ACCESS report writer

This page contains some information about the ACCESS report writer for the THEOS operating system family. Access is the report writer command which comes with both Freedom and CONTROL 'Plus'. Also, you will be able to download product updates for the THEOS version of ACCESS from this page. A list of changes made in the past completes this page.

Information

ACCESS is a product of Phase One Systems and available for the THEOS and Windows 9x/NT/2000 operating systems.

Since 1995 I am maintaining the THEOS source-code branch of the product. If you have questions about the product itself, it's availability, pricing or the nearest distributor for you, please contact Ron Gibbs at Phase One Systems. If Ron is unavailable, you can also contact me.

 

Download

Documentation

The documentation can be downloaded here. It is formatted in PDF (Portable Document Format). You need an Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it.

Software

You can download recent versions from the Phase One FTP site using the links of the following table. All these files are serialized as demo versions. They will run on all THEOS serial numbers but limited to a single user and a filesize of max. 6000 Bytes. If you want to load these files onto a production machine, please make sure that you have the necessary serialization keys handy. If you need keys for any THEOS s/n, please contact me directly.

Date Media THEOS 4.x THEOS Corona
Classic
Version		 Windowized
Version		 Classic
Version		 Windowized
Version
n/a Install Disk (zipped) for THEOS 4.1 4.5e
(~134 KB)		 6.2e
(~213 KB)		  
December 16, 1999 Install Disk (zipped) for THEOS 4.1 4.5f
(~134 KB)		 6.2f
(~213 KB)		  
July 3, 2000 Install Disk (zipped) for THEOS 4.1 4.5g
(~111 KB)		 6.2g
(~190 KB)		  
February 14, 2001 Install Disk (zipped) for THEOS 4.2 4.6
(~ 144 KB)		 6.6
(~ 213 KB)		  
August 5, 2001 Install Disk (zipped) for THEOS 4.1 4.5h
(~ 144 KB)		 6.2g
(~ 190 KB)		  
October 27, 2001 Install Disk (zipped) for THEOS 4.2 4.6a
(~ 144 KB)		 6.6a
(~ 213 KB)		  
March 10, 2002 Install Disk (zipped) for THEOS 5.0   4.7
(~ 147 KB)		 6.7
(~ 427 KB)
March 21, 2002 Install Disk (zipped) for THEOS 4.2 and 5.0 4.6a
(~ 287 KB)		 6.6a
(~ 427 KB)		 4.7a
(~ 287 KB)		 6.7a
(~ 427 KB)
July 26, 2002 Install Disk (zipped) for THEOS 4.2 and 5.0 4.6c
(~ 281 KB)		 6.6c
(~ 418 KB)		 4.7c
(~ 281 KB)		 6.7c
(~ 418 KB)
September 13, 2002 Install Disk (zipped) for THEOS 4.2 and 5.0 4.6d
(~ 281 KB)		 6.6d
(~ 418 KB)		 4.7d
(~ 281 KB)		 6.7d
(~ 418 KB)
October 4, 2002 Install Disk (zipped) for THEOS 4.2 and 5.0 4.6f
(~ 281 KB)		 6.6f
(~ 418 KB)		 4.7f
(~ 281 KB)		 6.7f
(~ 418 KB)
March 12, 2004 Install Disk (zipped) for THEOS 4.2 and 5.0 4.6h
(~ 311 KB)		 6.6h
(~ 449 KB)		 4.7h
(~ 311 KB)		 6.7h
(~ 449 KB)

 

Changes

Here is a listing of changes that were made to the THEOS version of ACCESS in the past. It is held in backward chronological order.
Date Description
 
03/12/2004
  • Added default files to get a full installation disk. These files will only be installed if they are not present on the disk.
  • Fixed some minor bugs (e.g. removing all output if option SILENT was specified on the command line)
 
10/04/2002
  • The installation procedure did not serialize all relevant files on the THEOS Corona system. This has been fixed in the current release.

    Please make sure, you don't use an installation image dated prior to October 4th 2002.

