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WISQL current version $Revision: 1.3 $

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GENERAL INFO:

The stuff in this directory is of use to people who already have

	A Sybase server
	Open Client lib

	The tcl suite:  tcl, tclX, Tk/wish and sybtcl 7.3/3.6 
	OR (preferred) tcl 7.5/4.1 -- also Paul Raines' tkbind 
	(included with wisql)  All new features and bugfixes will
	be applied to this version only.

	The Tk3.6 version of wisql is not supported after version
	2.2.5 -- the first Tk4.0 version was arbitrarily called wisql 3.
	The semi-final port to tk4 is version 4.

	The Tk3.6 release will NO LONGER be found in the distrib,
	but write to me if you need it.  It consists of the last tk3.6 
	version of the wisql launch script and the two tlibs (ucosyb.tlib 
	and wisql.tlib).  It is no longer actively supported.  Good luck :-)

	If you are really beind the times and still have tcl v6,
	you can use the wisql and wisql.tlib in the wisql_Tcl6
	subdirectory (filenames start with "V6") -- 
	this was the last release for v6 tcl and is missing many features
	and fixes (see the patchlevel file) found in the current version.
	It is not supported.

wisql is distributed with sybtcl on the major tcl archives because 
of these dependencies, and is also available separately from
ftp.ucolick.org .  You can't use any of this unless you have sybtcl.

The file on ftp.ucolick.org is in pub/src/UCOSYB, and is called

	wisql4.tar.Z

see http://www.ucolick.org/~de  for various interesting stuff
about tcl/tk, sybase, and my current projects and interests.
Our institutional homepage is also quite entertaining.

Join the MAILING LIST

	mail majordomo@ucolick.org

in the body of your message write

	subscribe wisql

or
	mail wisql-request@ucolick.org

and write

	subscribe

(this is a new majordomo, just installed 2/27/96, so there may
 be some "startup phenomena".)

CONTENTS:  See the file MANIFEST

CURRENT REV: v4.mumble (see notes below)

CHANGE NOTES:  see the file RELEASE_NOTES

TO USE WISQL:
You may have to edit a couple of things before you get started.  
You will need to edit the library load command at the head of
the 'wisql' script so that the path points to the location where
you actually stored the tlib files.  NOTE that you must install
BOTH tlib files -- wisql needs both ucosyb.tlib and wisql.tlib
in order to run.

If you do not install the "secure" font then wisql will fail back
to Adobe Symbol font.

Wisql tries to use special bitmaps for its icons.  Look for the
the line where the variable 'bitmapdir' is set in wisql (not
wisql.tlib) and set it appropriately.  The bitmap files are called
<mumble>.xbm, found in the bitmaps dir in this distribution.  
If you are a good artist, please send me some better ones!

Wisql has cmdtrace turned OFF by default,  If you turn it on (see
the script 'wisql') then each time you run wisql you get a cmd.log 
in the current directory, which contains a run trace of your session.  
If you have problems and want to figure out what code wisql is 
executing in what order, then uncomment the line

	cmdtrace on [open cmd.log w]

in wisql.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

The wisql in this directory is entirely based on Tom Poindexter's 
wisql, and I'd like to thank him for all the work he has put
into the sybtcl C sources and into the wisql tool.  I started with
his code and began adding features (I wanted a pointy/clicky
report generator for naive users).

Contributors of bugpatches and suggestions for V4 include

	Ashutosh "Ashu" Joglekar ajogleka@ltcm.com
	Malcom Strandberg	 malcom@davox.com
and of course
	Tom Poindexter		 tpoindex@nyx.net
and
	Paul Raines		 raines@SLAC.Stanford.EDU
whose tkbind package I stole in its entirety and whose 
tkmail package is essential to my survival :-)

HISTORY:

	This release is a whole new repackaging.  I have gone over
	to CVS instead of my own hacky "RCS+" system, and as a 
	result, versioning has become somewhat opaque.  In a month
	or so the version numbers should have settled down;  meanwhile,
	for those with an old "patchlevel" file for wisql, please
	don't expect continuity :-)

	The HISTORY file is history, so to speak.  The CVSlog file
	is the track record of this new packaging.


