Environmental Considerations

Thoroughbred Basic can run under an operating system or an operating environment generated by an operating system. This section describes the operating system services used by the Thoroughbred Basic system and the applications created under this system, and it discusses how to fit the system within an operating system environment that makes use of windows.

Operating System Services

The Thoroughbred Basic system, and the applications developed under this system, can request services from the resident operating system. The four major types of operating system services are:

Memory Management Services: Thoroughbred Basic requests Random Access Memory (RAM) from the operating system to store programs and data.

In most cases, these requests are implicit. In cooperation with Thoroughbred Basic, the operating system manages the allocation and de-allocation of RAM.

Mass Storage Services: Thoroughbred Basic uses operating system facilities to save, retrieve, and manage program files and data files.

In most cases, requests for storage need minimal information, such as the name under which a new file will be saved and the disk where the file will be placed. Operating system facilities allocate space, update file tables, and so on.

Communication Port Services: Thoroughbred Basic uses these services to communicate with peripheral devices such as printers, modems, other computer systems, point-of-sale devices, and plotters.

In most cases, requests for communication port services need minimal information, such as the name of a port or a terminal. Operating system facilities manage most data transmission issues.

Task Management Services: Thoroughbred Basic relies on the operating system to control data flow to and from individual tasks. In most cases, task management means managing terminal communications. However, task management can extend to a task that does not have its own terminal, such as a ghost task or a task driven from a remote computer.

Part of this service is the recognition of independent tasks and their rights to restrict access to individual data records and data files. These locking facilities are necessary in a multi-user environment.

In most cases, Thoroughbred Basic issues implicit requests for task management services.

Windowing Systems

Many operating systems provide a user interface manager, which can be implemented in a variety of ways. A user interface manager can be a hotkey service facility or a graphical user interface (GUI).

Thoroughbred Basic does not prevent you from using these facilities. In most cases, it will run under user interfaces that are application-independent, so if a Thoroughbred Basic application does not need to know that the interface exists, the application will run.

Some user interface managers implement a graphical user interface as a windowed operating environment. A terminal that can display multiple windows can run multiple Thoroughbred Basic tasks by starting Thoroughbred Basic in each window. If you plan to run Thoroughbred Basic under a windowed operating environment, you may need to modify the TERMINAL file.

Each Thoroughbred Basic terminal requires a unique Thoroughbred Basic task ID, which is also called a terminal ID. In many windowed environments, each open window can be regarded as a terminal. Each window that contains an instance of Thoroughbred Basic requires a unique task ID.

In this case, you must make sure that the system name for each window that runs Thoroughbred Basic is specified in the TERMINAL file. For example, imagine that want two windows on one terminal to concurrently run Thoroughbred Basic. If the operating system window manager calls the first window tty01a and the second tty01b, you must specify both names in the TERMINAL file.

For more information on the TERMINAL file, please refer to TERMINAL File

TCONFIG FILES

These Thoroughbred Basic files contain specifications and definitions that enable Thoroughbred Basic to manage terminal hardware. You can create or modify a set of terminal specifications, which is called a terminal table.

Terminal tables are necessary because terminal manufacturers use different sets of standards to build their terminals. Most terminals use the same character codes to specify printable characters. For example, a hexadecimal value of 20 usually specifies a space character and a hexadecimal value of 41 usually specifies the A character. However, the character codes used to specify unprintable characters, control sequences, edit codes, and function key codes vary widely throughout the industry.

You can use the terminal tables in the TCONFIG files to specify character codes for unprintable characters and provide the interface that will allow Thoroughbred Basic to make full use of terminal capabilities. Information contained in the TCONFIG files includes:

The terminal tables Thoroughbred Basic requires for terminal input and output. The tables are listed by manufacturer name and model number.
A list that specifies the terminal table Thoroughbred Basic will associate with each task ID. The task ID, which is also called the terminal ID, is assigned by the position of the system port name in the TERMINAL file. For more information on the TERMINAL file, please refer to the following section.

The TCONFIG files are called TCONFIGW, TCONFIG8, and TCONFIG:

The TCONFIGW file enables Thoroughbred Basic to make use of Dictionary-IV and Thoroughbred Basic Windows.

Thoroughbred Dictionary-IV is one of the application development systems. It can provide many resources to Thoroughbred Basic. For more information on these resources please refer to the chapter on the Dictionary-IV Interface in the Thoroughbred Basic Developer Guide.

Thoroughbred Basic Windows is a windowing system that enables you to create pop-up help systems, menu systems, and other program features commonly associated with windowing systems. For more information on Thoroughbred Basic Windows, please refer to the Thoroughbred Basic Developer Guide.

If you have terminals with graphics capabilities, if you plan to use Dictionary-IV, or if you plan to develop applications that make use of the Thoroughbred Basic Windows graphical user interface, you must use this file.

The TCONFIGW file is available starting with Thoroughbred Basic 8.1.
The TCONFIG8 file does not enable you to use Dictionary-IV or Thoroughbred Basic Windows.

If you have terminals that do not support graphics functions, if you do not plan to use Dictionary-IV, or if you plan to develop applications that are text-based and linear, you may need to use this file.

The TCONFIG8 file is available starting with Thoroughbred Basic 8.0.
The TCONFIG file does not enable you to use Dictionary-IV or Thoroughbred Basic Windows. The TCONFIG file is available in releases prior to Thoroughbred Basic 8.0.

Thoroughbred Basic requires you to use at least one of these files. The TCONFIG files are placed in the /UTILS directory under the Thoroughbred Basic home directory. You may not have all three of these files.

To modify the TCONFIGW or TCONFIG8 file, you can use the information and procedures described in How to Install Terminals in Volume I of the Thoroughbred Basic Customization and Tuning Guide. The install utility described in that chapter uses the *NPSD utility to modify these files. For more information on the *NPSD utility, please refer to the Thoroughbred Basic Utilities Manual.

From the Customization and Tuning Guide: System Files, version 8.9.1. Open this page in the PDF