 
09/29/2002
  • Using wildcards during 'open/get file' and 'save/put file' did not work properly on the THEOS Corona operating system. This has been fixed in the windowized and classic version of ACCESS.
  • The progress count for the windowized version of ACCESS is now displayed along with the filename in a separate window.
  • The usercount sometimes was reported as exceeded even if there were less users started than licensed. This has been fixed.
  • Developers reported a problem when calling ACCESS from another application that uses the THEOS window system and has already opened windows. Upon return from ACCESS to this application, all windows were closed. This problem has been fixed within the window system.
  • If a newer version of the window system is part of the installation image, then it will now replace the one installed on your disk.
    Therefore, please make sure to re-serialize /THEOS/ADDON/THB_WIN.SYS:S and /THEOS/ADDON/THB_WIN1.SYS:S after you have installed ACCESS with the RTHBSER utility.

    If ACCESS is the only application using the POS window system, then no further action is required.

 
Note:

The versions 4.6e, 4.7e, 6.6e and 6.7e have not been released to the public.

 
 
09/13/2002
(a friday)
  • Fixed a problem with 2 digit year information read in ASCII form a data file when DATEIN was set to 1. This caused date items to be treated as 20th century, which is not correct with the current date being in the 21st century.

    Please get ACCESS version 4.6d or 6.6d or newer if you use THEOS 4.x or ACCESS version 4.7d or 6.7d if you use THEOS Corona to solve the problem.

 
08/08/2002
  • Developers reported a problem using ACCESS on THEOS Corona with a THEOS operating system PL higher than 100. This problem has been fixed with the current release of ACCESS.

    As this fix involves the windowing system, please make sure to erase /THEOS/ADDON/THB_WIN*.*:S before you install the new copy of ACCESS. Otherwise, the required window system will not be installed and the problem won't go away.

 
03/21/2002
  • After reporting the problem with the initial screen update, I received a mail from THEOS, that 16 bit programs (like ACCESS) are not supported any more and that ACCESS should be ported to a 32 bit environment. Not a bad idea, it's just too much work and would last to long.

    So I sat down and investigated the problem and came up with a fix to it.

    Please get ACCESS version 6.7a or newer to solve the problem.

    Make sure to erase /THEOS/ADDON/THB_WIN*.*:S before you install the new copy of ACCESS. Otherwise, the required window system will not be installed and the problem won't go away.

 
03/10/2002
  • A first cut of the windowized version of ACCESS is available for the new THEOS Corona operating system. There's a slight problem with the initial screen update (nothing is shown after program start until you press a key). The source to this problem is somewhere in the THEOS Corona code. I will report this problem to THEOS and get if fixed as soon as I can.

    For this version of windowized ACCESS you will need new authorization codes!

    Please contact Ron Gibbs at Phase One Systems.

 
03/01/2002
  • A first cut of ACCESS is available for the new THEOS Corona operating system. The classic version has been ported to this new environment. The windowized version is not yet finished.

    For this version of classic ACCESS you will need new authorization codes!

    Please contact Ron Gibbs at Phase One Systems.

 
10/27/2001
  • New command line option SILENT (can be abbreviated as SIL) suppresses all output but the report (mainly progress messages). This is required when ACCESS is started by a CGI program. The SILENT option includes the NOTYPE option, so you don't have to supply it seperately.
  • ACCESS now verifies that a recent ACCESS.SYSLIB.KEYWORDn file is present. If this file does not contain all required keywords, ACCESS will quit with an error message, saying that the KEYWORD file cannot be opened. The distribution from the download site (see table above) contains a recent keyword file. Language specific versions of this file maintained by the regional distributors must be adapted.
 
08/05/2001
  • Pressing F9 on a pagewait during display of reports on the screen did not make it into 4.5g as mentioned in the list of changes. This has been corrected in 4.5h. This change does not affect the windowized version of ACCESS.
  • Changed version of classic ACCESS to 4.5h. New files are available on the FTP site.
 
02/14/2001
  • Added support for the new THEOS 4.2 operating system. The windowized version needs some files, that are not part of the operating system delivery. See more information on the THB_WIN page.
  • Changed version numbers to 4.6 and 6.6. For this version, you will need to get new registration keys. Please contact Ron Gibbs at Phase One Systems.
 
06/30/2000
  • Display error message in windowed mode if file is too large in demo mode
  • Pressing F9 on a pagewait during display of reports on the screen immediately finishes report display
  • Changed version number to 4.5g and 6.2g, new version available on FTP site
 
06/22/2000
  • Modified undate.c so that dates specified in ASCII with 4 digit year info are not subject to changes by the pivotyear setting
  • Added possibility to modify the filetype of SELCTED.* and SORTED.* files the standard ACCESS implementation does not support these filename for pids larger than 99. If a user has pids larger than 99 he/she can now modify the filetype by setting the environment variable ACCESS_FTYPE to something like 'ACC%03d' which will then in case of a pid 124 will create the files SELECTED.ACC124 or SORTED.ACC124. If this environment variable is not set, ACCESS works as before. It creates the files SELECTED.ACCESS04 or SORTED.ACCESS04 (when the pid is 4). I kept it this way so that existing software will not be affected by this change.

