Amalgamated Software of North America Inc has begun shipping ASNA Visual RPG Release 1.2 to customers in Europe, Australia and North America. The integrated Windows-based data processing development environment for developing event-driven, graphical user interface and client-server applications incorporates a number of new features, including local printer support for ASNA Visual RPG applications and is available for Windows95, Windows NT and Windows 3.1. The Big Bear Lake, California-based company, with a research and development site in San Antonio, Texas and European headquarters in Guildford, Surrey, estimated a 45.0% rise in turnover to $6m during its last fiscal year. Visual RPG supports other server environments, such as Windows and Unix and integrates the RPG language with the modern programming techniques of object-oriented programming, enabling programmers to create client-server graphical applications that can tap the AS/400’s DB2/400 database using a language with which they are familiar. By enabling programmers to remain with the RPG language, companies save time and money where it would previously have been spent teaching new skills or employing a differently skilled workforce. Visual RPG is modelled on Microsoft Corp’s Visual Basic and supports VBX level 1. Features of the latest release include the ability to execute any .EXE command from a Visual RPG program and Client Access/400 support for AS/400 communications. It also offers control grouping, auto-alignment and copy/cut/paste in both the IDE Form Editor and Print File Editor, which both simplifies and speeds up the process of making windows and designing reports. The local printer support and graphical Print File Editor are the major features of the upgrade. When designing a report the developer draws the fields onto each of the report formats, then sets character size, font and colour properties of each field to create the desired effect. Once defined, the print file becomes a permanent file definition in the ASNA DataGate database. The database is similar and compatible with IBM Corp’s DB2/400 and handles all database access. A single user licence is included with ASNA Visual RPG. All existing customers will obtain their upgrades free of charge.
