $args[2] $args[3] | out-printer -Name "HP14398D (HP DeskJet 2700 series)"
                   

   The -Name clause may be omitted if you want to use the default printer.
2. From an exec command in a Sculptor program call a power shell with test.ps1 as a parameter along with your own optional application parameters, eg:

   exec "C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File test.ps1 AAA BBB CCC"
                   

   This type of command executed by exec should also be used with menus.

With this example:

!temp x,,a3
!temp y,,a3

  x = ""
  y = "ABC"

  x = x + y
  prompt x

You need to use '/' not '+' The expression :

x = x /  y
prompt x

Add y onto x after the final trailing space. The expression x+y is three spaces followed by "DEF"

Sculptor allows only one instance of a key value, ie keys must be unique. However I have an example where the same key occurs twice. Eg assume I have a singe key field F1 and I scroll through the values of this field a few time I get:

F1 = "A"
F1 = "B"
F1 = "B"
F1 = "C"

In all cases where a data file looks strange, the first thing to do is run kfcheck on the file. If it is damaged then anything could happen and the index to the file must be rebuilt with kfri. If, however, the file is OK then the most likely reason for the problem is that F1 has some characters that do not display on a screen or a printer but are nevertheless present. An easy way to find them would be to send the output to a text file and then do a binary dump of the text file using, say, od on Linux or debug on DOS.

If a report is run with no parameters it is sent to a default window and Next and End options appear in the top line.

run report MyReport

But if the same report is run to a window nothing happened

run report Myreport to Window1

Output will go to the named window. In a report sent to a named window the output does go the window but there are not automatically created Next and End options. This is because you have full control of the named window and the system does not override any functionality put there by the programmer. If you require the Next and End options create buttons for them and attach event functions in the normal way.

If you are seeing nothing it may be because the program or window have been closed.

There is no difference. They are both shipped as binaries for the historic reason that srepw would only permit localhost or directly accessed data whereas srepwc allowed network connections in addition. The restriction of srepw as for licensing reasons. This restriction has now been lifted and srepw calls srepwc on entry.

If you have a field in a data dictionary called MyDateTime define it as a u4 in the data dictionary. The program will then need to set its logical type so that it displays correctly.

  MyDateTime->logical_type = LT_DTIME

Additionally, if the field is to be displayed it should be formatted either in the data dictionary or in a text box in the program as, for example "dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm".

Sculptor windows versions are shipped with programs srep.exe and srepw.exe. Output from reports in srepw go to a window by default but can be sent to a file. If your program does not use advanced windows controls (eg tables) for user interaction prior to running a report, you can use srep.exe in place of srepwc. In that case the output of a report goes to the standard output. This would apply equally on Windows and on Unix/Linux.

From Windows 10 onwards the easiest way is simply to use the pdf writer that comes with windows as the destination printer. Unless it has been removed or renamed the pdf writer on windows will be found in the standard printers as Microsoft Print to PDF. The syntax for running a report to myfile.pdf is then:

run report MyReport to "printer:Microsoft Print to PDF:c:/temp/myfile.pdf" ppf="winpm"

or

run report MyReport to "printer:Microsoft Print to PDF:c:\\temp\\myfile.pdf" ppf="winpm"

Note that we use forward slashes in the output file name. If back slashes are used they must be doubled so that the sculptor compiler does not use them as an escape chararcter.

Check the file is not damaged with kfcheck before anything else. Assuming the file is not damaged the most likely reason is that the 1st record in the file has a null key, ie all values are binary zero. This will usually only be the case where the key fileds are numbers although null terminated strings are also binary zeroes.