Program Painter

Restriction: This topic applies only when the AppMaster Builder AddPack has been installed, and applies only to Windows platforms.

The Program Painter offers you an alternative to Online Express. Unlike the menu-driven method of Online Express, the Program Painter method is text-driven, enabling you to enter your specifications on a blank window using a text editor. The Program Painter provides a shorthand method for creating online COBOL programs for your applications.

Your application can consist entirely of online programs, or you can mix online programs with batch programs in the same application. In addition, the programs of a single application can access different database targets. For example, your online programs can access SQL databases and VSAM files, while your batch programs access VSAM files and IMS databases.

In combination with standard COBOL, you can also use the following types of source code:

AppMaster Builder Structured COBOL (S-COBOL) source code: S-COBOL is an optional set of COBOL-like procedural structures that are simpler and more powerful than COBOL structures. You can write S-COBOL statements in conjunction with, or instead of, COBOL statements.
AMB database and data communication calls: These calls provide almost all the functionality offered by your target environment calls, but are easier to write. The short, simple formats of the AMB calls shield you from much tedious coding - you simply enter the call name and any keywords and arguments that you need. AMB generates your specifications as complete calls, written in the syntax native to your DB environments.

In addition, you can include externally-defined source code in your programs that further streamlines the process of developing applications. To do this, enter AMB keywords to specify the location in the program where the source code belongs. Applications created in the Program Painter can use any of the following types of external source code.

External Code	Project Subdirectory	Description
Global code	APSPROG	You create global code using the Program Painter; AMB stores each global code module in a separate file that all programs of your application can share.
COBOL copyfiles	COPYLIB	These copybooks can contain data structures or other source code.
Data structures	APSDATA	Data structures that you create in the Data Structure Editor.
User-defined rules	USERMACS	User-defined Customizer rules

Before you get started on coding your programs, be sure you have done the following:

Set your AppMaster Builder preferences
Created your application and program in the Project Explorer
Assigned the appropriate application and program properties
For online programs - Created your application screens