G-Note - Gitano Software

by Greg Bailey

Published 1997-07-01    Printer-friendly version

Download the code here

"Do you ever find yourself wishing you had added just one more file to your application?
 Well ... wish no more. G-Notes is your answer.
Hold information such as additional addresses, phone numbers, important dates, notes, special invoice handling ... you get the idea."

Thus starts out the documentation on G-Notes, a new product from Gitano Software. What we will determine in this review is whether G-Notes delivers on its promise.

Installation was simple. It accurately found the correct version of Clarion on my machine (I have 12<G>) and offered to make a back up of the original install. After installation dropped me directly into the help for G-Notes.

G-Notes 1.2 delivers some welcome improvements in functionality, including a smart button that, once placed on your window, can be used to show notes about any control on the window that currently has focus. In addition when the control with focus contains notes, a little notepad icon alerts your end user to this fact.

If you think some of your controls are not deserving of notes, G-Notes allows you to identify which of these controls it will ignore. You control the default of all controls having notes or only selected controls. If you choose not to place a note on all controls then you can create a default note for the procedure that will appear when pressing the G-Note control. If one of the controls on the window is a browse then a note can be associated with the highlighted browse item instead of the browse control.

Notes can be deleted when the record the note is associated with is deleted. There are also Global Notes available with the ability to associate the key-press of your choice to make them available. Multiple programs can use G-Notes at the same time without conflict if both programs' files are in the same directory.

The dictionary for the G-Notes file is provided so that you can alter it for your needs. It is also necessary because you are required to compile four small apps to create the DLLs that are used when printing G-Notes. This is a well thought out feature as it allows you to keep the same printing look and feel as your normal application when printing G-Notes. Unfortunately there is no way (other than making the G-Note file part of your dictionary) to define the default location of the G-Note file.

One thoughtful touch is that all G-Note prompts, icons, tips, captions, default colors, fonts, dates and time formats are placed in a GNOPT.TPS file so that you have the ability to change them to something else or into another language. You also have the choice of turning off the ability to print G-Notes! You can get to them by pressing Ctrl-O when viewing the G-Notes.

There are still a few rough spots that need attention. For example when displaying the list of controls on the screen prompts and browses are offered as a choice. There is no need for a note on a prompt and lists must be taken care of elsewhere.

The documentation is still a bit skimpy and confusing when describing implementation details, and there are a few typos in the version I reviewed. However, support on CIS is prompt and the author is extremely willing to make changes to the product and support his customers.

A nice addition to this product would be the ability to import and export notes.

G-Notes supports 16- and 32-bit in both 'Local' and 'Stand Alone' compiles.

Category	Maximum Possible Score	Product Score
Ability to do the task	30	22
Ease of use	20	16
Friendliness	20	16
Ease of Installation	10	10
Documentation	10	5
Technical Support	10	9
The Bottom Line	100	88

A score of 88! Taking care of the rough spots and improving the documentation will go a long way towards making this TEMPLATE indispensable for all Clarion programmers. Even so this is a product that will make it into all my applications from now on.

Available for $19 via CompuServe SWREG with ID# 15539 for new users. For users of other Gitano Software products (G-REG, G-View or G-Calc) only $14, use ID# 15540.

Publisher's Note: We sent this review to Gitano Software for comment. Gitano gave us the following announcement as response. Please note that the version reviewed is 1.2, which was the most current shipping version available when the review took place.

Gitano Software can be reached at:

Gitano Software
P.O. Box 42912
Bakersfield, CA 93384, USA
(805) 398-8553 -Voice
(805) 833-6469 - FAX
gitano@lightspeed.net
http://bizweb.lightspeed.net/~gitano

Note from Gitano Software:

The following are the changes made since version 1.2, the current shipping version is 1.5 a very stable version with enough features to please 99% of the users (you can't please everyone, but we try). Auto setup to maintain compatibility with CW's toolbar icons. CW's icons are now compiled, and you can choose at run time to select Gitano's icons or CW's.- Global notes are now independent from other application notes. To apply Global G-Notes all that is needed is to add the Global extension and select a hot key. That's it. Press the hot key from anywhere in your application to access G-Notes. Path redirection is now accomplished with a global variable (GNOTESPATH). Auto delete of notes for a rejected new record. This new version will delete any notes that you create for a record that has not been saved. All Icons are now working properly. CW's icons are now compiled, you can choose at run time to select Gitano's icons or CW's. The help file has been modified to assist you in applying G-Notes succesfully to your application. Just follow the step by step instruction. Although we announced a price increase, we will hold off on the increase until the end of the month. Thus allowing Clarion Online readers time to buy at the price listed on the review.

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Clarion Magazine ISSN 1718-9942