2.1 Preparing Your Application

Little preparation is necessary if you already have an ACUCOBOL-GT program. Thin client supports all ACUCOBOL-GT control types and classical ACCEPT and DISPLAY. It also allows the use of ActiveX controls, provided that the controls are installed on the client machine.

If your ACUCOBOL-GT program is already graphical, full benefits are immediately available in thin client. If your ACUCOBOL-GT program is character-based, you can run it as is and convert to graphical over time using AcuBench, ACUCOBOL-GT, or the character-to-graphical conversion wizard.

Note that there are some limitations to running a program with thin client. You may need to make some adjustments to your programs if you rely on these features:

• The SCREEN EDITED-UPDATES=Formatted runtime configuration variable is not supported. Generally speaking, you can continue to run programs that use this feature without changing them. The user will experience a formatting difference while entering data, but the final result should be the same.
• The MOUSE configuration variable has no effect. You cannot select a character Screen Section item with the mouse, and the mouse does not change shape when it passes over those fields. However, you can use the mouse to edit the current non-graphical field.
• Creating a graphical component does not move the cursor to the cell to the component's right. This restriction does not affect relative graphical component placement in the Screen Section (e.g., "col + 2").
• The grid control does not generate the MSG-CELL-GOTO-DRAG event. This is done for performance reasons. Because of this, you cannot use the REGION-COLOR property to highlight an area when the mouse is dragged over it. For a description of an alternate technique for doing this, refer to section 5.5, "Troubleshooting."
• The runtime assumes that graphical components and windows are successfully created in the thin client. If the client runs out of memory, the creation succeeds, but subsequent operation is undefined.

More:

2.1.1 When User Interface Work Is Necessary

2.1.2 When Other Application Work Is Necessary