FAQs

AccuTerm 7 Release 7.1: the AccuTerm 7 User Manual has some information about customizing the installation process. You can create a setup.ini file to specify answers to most of the installation prompts. The installer can be invoked with /SILENT or /VERYSILENT options. /VERYSILENT performs a completely silent install while /SILENT displays the installation progress. Note: the format of the setup.ini file used in release 7.1 is different from the format used in prior releases.

AccuTerm 7 Release 7.0: the AccuTerm 7 User Manual has some information about customizing the installation process. You can create a setup.ini file to specify answers to most of the installation prompts. The installer can be invoked with /S or /Q options for a silent install. /S is completely silent while /Q displays the installation progress. Note: the format of the setup.ini file used in release 7.0 is different from the format used in release 7.1

AccuTerm 2K2: The AccuTerm Programmers Guide, Appendix E, has some information on customizing the installation process. You can create a setup.ini file to specify answers to most of the installation prompts. A sample setup.ini file is distributed on the installation CD in the atwin2k2 folder, or you can download a sample setup.ini file. The installer can be invoked with /S or /Q options for a silent install (/S is completely silent, /Q displays the installation progress.

Microsoft has a bug in the Office 2000 installer that is causing this problem, which only occurs for non-administrative users. We have obtained a workaround for this problem from Microsoft which you can download. Click here to download the Office 2000 Fixup program. After downloading, login as administrator and execute the atfixoff.exe program.

Note: this patch may not work if more than one version of Microsoft Office is installed.

Dell has a bug in the Dell Picture Studio installer that is causing this problem, which only occurs for non-administrative users. JASC Software, producers of Dell Picture Studio, have a patch available to correct this problem. You can download the patch from ie_341_fix.exe. After downloading, execute the ie_341_fix.exe program.

There is a bug in the installation program for the product identified in the Windows Installer dialog. Sometimes the Windows Installer is confused when various programs access some shared Windows files. Microsoft has a “Windows Installer Cleanup Utility” available that might resolve this problem. Some programs known to have this problem are Microsoft Office 2000, Dell Picture Studio, Quicken 2005 and SmartSound Quicktracks plugin.

The first release of AccuTerm 97 which is compatible with Windows 2000 is release 3.1e. If you have an earlier release you can download the latest release.

This is caused by Unix stty settings. The “9″ in the cursor address string is actually a binary 9, the same as the ASCII tab character. Unix is expanding tab characters to a series of blanks. Try typing “stty tabs” at the Unix command prompt.

Quirks in the telnet spec and D3’s telnet server cause this. Open the settings dialog and select the Connection or Device tab. In the “host type” field select “D3/NT”. Click OK. From the File menu choose Save to save the changes. Close AccuTerm. Reopen AccuTerm. Note: in older versions of AccuTerm which do not have a “D3/NT” host type, turn off the Binary option in the Advanced settings.

AccuTerm will work with local parallel port or USB printers as well as shared network printers. If you are having problems with a USB printer, make sure your version of AccuTerm is supported by the version of Windows you are running (see version compatibility table). Also, please look at the prior question on Text vs. Graphics mode.

First, make sure your version of AccuTerm is supported by the version of Windows you are running (see version compatibility table). Also, see the discussion of Text vs. Graphics mode.

AccuTerm 7 (and AccuTerm 2K2 release 5.3c) support Print Wizard through the use of special scripts. The original scripts only search for Print Wizard 3. Print Wizard 4 installs in a different path, so updated scripts are necessary. Also, on 64 bit versions of Windows, the original scripts searched in the wrong ‘Program Files’ directory. The updated scripts can be downloaded from here.

Quirks in the telnet spec and D3’s telnet server cause this. Open the settings dialog and select the Connection or Device tab. In the “host type” field select “D3/NT”. Click OK. From the File menu choose Save to save the changes. Close AccuTerm. Reopen AccuTerm. Note: in older versions of AccuTerm which do not have a “D3/NT” host type, turn off the Binary option in the Advanced settings.

Add to the USER-COLDSTART item in DM’s MD:

Then for each user’s logon item in the USERS file, add:

The Windows NT CreateProcess call does not understand redirection, and passes the redirection parameters to the command line of the DOS process. To get around the problem, add COMMAND.COM /C to the command being executed. e.g. ESC:STX:’>COMMAND.COM /C NET VER > X.OUT’

Yes you can! Please visit the AccuTerm® Mobile page for more information!

