Screen generator

A screen generator, also known as a screen painter,screen mapper, ^[1] or forms generator is a software package (or component thereof) which enables data entry screens to be generated declaratively, by "painting" them on the screen WYSIWYG-style, or through filling-in forms, rather than requiring writing of code to display them manually. ^{[2] [3] [4] [5]} 4GLs commonly incorporate a screen generator feature. ^[6] They are also commonly found bundled with database systems, especially entry-level databases. ^[7] A screen generator is one aspect of an application generator, which can also include other functions such as report generation and a data dictionary. ^{[8] [9]} The earliest screen generators were character-based; by the 1990s, GUI support became common, and then support for generating HTML forms as well. Some screen generators work by generating code to display the screen in a high-level language (for example, COBOL); others store the screen definition in a data file or in database tables, and then have a runtime component responsible for actually displaying the form and receiving and validating user input.

Examples

Examples of screen generators include:

• IBM Screen Definition Facility II: ^[10] generates screens for CICS BMS, IMS MFS, ISPF, GDDM and CSP/AD. ^[11]
• Performix for Informix. ^{[5] [12]}
• Microsoft Visual Basic ^[13]
• the forms component of Microsoft Access ^[7]
• Oracle Developer, ^[13] in particular its Oracle Forms component
• the QDesign component of PowerHouse
• SystemBuilder/SB+
• the Screen Painter component of SAP's ABAP Workbench ^[14]
• the FoxView component of FoxPro. ^{[15] [16] [17]} FoxView was originally developed by Luis Castro as a dBASE screen generator named ViewGen; Fox purchased it and bundled it with FoxPro 1.0. ^[18] Later, Fox replaced Castro's code with their own screen painter code. ^[19]
• dBASE included a built-in screen generator in dBASE IV onwards; ^{[20] [21]} in dBASE III and earlier, third party screen generators were available, including the already mentioned ViewGen ^[18]
• DPS 1100 for UNIVAC 1100 series mainframes. ^{[22] [23]}

References

1. Pratt, Philip J.; Adamski, Joseph J. (1991). Database Systems: Management and Design. Boyd & Fraser Publishing Company. p. 627. ISBN   978-0-87835-579-2.
2. Budde, Reinhard; Kautz, Karlheinz; Kuhlenkamp, Karin; Züllighoven, Heinz (2012-12-06). Prototyping: An Approach to Evolutionary System Development. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN   978-3-642-76820-0.
3. Hoffman, Paul E. (1982-07-05). "SCR Screen Manager, a screen generator by Reddox". InfoWorld . 4 (26): 58.
4. Del Rossi, Robert (1 October 1990). "The state of screen generators". Data Based Advisor. 8 (10) – via ACM Digital Library.
5. Bowerman, Robert (July 1983). "Relational database systems for micros". Datamation . 29 (7): 132 – via Internet Archive.
6. Gray, M. M.; Fisher, G. E. (1991-03-01). "Functional Benchmarks for Fourth Generation Languages". NIST.
7. Gillenson, Mark L.; Ponniah, Paulraj; Kriegel, Alex; Trukhnov, Boris M.; Taylor, Allen G.; Powell, Gavin (2007-03-16). Wiley Pathways Introduction to Database Management. John Wiley & Sons. p. 49. ISBN   978-0-470-10186-5.
8. "Key elements of CASE kits: Prototyping, code generators". Computerworld . 21 (16): 74. 1987-04-20 – via Google Books.
9. Babb, Elizabeth A. (1985). "Increasing Productivity with the Application Generator Interface" . Journal of Information Systems Management. 2 (2): 57–67. doi:10.1080/07399018508967756. ISSN   0739-9014.
10. Bert, Joseph J. Le (1993). CICS Essentials: For Application Developers and Programmers. McGraw-Hill. p. 19. ISBN   978-0-07-035869-0.
11. "Screen Definition Facility II". Lookup Mainframe Software. Retrieved 2025-01-04.
12. Schussel, George (February 1983). "Mapping out the DBMS territory" (PDF). Data Management Magazine. ISSN   0148-5431. OCLC   1796752.
13. Langer, Arthur M. (2013-03-14). Analysis and Design of Information Systems. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 162–164. ISBN   978-1-4757-3492-8.
14. Markandeya, Sushil; Roy, Kaushik (2014-11-17). SAP ABAP: Hands-On Test Projects with Business Scenarios. Apress. p. 649. ISBN   978-1-4302-4804-0.
15. Campbell, Greg (1988-11-15). "FoxBASE Plus/LAN". PC Magazine . 7 (19): 261.
16. Duncan, Judy (1991-08-19). "FoxPro speeds up query results". InfoWorld . 13 (33): 57.
17. Bauman, John (1990-06-01). "SnapApp: the application generator for FoxPro". Data Based Advisor. 8 (6): 12–14.
18. "The History of FoxPro - People That Contributed With Other xBase Tools". www.foxprohistory.org. Retrieved 2025-01-04.
19. Nietz, Kerry (2003). FoxTales: Behind the Scenes at Fox Software. Hentzenwerke. p. 99. ISBN   978-1-930919-50-1.
20. Littlefield, Warren M. (1993-06-04). dBASE-From the Dot Prompt: An Introduction to Structured Programming Using dBASE IV. State University of New York Press. pp. 205–220. ISBN   978-1-4384-1107-1.
21. Ross, Paul W. (1995-10-25). The Handbook of Software for Engineers and Scientists. CRC Press. p. 601. ISBN   978-0-8493-2530-4.
22. "Univac Combines Screen Generator, Handler". Computerworld . 15 (1): 93. January 5, 1981 – via Google Books.
23. Sperry 1100/60 System (PDF). Data Pro. July 1985. p. 13.