HP Eloquence Runtime on Windows

Release Notes

HP Eloquence Runtime on Windows

This document provides additional information on the HP Eloquence runtime (eloqcore) on the Windows platform.

Directory structure

When the HP Eloquence runtime is installed, the setup program creates a directory tree at the given location (usually something along C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\HP Eloquence). The installation directory is also recorded in the Registry Database (see below).

The directrory tree is similar to the already familiar one as created on HP-UX.

Directory Description
etc Configuration files
bin Executables
lib Library files
include Include files
html Online documentation
dlg Files related to the Dialog System

Directory	Description
etc	Configuration files
bin	Executables
lib	Library files
include	Include files
html	Online documentation
dlg	Files related to the Dialog System

The eloq.config and eloq.rc configuration files

The eloq.config configuration file is used to hold the machine global eloqcore configuration. It is searched for in the etc subdirectory.

The eloq.rc configuration file is used to hold a specific user configuration. It is searched for in the directory pointed to by the HOME environment variable.

In order to support printing on Windows, an additional printer type SYSTEM has been added in addition to the familiar PIPE and FILE types. When a printer is defined as type SYSTEM, the Windows printer name must follow. Please note, that the printer name must be written exactly as in Windows. HP Eloquence does not use the GDI, instead all data are directly passed to the printer. That means, that your programs must send the appropriate data and ESC sequences for the particular printer model.

For example:

PRINTER 0 SYSTEM "HP LaserJet 4/4M Plus PS 600"
PRINTER 0 SYSTEM "\\E35\LJ4"

In addition, the printer types PIPE and FILE work as usual. However, since Windows NT does not include a command line spooler interface you have to provide your own. Please note, that you can not use a PORT with Windows.

All pathes should be specified using a slash (/) instead of a backslash (\) as a directory separator. Eloqcore internally translates all pathes into UNIX style pathes. However this is currently not done when processing the eloq.rc configuration file. (Windows accepts slash as well as a backslash as a path separator. Slashes only have a special meaning for the Windows command line processor.)

Invoking HP Eloquence

When invoked from the commandline, eloqcore currently behaves like a command line utility and sends its output on stdout and stderr to the shell window. When started by the EqStart utility or the development environment, it is created "invisible" (no icon appears) and any output to stdout and stderr will be lost. When started by the IDE, the stderr output is redirected into Output Toolwindow. For example, if you specify the -t commandline switch, a list of all executed statements will be logged in the output window.

Eloqcore provides a new -log file commandline switch. This makes it possible to save all output to stderr in a log file even from a shell which is not capable to redirect stderr separately.

Environment Variables

You can use the HOME environment variable to specify a directory where Eloquence will look for a user specific eloq.rc configuration file.

Additionally, the SHELL or COMSPEC environment variables are used to determine how to open a command shell (see below).

Registry usage

HP Eloquence uses several registry settings under \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Hewlett-Packard\HP Eloquence. Each registry setting in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE can be overridden for the current user by an equivalent entry in HKEY_CURRENT_USER.

The Directories group is intended to help HP Eloquence to locate its files. The most important entry is Directories\BaseDirectory: It must contain the path of the installation directory, else eloqcore will refuse to run. Other possible keys in this group can be the specific "subdirectory" names. When they are not installed at the same location, a key must be present which points to the actual location. This is taken care of by the setup program.

The Shell key can be used to define a different command shell (command processor). By default, HP Eloquence uses whatever is defined in the SHELL or COMSPEC environment variable. A shell defined by the SHELL environment variable is expected to be UNIX compliant, whatever is pointed to by the COMSPEC environment variable is expected to follow DOS conventions. When none of them is defined, it will fallback to CMD.EXE on Windows NT and COMMAND.COM on Windows 95.

However, since the default Windows shell is rather challenged (read incomplete, lacking features), you may want to define a different shell (some of the GNU utilities, including the shell and related utilities have been ported to Windows NT. Please refer to The GNU-WIN32 Project Page at Cygnus for more information).

For example, to use the MKS Korn shell (if you have it installed), the key value for Shell might be f:/mks/mksnt/sh.exe -c.

Message Catalogs

Windows does not support message catalogs. In order to create a message catalog, we have included a gencat utility. Please note, that message catalogs are not binary compatible between HP-UX and Windows NT. You need to compile the message catalog for each platform.

Usage: gencat catfile msgfile ...

The gencat command merges each message source msgfile into a message catalog catfile. If catfile does not exist, it is created. If catfile exists, its messages are included in the new catfile. If set and message numbers collide, the new message text in file replaces the old message text in catfile.

A msgfile consists of message, directive and comment lines (all without leading spaces or tabs) described below. Except as noted, fields are separated by one or more space or tab characters.

$set s [comment]

A $set directive specifies the set s, of the messages that follow until the next $set or end-of-file appears. The set number s is an unsigned integer in the range 1 through 255. Any string following the set number is treated as a comment. If a $set directive is not specified, messages are put in the default set.

Set numbers must be in ascending order within a msgfile but need not be contiguous.

$delset s [comment]

A $delset directive deletes the message set identified by the set number s, from an existing message catalog. Any string following the set number is treated as a comment.

$delset s [comment]

A message line specifies a message number m, and associated message text. The message number m is an unsigned integer in the range 1 through 32767. The message_text is a C string, including spaces, tabs and \ (backslash) escapes, but by default without surrounding quotes (see $quote directive below). The message number m is separated from the message_text by a single space or tab character. The message_text begins with the first character following the separator and ends at new-line. Extra spaces or tabs (including any trailing spaces or tabs) are considered part of the message_text.

The message_text of a message line is stored incatfile with message number m and set number s specified by the most recent $set directive.

Message numbers must be in ascending order within a set but need not be contiguous.

Note that the space or tab separator distinguishes insertion of a null message from deletion of a message. If a message line has a number and separator but no text, the message number and an associated null message string are stored in catfile. If a message line has a number but neither separator nor text, the message number and its associated message text are deleted from catfile.

$quote q [comment]

A $quote directive specifies a quote character q, used to surround message_text and make leading and trailing space visible in a message line. Any string following the specified quote character q is treated as a comment. By default, or if a quote character q not is supplied, quoting of message_text is not recognized.

$ comment

A $ followed by a space or tab is treated as a comment and can appear anywhere in a file. A line consisting of zero or more spaces or tabs is treated as a comment line.