Portable User Interface Library for Text and Graphics and Microsoft Windows
Thank you very much for expressing your interest in Magma Systems' MEWEL user interface library. MEWEL 4.0 gives your application complete portability between Microsoft Windows, DOS text, DOS graphics, OS/2 text, UNIX text, VMS text, and OSF Motif. Since MEWEL's API is compatible with the standard Microsoft WIndows API, you can easily port programs between Win- dows and any of the environments which MEWEL supports, even if you already have existing Windows programs.
Programmers can develop new stand-alone applications using MEWEL, or can port their existing Windows applications to any of the platforms which MEWEL supports. MEWEL supports Windows 3.x features such as
Control windows (listbox, combo, radio, checkbox, pushbutton, scrollbars,
single & multi-line edit, static)
Multiple Document Interface (MDI)
Dialog Boxes
Overlapping Windows with moving and resizing
Multi-level Menus
Mouse
Windows BMP files (blitting, stretching, compressing)
PCX files
Icons (character and graphical)
Multiple proportional fonts
C++ Class Library Support
Most of the C++ class libraries for Microsoft Windows make calls into the Windows API. Therefore, a programmer can create a Windows and a MEWEL program using one of these class libraries. Magma Systems has MEWEL-ized versions of the following C++ class libraries :
Object Windows Library (OWL) from Borland Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) zApp from Inmark Development
In addition, the DOS version of the zApp library comes with a licensed subset of the MEWEL libraries.
MEWEL's Advantage
Since MEWEL serves as a back-end to these class libraries, you can experi- ment with the various class libraries which MEWEL supports until you find one which suits your programming style. You are not locked into a single class library.
Graphics Engines Supported
The graphics version of MEWEL sits on top of a graphics engine, and MEWEL uses this engibe to perform all output to the screen. The non-source version of MEWEL supports the Borland BGI and MSC graphics libraries which come free with your compilers. The source version of MEWEL comes with support for these and Genus GX and MetaWindows, two more powerful graphics engines. In addition, it is fairly simple to add support for a custom graphics engine.
Commercial Products Released
There have been many commercial products released with MEWEL front-ends on them. This vouches for MEWEL's reliability. Unfortunately, we cannot men- tion some big products because we are under non-disclosure agreement to several companies, but here is a small list of products which use MEWEL.
FastBack 3.0 - Fifth Generation Systems DiskLock - Fifth Generation Systems CheckIt Pro - Touchstone Software Lotus Notes (OS/2 Server Version) QuickShow - HSC Software Minitab 8.0 - Minitab TableMaker - Kodak Home Lawyer - MECA Ventures Charge! and various installation programs - Solution Systems Reference Point - Intel Paragen - Innovative Data Solutions Galaxy 3.0 - OmniVerse Ferrari Fax - Ferrari Electronics GmbH Utilities with Object Manager - Raima Corp Lan Auditor - Horizon Technologies EasyLink - AT&T EasyLink Expert Document Engine - Overdrive Systems IRMA Workstation for DOS - DCA AutoSoft for DOS - AutoSoft Business Insight - Business Resource Software CompuServe Research Manager - CompuServe Negotiator Pro - Beacon Expert Systems IDEAL - Stanford University
PRICES
MEWEL/TEXT libraries call Libraries for Microsoft C and Borland C++ Sample applications Supports real mode programming. MEWEL/GUI libraries call Libraries for Microsoft C and Borland C++ Sample applications Supports real mode programming with the Borland BGI or MSC graphics engines. MEWEL/TEXT with full source code. call Supports real and protected mode programming. Supports 16 and 32 bit DOS extenders. Supports 32 bits compilers. MEWEL/GUI with full source code. call Supports real and protected mode programming. Supports BGI, MSC, Genus GX and MetaWindows. Supports 16 and 32 bit DOS extenders. Supports 32 bits compilers. Special bundle available only directly from Magma Systems MEWEL Text and GUI libraries only call MEWEL Text and GUI with source call
MFC2 support in MEWEL
MEWEL 4.0 supports version 2 of the Microsoft Foundation Classes. This means that you can use the interactive development environment which comes with Microsoft's Visual C++ to generate DOS applications in addition to Windows applications.
Although DOS text mode is supported, it is recommended that the DOS graphics version of MEWEL be used. This will allow you to use the MFC2 toolbars (which contain bitmaps) and more of the Windows API.
For the graphics mode, the Genus GX and MetaWindows graphics engines are recommended. These two graphics engines support off-screen bitmaps, something which is needed for the MFC toolbar code. In addition, both of these graphics engines are much faster (especially in protected mode) than the graphics library which comes with the Microsoft compiler. Only the source code version of MEWEL supports GX and MetaWindows.
The files which are needed to "MEWELize" MFC2 must be obtained directly from Magma Systems, and are only available for registered users of MEWEL 4.0. The files are archived into a single ZIP file, and you must use the "-d" option when you dearchive them (-d will preserve the directory structure), It is recommended that you dearchive the files into a temp- orary directory before moving them into your actual MFC2 directory.
To make a MEWELized version of MFC2, run the batch file MKGUI.BAT. Before running the batch file, you might want to examine the makefile (MAKEFILE.MEW) and change some of the directory names and alter some of the options. Make sure that the INCLUDE path points to the MEWEL directory *before* it points to the normal Microsoft INCLUDE directory. You must compile your programs with MEWEL's version of WINDOWS.H, not the normal Microsoft version. Also, make sure that you use the MEWEL resource compiler, not the normal Windows resource compiler. The MEWEL resource compiler emits a Magma Systems copyright statement.
After running the MKGUI file, you should get a MEWELized version of the MFC library. This library will be found in your MFC\LIB directory.
Sample makefiles are included for the SCRIBBLE and CHKBOOK demos. You might want to try to recreate these programs with the MEWEL library. Executables for both programs can be found on the Magma conference on CompuServe (GO MAGMA).