Comment on Forms Developers Guide

[Stanley A. Klein]

Jason -

I saw your request for comments on the Developers Guide in the latest
Kernel Cousins.  Here are some comments on the draft Developers Guide:

1.  One thing I would make a high priority in writing the Guide is to
update and include the form tags description tables in Section 18 of the
Forms Technical Reference.  These tables appear to be out-of-date in
comparison to the text in some of the Developers Guide and they seem to me
to give a quick overview to the allowable contents and functionality of a
gfd file.

It looks to me like they are intended to go into Appendix B.  If not, I
would create an additional appendix.

2.  Another comment (that follows up on my previous post regarding learning
to use Designer) is to suggest that you discuss some of the datasource
linking issues in terms of SQL constructs and not limit yourself to
master-detail relationships.  You did some of this in the discussion of
conditions, and it helped my understanding.

3.  Something it seems to me wuuld help early is to explain how to
configure a button to bring up another form.  This could provide an early
substitute for a dropdown that allows a new entry to be made if the desired
entry is not already there.  (For some reason I think of that as a "combo
box" but I don't know if it is an existing or planned capability.  In any
event adding a new entry to a dropdown would likely involve other
parameters that go along with the dropdown entry.  For example, adding a
new customer or supplier would need to bring up the customer or supplier
data form.  If that isn't easy to implement at an early version, providing
an "add new customer" button might be easy.  Of course, someone could also
get there using Navigator.  :-)


Stan Klein