    Important note: Make sure that the value of the environment variable contains the string '%03d' in some space. Please make sure, you used a lower case 'd' using 
    >SHOW ACCESS_FTYPE
 
12/15/1999
  • Modified undate.c so that dates in 1900 will be converted correctly
  • Changed version to 4.5f/6.2f, new version available on FTP site
 
12/05/1999
  • @date in report heading now works correct
  • ESC-D in the ACCESS editor now puts always a four digit year info into the sentence
  • Changed version numbers to 4.5e/6.2e, new version available on FTP site
 
12/04/1999
  • Revised production EXEC to install on private account
  • Revised production EXEC to not install any THB_WIN file when THB_WIN is already installed on the system
  • Fixed problem with 02/29/2000
  • Fixed problem that @date was off by 1 day
  • Changed version numbers to 4.5d and 6.2d
 
12/01/1999
  • Added command line option VER to show the current file versions
  • Changed @date to return correct ordinal values after 12/31/1999
  • Changed version numbers to 6.2c and 4.5c
 
11/21/1999
  • Added command line option DATE4 to print @date in headers with 4 digit year info. This option is only active, if the FULLYEAR keyword is specified in the sentence. This also affects the date format of the header page produced with command line option RHDR.
  • Fixed PRTn command line option that was broken due to the introduction of the new PY option
  • Changed version numbers to 6.2b and 4.5b
07/20/1999
  • Added PIVOTYEAR handling. Dates with 2 digit year info and a value less than PIVOTYEAR are assumed to be in the 21th century. Dates with 2 digit year info and a value greater than or equal to PIVOTYEAR are assumed to be in the 20th century.

    The setting of PIVOTYEAR is controllable using different mechanisms.

    1. If the THEOS system variable DATEIN is set to a value of 2, PIVOTYEAR will have a value of (current_year-50) % 100. This behaviour is system wide, as the DATEIN variable is set for the complete system.

    2. In each account, an environment variable named PIVOTYEAR can be assigned a value using the THEOS commands ACCOUNT or SET. If this environment variable is found when ACCESS is started and it's value is valid, it will be used as the PIVOTYEAR for this run of ACCESS.

    3. If the option PYxxx is given on the command line, and xxx is a valid value for PIVOTYEAR, than this overrides any previous value of PIVOTYEAR.

    In cases 1) and 2) values found are treated modulo 100, i.e. there is no difference in setting PY to 40, 1940 or 2040.

    Setting PIVOTYEAR to -1 disables the PIVOTYEAR handling completely.

  • Changed version numbers to 6.2a and 4.5a
 
01/09/1998
  • Relinked with new THB_WIN runtime code. The atexit() function was never called. This caused problems on an 4.x system with the previous version of the windowed ACCESS. This problem did not occur in the non-windowed version.
  • Changed version number to 6.1f
 
11/25/1998
  • Fixed problem in openfile() when CONTROL.VOC or ACCESS.SYSLIB.VOC where not found inside a subdirectory.
  • Changed version numbers to 6.1e and 4.4e
 
08/15/1998
  • Fixed problem in openfile() introduced with the support of filesearch in subdirectories and if not found in root directory. This did not work if filetypes other than sequential were involved.
  • Changed version numbers to 6.1d and 4.4d
 
05/06/1998
  • Modified openfile() to search in current directory and if a file not found occurs, try to find in root directory.
  • Changed version numbers to 6.1c and 4.4c
 
04/19/1998
  • Converted to new serialization/user count mechanism. PRODCIP does not work anymore. One needs to have THBSER or RTHBSER to serialize the files ACCESS.COMMAND, ACCESS.SYSLIB.OVERLAY*
  • Changed version numbers to 6.1b and 4.4b
 
03/10/1998
  • Fixed problem with Break-C under THEOS 4.0 when sorting was selected
  • Fixed a problem that was introduced with the previous version because the ACCESS.SYSLIB.KEYWORDn file contains more than 256 keywords. This was a hard coded limit and caused some problems.
  • Changed versions numbers to 6.1a and 4.4a
 
08/13/1998
  • Rewrote getucb() from scratch to support 2.2+, 3.1/3.2 and 4.0
  • Added new getpl() and getll() supplied by THEOS Software Corp.
  • Rewrote getlub() from scratch to support 2.2+, 3.1/3.2 and 4.0
  • Finished adding stuff for support of up to 16 printers. On THEOS 4.0 we now support them. If ACCESS is running on 2.2+ or 3.1/3.2 it only supports four printers. If a printer larger than 4 is specified, then it will automatically fall back to PRT1.

