ScreenPal: A toolkit for using PAL with an EGA/VGA adaptor.
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Normal Paradox applications cannot take advantage of the features offered 
by today's advanced EGA and VGA video adaptors, because Paradox itself 
does not allow access to these features.  For PAL programmers creating 
applications for machines that do have the proper video hardware, this 
limitation can be frustrating, particularly when other competing database 
products do allow the programmer to use these abilities.

First, Paradox lacks support for the 43/50 line modes that these video 
adaptors offer.  Although Paradox itself cannot use the extra area on the 
screen provided in these video modes, it does behave perfectly in these 
environments; it simply doesn't use the bottom portion of the screen.

ScreenPal allows you to write any information you choose to this bottom 
portion of the screen.  While you cannot view tables that extend into this 
area, or have forms that take up the whole screen (because Paradox 
controls these functions), you can place any textual information you would 
like in this otherwise unused portion of the screen.  Capabilities 
included in ScreenPal are basic text writing, boxes, coloring of screen 
areas, and text centering.  All of these capabilities are provided through 
a library interface to a small, fast DOS routine that resides on disk.

Secondly, these video adaptors allow for characters to be redefined in the 
way that they appear on screen.  You can use ScreenPal's provided font 
editor to either create new characters or to modify those that are 
provided.  You then load the new characters into video memory, and can use 
them immediately in onscreen forms and displays.  

Sample uses of this capability are included; the possibilities are almost 
unlimited.  Forms come to life as you add check boxes, radio buttons, 
arrows, and more.

Version: 1.00


ParaMenus: A full-featured, configurable PAL menu toolkit.
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ParaMenus is a utility for Paradox allowing designers of applications in 
PAL to use sophisticated menu structures, rather than the primitive 
ShowMenu provided with Paradox.  Written entirely in PAL, ParaMenus 
handles all menu selection and definition, allowing you to simply choose 
the appearance and contents of your menus.  Now, instead of using 
Paradox's boring ShowMenu, you can have consistent, attractive, intuitive 
menus throughout your application.

Menus are defined using several different memory arrays in Paradox.  This 
information is passed to the appropriate ParaMenus procedure, from which 
the value of the selected choice is returned.  This way, all existing 
Switch constructs (used from previous ShowMenu calls) can still be used.

Five different "styles" of menus are provided with ParaMenus, each 
wellsuited to different situations.  All are easily accessed with the same 
array definitions and configuration options.  The PAL code used to create 
and call menus is very straightforward and similar to Paradox's own 
ShowMenu.  Horizontal, vertical, and scrolling menus are provided, with 
options for spacing, positioning, colors, and more.

Full source code is optionally available for ParaMenus for you to examine 
and modify.  You may distribute ParaMenus libraries with your applications 
written in PAL without licence fees or royalties to Insight Research.

The ParaMenus Autoconverter is an optional utility that will convert your 
existing PAL scripts to the appropriate ParaMenus structures.  With the 
Autoconverter, your applications can be switched to using ParaMenus in 
just a few minutes!

Version: 1.11


ParaHelp: Add context sensitive help to your PAL applications.
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Looking for an easy way to add context sensitive help to your Paradox PAL 
applications?  ParaHelp is the answer. An add-on help package complete 
with hypertext style linking capabilities, ParaHelp is the painless way to 
add the finishing touch of a help system to your application.  

Using ParaHelp consists of several easy steps.  First, you define the text 
that will appear in the help screens, organized into logical blocks called 
topics, and you give names to these topics.  Next, you define any links 
between screens of help that you want the user to be able to "follow" 
(a.k.a "Hypertext").  Third, you "compile" the help with the Help Compiler 
included with ParaHelp.  This step creates an index for the help topics 
you have defined, and checks the validity of the links you have specified.  
Finally, you decide which help topics should be displayed, and where in 
your application, and add the appropriate calls to the ParaHelp library.  
Your PAL application now has context sensitive help online.

You may add help to your application in several ways - inside wait 
structures, menu calls, accept statements, or anywhere else you find it 
necessary to offer your user the option of help information.  All help 
topics can contain up to 8K of text, and the total size of the help file 
is limited only by the disk space available to store the text.  An 
unlimited number of links can be made between different help topics. You 
also may define different display attributes to appear within the help 
text.

The appearance of help screens is completely configurable, from colors to 
screen sizing and positioning to scroll bars.  Source code for the 
sections of ParaHelp that are written in PAL is included.  ParaHelp also 
includes several DOS routines for compiling and displaying help; they are 
DOS routines (rather than PAL) for speed and memory conservation.  
ParaHelp runtime code may be distributed with your applications without 
licence fees or royalties to Insight Research.

Version: 1.22


ParaMake: Automatic PAL source code and library management.
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To develop large applications in PAL, programmers are forced to compile 
their source code into libraries (.LIB files) of procedures.  Every time 
any procedure in one of these libraries is changed, it must be "re-
compiled" into the library using the PAL WriteLib command.  Therefore, if 
you change three procedures, each in different libraries, then you must 
execute a separate WriteLib command to update each library.  If you are 
working on an application with several libraries and dozens of procedures, 
the task of keeping libraries up to date soon becomes unmanageable.

Not any more.  ParaMake now handles all library management in your Paradox 
applications for you.  When you change a procedure in a library, ParaMake 
notes this change and will update the correct library before the 
application is next run.  This is similar to "make" utilities included 
with other programming languages, such as C.  You no longer have to worry 
about which procedures have been modified, or into what libraries the 
procedures are compiled.  All of these tasks are now taken care of by 
ParaMake.

To use ParaMake, you simply identify what procedures are to be compiled 
into what libraries, and in which .SC files the procedures reside.  Armed 
with this information, ParaMake takes over, only recompiling the libraries 
that contain procedures that have been modified since the last running of 
the application.  This saves significant time in the development process, 
because you don't have to be concerned with remembering which libraries 
have been updated in your latest changes.

To make converting your existing Paradox applications to ParaMake easier, 
we include the LibraryGrabber utility, which examines all your existing 
libraries and automatically creates the table necessary for ParaMake's 
operation.  ParaMake also includes an accessory program (written in PAL) 
to aid in defining and managing your libraries, providing a central source 
of current information about the structure of your PAL application.

Version: 1.10


PalWidgets: A comprehensive PAL display and user-interface toolkit
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PalWidgets aids developers in the creation of PAL applications by 
providing a large set of consistent, reliable user-interface tools.  These 
tools include windows, dialog boxes, error messages, printer testing, an 
enhanced "accept", progress bars, and a full-featured calendar and 
calculator in several different configurations.  A demonstration script is 
included which demonstrates the use of each procedure in the library.  The 
printed documentation includes a complete reference section with details 
about each procedure.  

Version: 1.01


PullDownPal: A complete SAA/CUA compliant pull-down menu toolkit
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PullDownPal provides the programmer with a pull down menu interface that 
can be easily added to any PAL application.  The menus provided are fully 
SAA/CUA compliant, so users will be immediately familiar with their 
operation.  PullDownPal was designed from the beginning with an emphasis 
on speed, so that although they are written entirely in PAL, the menus are 
very quick and responsive.  

Version: 1.01
