Alpha Software Mobile Development Tools:   Alpha Anywhere    |   Alpha TransForm subscribe to our YouTube Channel  Follow Us on LinkedIn  Follow Us on Twitter  Follow Us on Facebook
Devcon 2020 Goes Virtual! LEARN MORE >

Announcement

Collapse

The Alpha Software Forum Participation Guidelines

The Alpha Software Forum is a free forum created for Alpha Software Developer Community to ask for help, exchange ideas, and share solutions. Alpha Software strives to create an environment where all members of the community can feel safe to participate. In order to ensure the Alpha Software Forum is a place where all feel welcome, forum participants are expected to behave as follows:
  • Be professional in your conduct
  • Be kind to others
  • Be constructive when giving feedback
  • Be open to new ideas and suggestions
  • Stay on topic


Be sure all comments and threads you post are respectful. Posts that contain any of the following content will be considered a violation of your agreement as a member of the Alpha Software Forum Community and will be moderated:
  • Spam.
  • Vulgar language.
  • Quotes from private conversations without permission, including pricing and other sales related discussions.
  • Personal attacks, insults, or subtle put-downs.
  • Harassment, bullying, threatening, mocking, shaming, or deriding anyone.
  • Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.
  • Sexually explicit or violent material, links, or language.
  • Pirated, hacked, or copyright-infringing material.
  • Encouraging of others to engage in the above behaviors.


If a thread or post is found to contain any of the content outlined above, a moderator may choose to take one of the following actions:
  • Remove the Post or Thread - the content is removed from the forum.
  • Place the User in Moderation - all posts and new threads must be approved by a moderator before they are posted.
  • Temporarily Ban the User - user is banned from forum for a period of time.
  • Permanently Ban the User - user is permanently banned from the forum.


Moderators may also rename posts and threads if they are too generic or do not property reflect the content.

Moderators may move threads if they have been posted in the incorrect forum.

Threads/Posts questioning specific moderator decisions or actions (such as "why was a user banned?") are not allowed and will be removed.

The owners of Alpha Software Corporation (Forum Owner) reserve the right to remove, edit, move, or close any thread for any reason; or ban any forum member without notice, reason, or explanation.

Community members are encouraged to click the "Report Post" icon in the lower left of a given post if they feel the post is in violation of the rules. This will alert the Moderators to take a look.

Alpha Software Corporation may amend the guidelines from time to time and may also vary the procedures it sets out where appropriate in a particular case. Your agreement to comply with the guidelines will be deemed agreement to any changes to it.



Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

Try a Search First
It is highly recommended that a Search be done on your topic before posting, as many questions have been answered in prior posts. As with any search engine, the shorter the search term, the more "hits" will be returned, but the more specific the search term is, the greater the relevance of those "hits". Searching for "table" might well return every message on the board while "tablesum" would greatly restrict the number of messages returned.

When you do post
First, make sure you are posting your question in the correct forum. For example, if you post an issue regarding Desktop applications on the Mobile & Browser Applications board , not only will your question not be seen by the appropriate audience, it may also be removed or relocated.

The more detail you provide about your problem or question, the more likely someone is to understand your request and be able to help. A sample database with a minimum of records (and its support files, zipped together) will make it much easier to diagnose issues with your application. Screen shots of error messages are especially helpful.

When explaining how to reproduce your problem, please be as detailed as possible. Describe every step, click-by-click and keypress-by-keypress. Otherwise when others try to duplicate your problem, they may do something slightly different and end up with different results.

A note about attachments
You may only attach one file to each message. Attachment file size is limited to 2MB. If you need to include several files, you may do so by zipping them into a single archive.

If you forgot to attach your files to your post, please do NOT create a new thread. Instead, reply to your original message and attach the file there.

When attaching screen shots, it is best to attach an image file (.BMP, .JPG, .GIF, .PNG, etc.) or a zip file of several images, as opposed to a Word document containing the screen shots. Because Word documents are prone to viruses, many message board users will not open your Word file, therefore limiting their ability to help you.

Similarly, if you are uploading a zipped archive, you should simply create a .ZIP file and not a self-extracting .EXE as many users will not run your EXE file.
See more
See less

where are a5_ functions documented?

Collapse
X
Collapse
 
  • Page of 1
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
Previous template Next
    #1

    where are a5_ functions documented?

    Where can I find documentation on the whole wealth of functions which begin with a5_ ?