Apple’s Boot Camp enables the Mac to run other operating systems besides Mac OSX, including Windows. To run AccuTerm using Boot Camp, you need to install Microsoft Windows on the Mac, following the procedure in the Boot Camp documentation. Once Windows is installed and booted, you can install any version of AccuTerm that is compatible with the Windows version you have.

There are two issues to consider when using Boot Camp to run AccuTerm. First, you need a real (licensed) copy of Microsoft Windows to install in the Boot Camp partition. Secondly, you are not able to run your Mac programs and Windows programs at the same time – you need to reboot the Mac into either OSX for Mac programs or Windows for Windows programs.

Yes. You can install a virtual Windows machine on your Mac using VMware Fusion, and when the virtual Windows machine is booted, you can install any version of AccuTerm that is compatible with the Windows version you have.

You can also use your Boot Camp partition with VMware Fusion, so that the virtual machine uses the version of Windows you have installed using Boot Camp. The benefit here is that you can run the virtual Windows machine as a task within the Mac OS. This way, you can run any Windows programs you have installed in Boot Camp, and simultaneously use any of your Mac programs. When maximum performance for Windows is necessary, you can reboot the machine into the Boot Camp partition and run Windows natively.

Yes – see the answer to the previous question. Parallels and Fusion are similar products.

CrossOver Mac is a product from CodeWeavers which allows your Mac to run Windows programs without Windows. It provides a compatibility layer between Mac OSX and the Windows program so that AccuTerm believes that it is running under Windows.

AccuTerm 7, beginning with release 7.0d, is compatible with CrossOver Mac release 10.2.0. AccuTerm 7 release 7.1a-sp3 and 7.1b have been tested with CrossOver Mac release 12.5. This is the easiest way to run AccuTerm on a Mac, as there is no requirement to partition the disk or install Windows. Here are the steps required to run AccuTerm 7 under CrossOver Mac:

1. Install CrossOver Mac 10.2.0 or higher.
2. Open CrossOver.
3. Select option 1: Install Windows Software.
4. When the CrossOver Software Installer window opens, it will automatically update the application list.
5. After the update completes, type “accuterm” in the search box.
6. Select “AccuTerm 7″ from the application list under Unsupported Applications -> Community Supported Applications.
7. Click the Install button.
8. CrossOver will download the latest version of AccuTerm 7 and all dependencies necessary to run AccuTerm.
9. Once the files have been downloaded, CrossOver will launch the Visual Basic 6 Runtime installation. Click Yes to the VB6 license agreement.
10. After installing the VB6 runtime, the AccuTerm 7 installer will launch. Click Next on each page of the AccuTerm 7 Setup Wizard to accept the default installation options. Click the “I accept…” check-box to indicate acceptance of the AccuTerm 7 Software License Agreement. If you want an AccuTerm 7 icon on your desktop, click the “Create shortcut…” check-box.
11. Click Install to begin the installation.
12. Click Finish to complete the installation.
13. Once installed, a Finder window showing the AccuTerm 7 icon will open. Double-click the AccuTerm 7 icon to launch AccuTerm.
14. You can drag the AccuTerm 7 icon from the Finder window to the desktop or the dock. If you hold the Option (alt) key while dragging, the icon will be copied, otherwise it will be moved.

Wine is an open source program, and is the basis for the commercial CrossOver products from CodeWeavers. While you can probably get AccuTerm 7 to run under Wine, there is no support for this, and you most likely will need to compile Wine from the source, using an assortment of development tools. We recommend using CrossOver Mac instead of Wine, unless you are a serious bit twiddler and have a lot of time available for the project.

Yes. You can install a virtual Windows machine on Linux using VMware, and when the virtual Windows machine is booted, you can install any version of AccuTerm that is compatible with the Windows version you have.

CrossOver Linux is a product from CodeWeavers which allows your Intel-based Linux machine to run Windows programs without Windows. It provides a compatibility layer between Linux and the Windows program so that AccuTerm believes that it is running under Windows.

