POWER_TB.ZIP - POWER TBROWSE
Release 1.02 - 25 May 1993 - ZIP format

Exploit the full power of Clipper's tBrowse by stacking many
fields in a single column, word wrapping long text in a single
column, filtering, editing and more!

TBrowse is a very powerful utility included as part of Clipper 5.
Unfortunately, the Clipper documentation, even the new
documentation with release 5.2, does not explain the full power
of tBrowse. Example programs supplied with Clipper, and available
from Computer Associates (and formerly Nantucket) as after market
help are generally poorly commented, complex, and difficult to
understand. This leaves you to discover how to fully exploit
tBrowse by experiment, or to live in ignorance. Well, now you
have a third option available to you via POWER_TB.ZIP.

I have spent dozens of hours single stepping through tBrowse
code that I have developed and instrumented, unravelling the way
that tBrowse operates. This has allowed me to implement much
more powerful tBrowse routines than before, often avoiding the
need to develop customised table browsing code for my
applications. For instance; the plain vanilla tBrowse explained
in the Clipper documentation allows you to put one field in one
column of one row - fine if you have short fields and lots of
columns. But what if your client wants to see all of the data
for one record on the screen at once, or if you have long text
fields? Well, tBrowse DOES allow you to do this by stacking
fields in a column, or by wrapping text within a column, but how
to do it is not explained in the documentation. I have found
out how to do this, as well as such simple tricks as editing
and filtering, and the results are included in the source code
files of POWER_TB.ZIP.

The following source code files are included in POWER_TB.ZIP.:

        tbSimple.prg    A simple tBrowse example.
        tbSimpl2.prg    A simple tBrowse example with editing.
        tbFilt1.prg     A filtered tBrowse without SET FILTER.
        tbFilt2.prg     Another way of filtering a tBrowse
                        without SET FILTER.
        tbStack1.prg    Several fields stacked in one column of a
                        tBrowse.
        tbStack2.prg    As tbStack1 with empty fields omitted.
        tbWrap1.prg     A long text field is word wrapped into a
                        single column of the tBrowse.

I have included the very simple examples, and the examples of how
to filter without the use of SET FILTER for completeness. There
is also an example database called "supplier.dbf" that is used
by the example programs. This contains details taken from an old
product directory circulated by Nantucket, so don't take any of
the product information as gospel! It's only used as an example,
and I have used Nantucket as the filter criterion to avoid any
charge of favouritism.

Place the source files and the example database in a subdirectory
under c:\clipper5\source, or wherever you normally put your
source code. You can use the supplied batch file power_tb.bat to
compile and link the code if you have generated the BASE50
pre-linked library file. If you haven't, do so right away - it
will save you disk space and link time! Alternatively, you can
compile and link however you normally do. 

Execute each program to see the effects described above. I have
deliberately kept the bells and whistles in each program to a
minimum to make each effect easier to see and understand, rather
than doing everything in one massively complex example. If you
like what you see, you now have a choice - you can either
examine the source code yourself to understand how it works (and
each example is fairly easy to follow if you are well
experienced in Clipper programming) OR you can take the easy
route and buy my full report on tBrowse - "tBrowse Techniques".

The report contains over 70 pages of text, figures and example
code, and explains the way the examples work in much more detail
than could be done through the use of comments. The report not
only explains how each of the examples works in detail, but also
explains the operation of a tBrowse object from the simplest
basics of object oriented programming, through the way that it
works with the data sources and screen display, up to the full
functionality of the examples contained in POWER_TB.ZIP. This is
done in far more detail than the documentation supplied with
Clipper, so that you can see how to develop your own tBrowse
techniques.

POWER_TB.ZIP and the source code files contained are hereby
placed in the public domain, and may be freely copied and
distributed, subject only to the following caveats. However,
please respect the time and effort that I have put into
investigating the tBrowse object and producing the examples in
POWER_TB.ZIP, and comply with the following conditions:

1. No charge may be made for distributing POWER_TB.ZIP, apart
   from a small fee for copying and administration.

2. POWER_TB.ZIP must be distributed complete and without
   alteration, including this file, the source code files listed
   above, and the example database. You may not copy or
   distribute the source code, or functional fragments thereof,
   to others except in the form of the complete compressed file
   POWER_TB.ZIP.

3. You may include the source code, or fragments thereof,
   distributed with POWER_TB.ZIP in your own programs without
   restriction. I ask only that if you use the code in a
   commercial application, you purchase a copy of the report.
   You'll find it worth it from the additional possibilities it
   opens up.
   
The special report, TBrowse Techniques, professionally presented
in a handy lay-flat spiral binding, costs just œ15 (including
postage and packing to addresses in the UK. Overseas orders
should add œ2 for surface shipping, œ5 for air mail.) Please
send cheques, postal or money orders, or cash to:

        D B Boettcher
        19 Millbank Close
        Chelford
        Cheshire SK11 9SJ
        ENGLAND
        
Please make cheques, etc. payable to D B Boettcher. Sorry, I
can't accept payment by Credit Card or in Overseas Currency at
the moment. You can contact me via the UK Computer Associates
Bulletin Board on 0753 550 707; 8 data, 1 stop, no parity.

If you would like a disk of the source code from TBrowse
Techniques, which includes the latest versions of the examples
contained in POWER_TB.ZIP and some more example code, please add
œ5, and specify whether you require a 3.5" or 5.25" disk.