A screen generator, also known as a screen painter, screen mapper,[1] or forms generator is a software package (or component thereof) which enables data entry screens to be generated declaratively, by "painting" them on the screen WYSIWYG-style, or through filling-in forms, rather than requiring writing of code to display them manually.[2][3][4][5] 4GLs commonly incorporate a screen generator feature.[6] They are also commonly found bundled with database systems, especially entry-level databases.[7] A screen generator is one aspect of an application generator, which can also include other functions such as report generation and a data dictionary.[8][9] The earliest screen generators were character-based; by the 1990s, GUI support became common, and then support for generating HTML forms as well. Some screen generators work by generating code to display the screen in a high-level language (for example, COBOL); others store the screen definition in a data file or in database tables, and then have a runtime component responsible for actually displaying the form and receiving and validating user input.
Examples
editExamples of screen generators include:
- IBM Screen Definition Facility II:[10] generates screens for CICS BMS, IMS MFS, ISPF, GDDM and CSP/AD.[11]
- Performix for Informix.[5][12]
- Microsoft Visual Basic[13]
- the forms component of Microsoft Access[7]
- Oracle Developer,[13] in particular its Oracle Forms component
- the QDesign component of PowerHouse
- SystemBuilder/SB+
- the Screen Painter component of SAP's ABAP Workbench[14]
- the FoxView component of FoxPro.[15][16][17] FoxView was originally developed by Luis Castro as a dBASE screen generator named ViewGen; Fox purchased it and bundled it with FoxPro 1.0.[18] Later, Fox replaced Castro's code with their own screen painter code.[19]
- dBASE included a built-in screen generator in dBASE IV onwards;[20][21] in dBASE III and earlier, third party screen generators were available, including the already mentioned ViewGen [18]
- DPS 1100 for UNIVAC 1100 series mainframes.[22][23]
References
edit- ^ Pratt, Philip J.; Adamski, Joseph J. (1991). Database Systems: Management and Design. Boyd & Fraser Publishing Company. p.?627. ISBN?978-0-87835-579-2.
- ^ Budde, Reinhard; Kautz, Karlheinz; Kuhlenkamp, Karin; Züllighoven, Heinz (2025-08-14). Prototyping: An Approach to Evolutionary System Development. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN?978-3-642-76820-0.
- ^ Hoffman, Paul E. (2025-08-14). "SCR Screen Manager, a screen generator by Reddox". InfoWorld. 4 (26): 58.
- ^ Del Rossi, Robert (1 October 1990). "The state of screen generators". Data Based Advisor. 8 (10) – via ACM Digital Library.
- ^ a b Bowerman, Robert (July 1983). "Relational database systems for micros". Datamation. 29 (7): 132 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Gray, M. M.; Fisher, G. E. (2025-08-14). "Functional Benchmarks for Fourth Generation Languages". NIST.
- ^ a b Gillenson, Mark L.; Ponniah, Paulraj; Kriegel, Alex; Trukhnov, Boris M.; Taylor, Allen G.; Powell, Gavin (2025-08-14). Wiley Pathways Introduction to Database Management. John Wiley & Sons. p.?49. ISBN?978-0-470-10186-5.
- ^ "Key elements of CASE kits: Prototyping, code generators". Computerworld. 21 (16): 74. 2025-08-14 – via Google Books.
- ^ Babb, Elizabeth A. (1985). "Increasing Productivity with the Application Generator Interface". Journal of Information Systems Management. 2 (2): 57–67. doi:10.1080/07399018508967756. ISSN?0739-9014.
- ^ Bert, Joseph J. Le (1993). CICS Essentials: For Application Developers and Programmers. McGraw-Hill. p.?19. ISBN?978-0-07-035869-0.
- ^ "Screen Definition Facility II". Lookup Mainframe Software. Retrieved 2025-08-14.
- ^ Schussel, George (February 1983). "Mapping out the DBMS territory" (PDF). Data Management Magazine. ISSN?0148-5431. OCLC?1796752.
- ^ a b Langer, Arthur M. (2025-08-14). Analysis and Design of Information Systems. Springer Science & Business Media. pp.?162–164. ISBN?978-1-4757-3492-8.
- ^ Markandeya, Sushil; Roy, Kaushik (2025-08-14). SAP ABAP: Hands-On Test Projects with Business Scenarios. Apress. p.?649. ISBN?978-1-4302-4804-0.
- ^ Campbell, Greg (2025-08-14). "FoxBASE Plus/LAN". PC Magazine. 7 (19): 261.
- ^ Duncan, Judy (2025-08-14). "FoxPro speeds up query results". InfoWorld. 13 (33): 57.
- ^ Bauman, John (2025-08-14). "SnapApp: the application generator for FoxPro". Data Based Advisor. 8 (6): 12–14.
- ^ a b "The History of FoxPro - People That Contributed With Other xBase Tools". www.foxprohistory.org. Retrieved 2025-08-14.
- ^ Nietz, Kerry (2003). FoxTales: Behind the Scenes at Fox Software. Hentzenwerke. p.?99. ISBN?978-1-930919-50-1.
- ^ Littlefield, Warren M. (2025-08-14). dBASE-From the Dot Prompt: An Introduction to Structured Programming Using dBASE IV. State University of New York Press. pp.?205–220. ISBN?978-1-4384-1107-1.
- ^ Ross, Paul W. (2025-08-14). The Handbook of Software for Engineers and Scientists. CRC Press. p.?601. ISBN?978-0-8493-2530-4.
- ^ "Univac Combines Screen Generator, Handler". Computerworld. 15 (1): 93. January 5, 1981 – via Google Books.
- ^ Sperry 1100/60 System (PDF). Data Pro. July 1985. p.?13.