AccuTerm 7 release 7.0d is compatible with CrossOver Linux release 10.2.0, and AccuTerm 7 release 7.1a-sp3 and 7.1b have been tested with CrossOver Linux release 12.5. This is the easiest way to run AccuTerm on Linux, as there is no requirement install Windows. Here are the steps required to run AccuTerm 7 under CrossOver Linux:

1. Install CrossOver Linux 10.2.0 or higher.
2. Launch CrossOver from your Linux applications menu.
3. Click the “Install Windows Software” button.
4. Click the “Update Now” button to update the application list.
5. In the CrossOver Software Installer dialog, type “accuterm” in the search box.
6. Select “AccuTerm 7″ from the application list under Unsupported Applications -> Community Supported Applications.
7. Click the Install button.
8. CrossOver will download the latest version of AccuTerm 7 and all dependencies necessary to run AccuTerm.
9. Once the files have been downloaded, CrossOver will launch the Visual Basic 6 Runtime installation. Click Yes to the VB6 license agreement.
10. After installing the VB6 runtime, the AccuTerm 7 installer will launch. Click Next on each page of the AccuTerm 7 Setup Wizard to accept the default installation options. Click the “I accept…” check-box to indicate acceptance of the AccuTerm 7 Software License Agreement. If you want an AccuTerm 7 icon on your desktop, click the “Create shortcut…” check-box.
11. Click Install to begin the installation.
12. Click Finish to complete the installation.
13. Click Close to close the CrossOver Software Installer window.
14. You can start AccuTerm 7 from the CrossOver window, or by double-clicking the AccuTerm 7 icon on the desktop.

Wine is an open source program, and is the basis for the commercial CrossOver products from CodeWeavers. While you should be able to get AccuTerm 7 running under Wine, there is no support for this, and you may need to compile Wine from the source. We recommend using CrossOver Linux instead of Wine. Check out www.winehq.org for information on installing Wine. Once you have Wine installed, you need to create a “Win XP Bottle”, and install the VB6 runtime before installing AccuTerm. The easiest way to install the runtime in Wine is to install the WineTricks package. Beginning with AccuTerm 7 release 7.1a, after installing AccuTerm 7 you need to open a command prompt in your new bottle and manually register the COM DLLs and OCXs in the AccuTerm program directory using the regsvr32 command.

AccuTerm GUI was designed specifically for users and developers of MultiValue applications who have a need for GUI flavored screens to augment and/or replace existing character-based “green screen” apps. It is suitable for “Pick shops” without Windows programmers, and for those who prefer MultiValue BASIC to other programming languages.

In AccuTerm GUI, all “event handlers” are all written in BASIC code on the MultiValue server. There is no need to write any client-side code: no VB, C or HTML. This means that an experienced Pick programmer can start using it almost immediately, even without training in networks, Windows, “client/server” architectures, VB, C or HTML.

Yes, and more – it’s also a client product. The client, AccuTerm 7’s runtime engine, runs either as a Windows application or inside a browser window. It is a complete client–there’s no need for VB or HTML. The only non-AccuTerm client s/w needed is Internet Explorer, for web-deployed applications. Classic middleware functions, such as seamless, transparent data interchange between client and server and integration tools for legacy code are built into AccuTerm GUI, so it does what middleware products are designed to do. It just uses less “moving parts” than most middleware solutions.

AccuTerm GUI is both. AccuTerm 7 client code, itself written in VB and C, runs on all Windows-based PC’s and is installed with a standard Windows setup program. The server code, written in BASIC, is compatible with all modern MultiValue platforms, from D3 to uniData to mvBase to jBASE. It is installed from an AccuTerm client onto an existing MultiValue account so there is really no Pick-based installation, per se. Server-side (Pick-based) and client-side (Windows based) components interact at design time and run time to deploy forms from the server into Windows-based or Web-based clients, so it’s both server and client, MultiValue and Windows.

On the client side–within AccuTerm 7 set up on the user’s PC–there are design-time components and run-time components. The forms designer is a design-time client tool to “drag and drop” controls–text boxes, radio buttons, pull-downs, etc.–onto forms, with WYSIWYG control over each control’s size, color, alignment, fonts, graphics, etc. The forms designer also specifies “event handling” for various events–click, double-click, validate, etc.–for every control, as needed. At run time, client-side code runs the forms and their controls inside of a Windows dialog or a browser window, handles selected events and reports them back to the server, sends form data to the server and updates GUI controls with data from the server.

