Hi Friends,

In $BSE/tools/ttB40_c4/ottstp directory there are some objects like ostpstd_dll, ostpstandard etc.
There are numerous functions in these objects, for
which no help is given.
Some of these functions are switch.to.ascii.mode(), popup.menu() etc.
Where will I get Help for such functions ?

Thanks and Regards,
Rahul.

Hi Rahul,

Those are tools object libraries, and I think you will not found information about the functions unless you have access to Tools development (anyone has?!).
Most of these functions are internal only, so not available at all, I think.

Cheers

bic_info6.1 -eu <object> will list all the extern functions and usage information (if it was documented) for a DLL

e.g.

bic_info6.1 -eu ottstpstandard
bic_info6.1 -eu ottstp_stddll
etc...

Unfortunately, Baan did not document the usage for most of the functions in the Tools DLLs.

Is there something similar to bic_info6.1 that would allow me to see the functions and usages in the bic_xxx files in the $BSE/include6.1 directory?

Good question...

As far as I know, the only information revealed is that found in the Baan Tools help Programming information, which only covers a few of those files.

I've no idea what tool Baan used to generate them.

I'll investigate a little further. :)

I logged a case with Baan Global Support about the bic_* include files. Basically, you are stuck with the Programmers Manual. If you are fortunate enough to have the source code for Baan components, then you can find examples using more undocumented functionality.

Here's the response of the Tools support person:
I just spoke with one of our programmers. There is some information on a few of the bic_* include files, but almost all of these files are encrypted because they are used with the bshell. Therefore, there is no way to get more information about these include files.

His advice was to use the programmers guide.

Tools are developed in 3GL or C/C++.
Giving access (describe) to the internal Tools functions would be like Microsoft giving access to the "undocumented" functions of the kernel (and I have/used a few of these ones!).

I started looking a bit harder into the bic_* files ...

I found that the first four bytes are "crypted" with xor 0x80. Some of the files start with "#ifn" or "|***".

The next bytes are different coded. Maybe they are mangled.

Any volunteers? Any objections? Any reservations?

How did you find this out? I am curious about what is in the include files, but is not documented. I doubt I would try to use anything in these files that was not documented. In the end it may not even be worth the time spent trying to find out what is in them. Just curious on my part, but not willing to work at trying to crack the files. Seems I already have enough to do these days.

Mark

I think Baan are entitled to have their "tools layer" as a blackbox. By having this they can be confident about licence arrangements, module configuration etc. With this they can be sure that Customers can only use what they are entitled to. If they want to use more functionality or have more users then it is only reasonable that they should pay for what they get/want.

Application code is an entirely different issue. What do they gain by not allowing viewing of code ? No one of a sound mind could possibly think that thier code could be of interest to the likes of SSA/ORACLE/PeopleSoft or any other competitors. (In the case of IV, I guess they could use it to demonstrate the extent of modification/correction notes that is some programs extend to 000's of lines and indicate the old age and extent of errors)

The reality is that by not providing the code, SSA hope to maximize the revenue that they can extract from clients by selling highly priced consultancy work.

Terry