🚀 go-pugleaf

 I too recently purchase a copy of Regent Base with the hopes of using it to
maintain mailing list, etc.

 I first tried to use some of the example programmes supplied on the disc and
quickly ran into problems.  I tried for 5 evenings to work around the problems
and evenutally wrote a 5 page letter to Regent Software, Attn. Frank Cohen.
About two days later I received a phone call from Mr. Cohen thanking me for my
letter and he preceeded to answer each of my questions or problems I itemised
in the letter.

  In short Regent Base has a long way to go before it's very useful.  I
feel that, for myself, my money would have been better spent on dinner.

  For those of you who want detailed information, I've included parts of my
letter to him and I've tried to recall each of his answers.


No Sequel Editor Documentation:
I have the documentation for V1.0 and although it does discuss some of the
things in the Forms Editor, there is no documentation for the Sequel Editor.
In spite of this, I have been able to use it as it is very similar to the
Procedure Editor in the Forms Editor.

	Note: Sequel is the language in which you write your database
	programmes.  It's like the language BASIC, sans flow control statements
	except for a sort-of GO TO.  Regent Base comes with two types of
	editors, Sequel and Forms.  The Forms editor is used to construct a GEM
	screen format and the Sequel editor is used to construct your database
	programmes.  All the editors are very primitive.

	Apparently the software was release without any documentation for
	the Sequel Editor and the manual is being rewritten.

Sequel Editor long line bug:
Enter a line of characters almost extending the full width of the screen.
Now move to the middle or beginning of that line.  Press the INSERT key
repeatedly until the previously typed characters move off the right edge of
the screen.  Now press the DELETE key to erase those inserted blank characters.
After a while you will notice that there is an infinite source of characters
from the right edge of the screen -- far more than you originally typed in.

	There are many bugs in the two Sequel editors and they are being
	fixed or worked around.  I expressed my displeasure of having to learn
	another editor in order to create my Regent Base programmes and I asked
	how I could create my progammes using another editor (emacs).  He said
	it was just an ascii text file and I could use any editor to create my
	programmes.  I'm doubt if he has tried this as I found that if you
	saved a programme using the Sequel editor(s) the files had formatting
	characters or something in them.  It wasn't as straight forward as I
	hoped.

Sequel Editor can't write to other disc:
Select the "Save Form" option from the drop-down menu.  Enter pathname of
another disc, for example D:\FOO.  The editor will display an alert box with
the message "Path not found".

	One of the bugs to be repaired.

Forms Editor cancel bug:
You can crash the Forms Editor by entering the Forms Editor from MENU.PRG.
Select the Procedure Editor from the drop down menu.  Select the
"Save Procedure" item from the drop down menu.  Select the cancel button on the
resulting dialogue Box.  Watch 2 bombs appear on your screen.

	One of the bugs to be repaired.

Forms Editor can't close window bug:
Start the Forms Editor from the main programme MENU.PRG.  The Forms Editor
starts-up with an empty window.  Select the close box -- the window will not
close.  Now move the mouse onto the menu bar causing a menu to dropped down,
and then deselect the drop-down menu by pressing a mouse button outside of the
menu.  Now press the close box on the window -- the window closes.

	A bug in GEM (?)

Dialogue box bug:
In the dialogue boxes in the Forms Editor used to name files, you can create a
file with a colon ':' in it, such as A:FOO.  This creates the file 'A:FOO' on
the default disc (bug).  Other programmes cannot find this file because the ':'
is often interpreted as a delimiter and not part of the filename.

	Apparently Regent Software has there own set of dialogue boxes rather
	than the ones supplied in GEM.  He said they would be using the GEM
	dialogue boxes in the future.

Return Address bug in MAILRPT.FRM:
The line that determines the return address from the MAILLIST.TBL should be
changed from NAME^"MYADDRESS" to NAME="MYADDRESS".

	The ^ operator means "like" when matching two strings.  The "like"
	operator will match the null string.  I think this is a bug but
	Mr. Cohen wasn't convinced.

Sorting problem:
I attempted to use the sort programme as described in the documentation and
consistently had trouble.  I enter data into the MAILLIST.TBL via the entry
form and then I return to the mail menu and select the SORT item.  The sort
programme displays it dialogue box and I enter the file MAILLIST as the
database to sort and then I enter fields NAME, SORT1, SORT2 and then I select
the option to begin sorting.  The programme then displays its activity box and
it counts up for a ways then then display and error message:
"That field does not exist" and stops.

	The sort programme doesn't work correctly on a 1040ST.  It's also
	slow.  Mr. Cohen said it's being rewritten.


Some MAILRPT.FRM options do not work:
When I use the PHONE BOOK or Federal Express Label printer options from the
report form I get a "Can't tab backwards" error.

	I didn't really get a good answer on this.  Apparently the message
	occurs when a previous string is longer than the field it uses.

"OUTPUT TO" cannot use the modem port:
Currently the Regent Base OUTPUT TO directive cannot output to the modem port
on the ST.  I need to output to the modem port as I don't use a printer
connected to the ST but rather another computer.  The CONTROL.ACC desk
accessory allows the user to indicate that the system printer is either on the
printer port or on the modem port. 

	This was my biggest complaint.  In future versions provision will be
	made to output to the modem port.

Form Editor labels are unreadable:
When displaying the labels of items in a Form by selecting the Show Labels
option from the menu, the labels are draw in such a way that they overlap or
they are off of the screen. 

	Future versions will have the labels display inside of their
	corresponding fields.


The documentation indicates there is limited space in the Regent Base Sequel
Editor or Procedure editor for programme text (I think it was 8 pages or so).
Consequently Regent Base programmes are all scrunched up and not very easy to
read.  Is that limitation (8 pages of programme text) also present in the
Regent Base interpretor ?

	The limit in the interpretor is 64K of text.  The 8 page limit is in
	the editors only.

The font used in the Sequel and Procedure editors editors is ugly.
How can I change that font to a different font or to the system font ?

	The font is a DEGAS font file SYSTEM.FNT.  I tried to replace it with
	another font but it didn't work.


Glenn
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Glenn C. Scott
System Development Corporation, 2525 Colorado Ave, Santa Monica, CA. 90406 
213-820-4111 X5653	UUCP: glenn@sdcrdcf.UUCP   ARPA: Scott@DOCKMASTER.ARPA