AccuTerm is the connection between the client and the server for Windows-based deployment; the Internet (or an intranet) is the connection for web-based deployment. The same forms can be deployed as Windows-based or web-based, without modification. Windows-based deployment requires that the client have a licensed copy of AccuTerm 7.

AccuTerm GUI has a server-side run time library of MultiValue BASIC subroutines, which bring event handlers and forms control to a MultiValue application at run time. (What happens upon each event and what data are passed to and from the form are up to the MultiValue BASIC programmer, and defined on the server side.) Forms can be designed completely on the server, without using any client-based design-time tools. At run time, the server controls deployment of GUI forms to the AccuTerm client-side run time engine. All forms are stored on the server, as ASCII records in a MultiValue file.

No, but experience with the Visual Basic forms designer can accelerate learning the AccuTerm GUI forms designer. There is no need to license any VB or C compilers or HTML editors on any server or client, only Windows–and, for web deployment, Internet Explorer. It does require experience with some flavor of MultiValue BASIC programming language and with the MultiValue database.

No. Forms can be created and modified at runtime with server-side BASIC code, for example, for GUI deployment of existing screen definitions, without using the forms designer. Development of forms can be done completely on the server using MV-based text editors and programs and/or with another AccuTerm tool: WED, a Windows-based screen editor. Many combinations of server-side and client-side forms design are possible, as well.

The AccuTerm GUI forms designer doesn’t support all the different controls available within VB, but those which it does support are every bit as WYSIWYG as VB’s, and easier to use. A lot of rarely used features of VB are eliminated or handled transparently in AccuTerm GUI, and it handles “tab order,” a critical element of forms design, better than VB does.

AccuTerm GUI supports a “core package” of the most commonly used, most powerful and most useful controls from the VB world: MDI forms, labels, text boxes, list boxes, combo boxes, checkboxes, radio buttons, command buttons, grids or tables, frames, pictures, multi-page tabbed forms, tree views, progress meters, menu bars, pop-up or “right-click” menus and toolbars. These controls probably make up 99% of what is done in all Windows-based applications.

Third-party controls for VB are not compatible with AccuTerm GUI, but controls can be tweaked–modified, created, removed, activated, animated, etc.–at runtime with server-side BASIC code. Many complex VB controls not supplied in the AccuTerm GUI core package can be assembled from core controls. For example, a table with clickable header row to specify sort fields–like Windows Explorer in “detail” view–is just a core grid control, with the sorting handled at run time by server-side BASIC code.

A user in a GUI form moves from control to control by pressing the Tab key. Focus moves from control to control, on the form, following the tab order defined for each form, and the control with focus can be activated with the Enter key. Most legacy applications navigate with Tab and Enter keys, so proper tab order is essential to the smooth flow through menus and screens. It is especially important to retain tab order in applications that are deployed as character-based and GUI at the same time. Also, users who navigate with the Tab key–rather than the mouse–keep their hands on the keyboard and are usually more productive than those who point and click.

Field validation, common to almost all Pick legacy applications, requires verifying that the user has entered valid data for one field before allowing the user to move to the next field. Applications written using field validation will not work unless the field validation is maintained, so a Pick legacy app re-deployed as a GUI app must support field validation. In most client/server applications, especially web-based apps, field validation is difficult–requiring JavaScript attached to each field, for example – or impossible. AccuTerm GUI supports field validation transparently, with the “validate” event. The alternative to field validation–“stuff and submit”–is not considered a state-of-the-art method of entering data for “enterprise” or “integrated” applications.

Even simple GUI controls, such as a text box, have many different events to handle and many ways of coding event handlers. There are also more ways to navigate within GUI screens than with character-based screens, which means more event handlers for more events, and more chances for event handler code to go wrong. The “validate” event–supported in AccuTerm GUI and the latest versions of VB–fires whenever the user leaves a field, either by keystroke or mouse click, and is usually sufficient. Simple event-handler code that handles just the validate event is more efficient and maintainable than event-handlers with several different keystroke and/or click events.

Any serial (RS-232C,) PicLan (IPX), telnet (TCP/IP) or secure shell (ssh) AccuTerm connection over comm. port, LAN, WAN or VPN is supported, as well as a special new class of web-based connection in AccuTerm 7. For web-based deployment, AccuTerm actually runs inside a browser window, and the same client-side runtime engine is used as in the other connections. This eliminates having to write browser-based code, supporting two different GUI environments, one for Windows and one for the WWW and having to deploy browser add-ins, like ActiveX controls.