    For example, if I enter !a5_let, I am presented a choice of 3 functions. The first reads as follows:

    !a5_letereditor_menu([c context])
    (sic)

    Apparently, this function asks for a character value named context. What is context?

    I find a gojillion functions in the a5_ list. I can find no docs explaining them. Anyone know where to find this info?

    TIA
    D
    Tags: None
    #2
    RE: where are a5_ functions documented?

    If you search the AlphaFiveHelp.chm you will find documentation for the A5. and A5_ functions that are intended for developer use. Some functions that are visible in the code editor are intended for internal use only.

    Remember, many of the genies available are written in xbasic and likely call functions that are specific to a purpose.
    There can be only one.

    Comment

      #3
      RE: where are a5_ functions documented?

      Robert,

      Do you have the help file (*.CHM) downloaded? If not go to the Learning Center and do so.

      As for the functions you are interested in, there used to be a page of the documentation labeled "A5 Functions and Methods". For some eerie reason that page seems to no longer be around.

      But if you go to the "Contents" tab and select:
      - References
      - Functions and Methods
      - Xbasic Functions Listed Alphabetically
      you should find these functions listed together.

      Steve

      Comment

        #4
        RE: where are a5_ functions documented?

        Thanks

        1) I have the CHM These functions are not listed

        2) I looked at your on line reference. These functions are not listed

        Poor documentation bedevils so much of this app

        Comment

          #5
          RE: where are a5_ functions documented?

          Robert

          I fear you did not read Stan's response. There are many functions that are intended for internal use only and are not documented. Many of the functions starting with a5_ fall into that category. The reason many of these are not documented is that they are intended to be run only in specific conditions or from specific code locations. In rare cases, the end user may find some use for these, but just as often they do not perform any action that is of any use outside of the specific situation for which it was designed.

          Jerry

          Comment

            #6
            RE: where are a5_ functions documented?

            Hello Robert,

            In the index tab of the AlphaFiveHelp.chm help file, I typed in a5_
            and 143 function entries show up. I didn't go to each one of these but I would wager the vast majority are documented.

            If you run into a function that is not documented you can get a brief format and description by using the following functions:

            function_description_get("FunctionName()")
            function_prototype_get("FunctionName()")

            Jim

            Comment

              #7
              RE: where are a5_ functions documented?

              Functions that are not documented are either not intended for customer use or are not supported, because they are obsolete or may change.

              Comment

                #8
                RE: where are a5_ functions documented?

                These two functions are grand, Jim. I have made a tool to use them. Thanks a bunch.

                Ironically, however, these two functions do not appear in the CHM when I search the index, nor when I use the search. Nor are they in the Functions Reference index which I have printed off. Nor are they in the Xbasic Reference index which I have likewise printed. Same goes for the function functions_get(), which appears in the yellow drop down when I begin to type your functions in the Code Editor. Compare that result to Edward's remark below this.

                I think it would be great to have an index listing ALL useful functions and methods, arranged so that you could find them by Task .... i.e.:
                1) First you start with what you want to do, and
                2) Then you proceed to find what you need to use.
                Those functions and methods which are obsolete or deprecated should be omitted from drop-downs.
                _________________________
                As one just struggling for beginner competence in Alpha, it seems to me that Alpha versions are released in very unpolished form, probably to meet a deadline. Ideally, a new version should be released only when all things work completely and consistently, and are documented fully. In practise, it appears they are released when it's time to sell the new version. Ideally, after release, inadvertent omissions or errors should be corrected by updates. In practice, it appears that Alpha's attention instead soon turns to the next version as the next deadline looms. The result is that I waste many many hours searching for answers which are not there, trying to find functions the name of which I do not know, undoing errors which auto-complete inserts into my work, wondering why Code/Check Syntax does not find errors which Save finds, or why neither finds errors which appear, etc. etc.

                Luckily, the product works great, even if the programming environment and documentation do not.

                That's my two cents. Now back to work.

                Comment

                  #9
                  RE: where are a5_ functions documented?

                  Have you looked at Xbasic Functions Listed by Type?

                  Comment

                    #10
                    RE: where are a5_ functions documented?

                    Robert, what is the file date of the CHM file that you are using. It is periodically updated. You can find the latest at http://www.alphasoftware.com/support/tech/alpha5/learningcenter.asp

                    The "latest and greatest" documentation is also always available online at http://support.alphasoftware.com/

                    -Lenny

                    Lenny Forziati
                    Vice President, Internet Products and Technical Services
                    Alpha Software Corporation

                    Comment

                    Previous template Next
                    Working...
                    X