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EXTRAS  

Tools/sybdump:

The sybdump utility is a little extra freebie which does a creditable attempt
at enabling you to dump an entire sybase database so you can later restore
it.  I don't like SA Companion or Sybase dump/restore software, what can I say?
Platinum S'ware's reSQL (used to be EIS) is better, but costs money.  I
use reSQL, but sybdump still comes in handy now and then.

This tool is quite beta, but you might find it useful so I threw it in for
kicks.  Enhancements and contributions welcome. Suggestions also.  I use
it a lot during development, loading table definitions/contents in and out.

Known problem:  sybdump has had problems with the text of triggers and procs.
Gluing together the various text fields of successive records in syscomments
has been a nuisance and I am still not certain that sybdump is doing this
right; so if you attempt to restore from the procedure dumps, you may
have to do some hand editing first.  This is working better as of SEP 93.

Tools/syperf:

A perf meter for a sybase 4.9.mumble server.  Requires NZ widgets and 
has been working OK with Tk4.1 -- kinda useful;  tells you about
process count, IO and other perf meters, and hosts connected, among
other little details.  See the VU tarfile for the widgets source.

tcl-rpt-fmt:

in ucosyb.tlib are some simple commands trf_this-n-that which will format
ascii output in a fashion somewhat similar to sybase SQR.  we use it and
it works OK.  improvements are welcome.

Debug:

in a subdir called Debug you will find a couple of hacky little scripts
which can gen a calling/called tree from one or more tcl tlib files.
See the README.  This feature is intended to compensate for the
death of tlibDoc in v4 ucosyb.tlib.  All you need is xtree, which
should have come with your X11 release.

Tools/www:

in a subdir called Tools/www you will find a couple of obscure scripts,
not for the unwary.  You should be HTML literate and have a cozy
relationship with your HTTPD to use these.  One will generate an HTML 
query page for any Sybase table (that has a primarykey), the other is the 
CGI bin that will use the query page.  Read carefully, use at your own risk.  
You may want to strip out the data plotting features of the query page, as 
they are based on some very site-specific hackery.  (A future release
would use the tcl netscape plugin with BLT, or something along those
lines.)

==============================================================================
LEGAL DETAILS:

The COPYRIGHT statement in this directory applies to everything
you find in here.  Respect it.  Thank you.

==============================================================================

FEEDBACK:
I would like to hear what you think of wisql.  I would also like
to hear from any/all other Tk/Sybase developers, because I have a 
bad feeling that we are reinventing wheels all over the world.

IMPORTANT:
To file a failure report, see the form BUG.wisql in this distribution.
Please fill out as much of this form as you can, to give me a head
start on determining where your problem may lie.  Given the complex
interactions between your version of X11, your window manager, your
copy of Tcl/Tk/sybtcl, Sybase, and wisql, it can be hard to figure
out why wisql is doing for you something it never did for me.
This info will help a lot.

I am contemplating writing my own spreadsheet in Tk because there
are no decent FREE spreadsheets available for the Suns (not that I've
found) -- and if anyone else has already made progress on this,
I would much rather collaborate than start over.  In fact, I really
don't want to do it at all.  (If you like commercial software
look into NeXS, a tcl-friendly spreadsheet for Solaris and Linux.)

Likewise for report generators (do you like SQR?  do you *really* 
like SQR?) Write to me about any of these topics, any time.  
Meanwhile try the trf_ commands in ucosyb.tlib -- the "trf" stands
for Tcl Report Formatter.

I would like eventually to maintain a list of Tcl/Tk/Sybase sites,
with developer names and names/functions of tools, and to expand
the sybtcl distribution into a rich assortment of goodies from
all over.  I'm doing a major Sybase project right now and can
justify spending time on this.

In production use at my site for 2.5 years is a Tk-based Forms
Data Entry/Browse package for Sybase.  If you're interested in
it, let me know.  It's free.  

de

de@ucolick.org
http://www.ucolick.org/~de

De Clarke
Software Engineer
UCO/Lick Observatory
UCSC, CA (USA)

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DISCLAIMER:

I built this version of wisql to meet my site's needs.  I have a strong
interest in making it better and seeing it go farther.  However, I am
also running one or two major projects at the moment.  Therefore, no
warranties or promises are made regarding the software, the number of
bugs, or the speed with which I will fix them.  I'll do my best, but
I am not getting paid to support wisql nationally.  So send in those
suggestions, complaints, and contributions and I will try to respond
at faster-than-Sybase-tech-support :-) speeds.
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