Yes. An application written in AccuTerm GUI will run over a LAN, as part of an intranet; the exact same code will run exactly the same way on the Internet. This simplifies deployment, gives users greater flexibility when connecting to an application remotely, and automatically provides Application Service Provider (ASP) options.

Yes, in that the only client-side Windows code that is deployed is the small footprint AccuTerm 7. At runtime, however, an unlimited number of forms of any size can be running on a client, which gives the effect of a thick client, without the disadvantages. This method is sometimes called “server-side client” architecture, as the client code is centrally stored on and distributed from the server.

One advantage of Visual Basic Windows forms or web-based forms with embedded JavaScript is the ability to do client-side validation of field values. When processing forms using field validation, handling simple format validation–that a field matches a numeric, alpha, currency, date, telephone or SSN format, for example–on the client rather than the server can noticeably decrease network traffic and response time. AccuTerm GUI can validate these and other formats on the client, usually as a precursor to server-side validation; for example, a ZIP code can be validated to be a five digit numeric on the client before the server determines if it’s a valid ZIP code.

AccuTerm GUI screens look like Windows-based GUI screens because they are, at runtime, exactly that–AccuTerm 7 is a Windows-based runtime engine. The AccuTerm GUI programmer can paint forms in the same colors and fonts as the VB programmer, with 3-D or flat controls, pictures on buttons, icons, menu bars, scroll bars and all the trappings of Windows-based applications. Every field can have context-sensitive help, just like in VB screens; keystroke and click events are handled just like in VB screens; in short, AccuTerm GUI screens are indistinguishable from VB GUI screens.

In AccuTerm GUI, all event handlers are written on the server, in MultiValue BASIC code. Forms are stored on the server–as MultiValue records–and deployed from a central repository, on the server, like MultiValue applications have always been. It eliminates the need for VB and HTML authoring tools and any Windows programming–and programmers. A legacy Pick application could be redeployed as a GUI app writing only Pick BASIC code. It was clearly designed with the MultiValue programmer in mind, and is uniquely suited as a middleware tool for redeployment of legacy applications by Pick programmers.

The AccuTerm GUI environment has a library of MultiValue BASIC subroutines that are installed on the server. The design-time software includes a code generator which produces source code a BASIC program that calls ATGUI subroutines to display the form, then drops into an “event loop” that detects the next event triggered by the client, then uses a large CASE statement construct to determine which control fired which event and transfers control to a user-written subroutine which handles the event, then simply executes a RETURN statement. The BASIC event handler gets or sets the values of controls on the form by calling other ATGUI subroutines.

Many existing MultiValue applications are implemented by use of 4GL systems that use “menu processors” and “screen processors.” These 4GL environments have menu definition files and screen definition files, with run-time drivers written in BASIC. By extending these run-time drivers with calls to AccuTerm BASIC subroutines, a MultiValue developer can redeploy the 4GL runtime as an AccuTerm GUI app. Then, all the existing 4GL applications become GUI deployed apps, without having to redeploy each application. This technique gives great leverage to developers who use 4GLs and can be used to convert large character-based applications to GUI apps in a very short time.

AccuTerm GUI is a very fast, clean, robust and easy to use tool for new Windows-based software development. It has a small client footprint and built-in, transparent deployment of client screens from the server. There’s no need to maintain DLL’s on clients or deal with differences between different versions of Windows. And, for Pick houses, AccuTerm GUI means Windows programming without Windows programmers.

Yes. The AccuTerm 7 client has an embedded scripting language, identical to VBA, which can access the properties and methods of any office automation products, including Excel, Word and Outlook. This gives unlimited connectivity and powerful, standard presentation layer options, as well as automatic compatibility with Windows printers and other peripherals.

Go to www.zumasys.com/products/accuterm to download a 30-day trial version of AccuTerm 7. The setup program will install both the Windows client and the MultiValue server. Sample GUI programs are included, as well.

AccuTerm 7 is a complete GUI environment–client, middleware and server–that needs no other bundled client s/w to run–there is no need to buy VB or any HTML authoring tools. Site license options for the client software make the AccuTerm GUI environment one of the least expensive client/server solutions anywhere.