Screen Painter

Totem's Screen Painter is a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get graphical user interface design and development tool. It lets you create and design advanced screens in a fraction of the time it takes to write the code for the same screens by hand. Furthermore, various default forms save you time and give you flexibility during the initial design phase. Screen Painter's data controls also allow you to link your screens elements and graphic controls to the related physical data fields without having to do any hand coding. You may now focus solely on the design of your screens, while Totem automatically retrieves the relevant FD files and generates the necessary code. Screen Painter further expedites the process of designing advanced screens by its use of familiar functions, such as Screen Form, Component Toolbox, and Property Window.

Screen Painter allows you to view your screen, visually design and adjust it, and then let Totem build it. To create a GUI screen, you must simply select controls from the component toolbox, drag them onto the composition grid, and add your own style using the property window. This drag-and-drop design process allows you to see exactly what you are building, rather than the lines and lines of code that underwrite your screen's. At any time throughout the design process, you can view the actual runtime appearance of your screen by selecting the Run Screen option from the Screen pull-down menu.

Once your design is complete, the Screen Painter will generate all of the required COBOL code to construct your screen. In addition, during the drag-and-drop design process, Totem's Screen Painter automatically provides data access. You must simply drag a data function over to the place on the screen where you would like it, drop it, and Screen Painter will automatically define the relationships required to place that data there.

Totem's Screen Painter also supports ActiveX control inclusion while still using COBOL interfaces. As a result, your applications are not limited by the traditional constraints of COBOL, but rather, you can include all of the latest technology in the design of your applications.