    Special care must be taken about the ACCESS.SYSLIB.KEYWORDn file: In order to be able to support more than four printers, new keywords had to be defined. They are contained in the version I shipped to POS, but if someone has an international version of this file they have to adapt it.

 
07/18/1997
  • Added new supplied getucb() from THEOS to allow interpreting ucb pointers of connected network (THEOS workstation) users.
  • Modified user count algorithm to support network users
 
09/14/1996
  • Changed complete development environment to be able to compile both, a windowed (new) and an unwindowed (old) version of ACCESS.
  • Rebuild the makefile to reflect the above changes
 
05/16/1996
  • The error display at startup has been revised.
  • The attribute list was completely broken due to the fix dated 07/13/96 But we reanimated it ....
 
07/28/1996
  • User count has been fixed. ACCESS always thought it was used as a demo copy and supported only a single user
  • The menu line will be removed when entering the VOC function on THEOS 4.0
  • ACCESS now requires at least THB_WIN version 2.0.21 (for THEOS 3.1/3.2) and 4.0.2 (for THEOS 4.0) or higher
 
07/13/1996
  • Pressing 'ESC, ESC, V, A, F9, ESC, ESC, H, CR, ESC' did not reset the cursor to the editor window.
  • Changed the user count to all active foreground tasks. Background tasks running ACCESS still don't count as users. Two sessions on one terminal count as two users. ACCESS now works with 'current PID > user count'
 
11/21/1995
  • ACCESS returned RC=16352 instead of 0. This is due to a THEOS bug when using the atexit() function inside a 16 bit program (like ACCESS) under the 3.1/3.2 32 bit operating system. I fixed this inside THB_WIN. This was easier than patching the O/S.
  • ACCESS did not skip the error display when started with the NOEDIT option and waited for a user input.
 
08/20/1995
  • Revised cleaning the typeahead buffer. Problem still occured, when holding down the CR key when displaying a sentence. This is now fixed. I do see the last page of the report as long as I hold down the CR key. When releasing the key, ACCESS returns to the editor (maybe a nice feature/bug)
  • During the display of a report, a user might use BREAK-W to quit the display and return to the editor. ACCESS will now reset the BREAK-W status after a report is displayed.
  • After displaying a report, ACCESS will remove all characters from the keyboard typeahead buffer. This will prevent the report in the editor being trashed.
 
08/08/1995
  • The partial sentence display upon an error like "No records selected" was not cleared after display. This caused the buffer to overflow and ugly aweful things could happen. Fortunately fixed (5.26 minutes)
  • The message to use ESC-ESC at the bottom of the screen to get into the menu will only appear, if the sequence will have any effect
  • The problem with some hidden window (wasn`t a hidden window at all) has been fixed. No more keystrokes will disappear and the cursor is no more locked inside a hidden (bar-less) cage.
  • The window to get/put has been reduced by 2 characters
 
06/18/1995
  • Changed the VOC function back to the original menu line. Using the old source with the new menu style does not match at all. This module must be completely re-written.
  • Incorporated Susie's first shot of the help file.
  • Fixed the 'atexit()' support for 286 programs. This could have caused the 'scrolling GP' Ron reported.
 
06/07/1995
  • The HELP stuff finaly made it into ACCESS. This requires a THB_WIN version 2.0.19 or higher. The help file must be named

    ACCESS.SYSLIB.HELP or ACCESS.SYSLIB.HELPn

    for the standard or foreign version. The help item is displayed at the right to be on top of the help menu. This requires the latest version of ACCESS.SYSLIB.MENU1.
 
This is how far back my records go. I must have started earlier, because there is no word about changes made to incorporate the windows features into ACCESS. I hope you enjoyed reading the above, even though some of the comments might not make any sense to you.