printf, data presentation

[James C. Benz]

In article <19 at xenlink.UUCP> tony at xenlink.UUCP (Tony Field) writes:
>
>
>(I am posting this on comp.lang.c and comp.unix.wizards.  If this is
>inappropriate for either group, my mistake.)
>
>I wonder why C i/o functions - including curses - do not provide a simple
>method of accepting 'fixed format' screen input?  The following example
>illustrates the problem and also shows a simple solution.

The Perform program released by Informix with the original non-SQL non-4GL
version 3.30 does just that - you feed it a text file with the screen image
you want, and it sets up a data-entry screen for the user.  Although it
is specifically for use with Informix type data files, the concept is one
that I would also like to see in a standard library, because this package
routine often allows the user access to functions that I would prefer to
restrict (like remove of data records) and to functions that are either
confusing or superfluous to the desired application. (like Current, or
the Screen command on one-screen forms).