S/List 2.x Manual

S/List 2.x User Manual

	Introduction
	S/List Overview
	Starting S/List
	S/List Report
	S/List Query
	S/TCL
	Keystrokes
	Appendix A
	Appendix B
	Appendix C - LIST Keywords

Introduction

Welcome to this, the user manual for SLIST and SLIST ASSISTANT, the new reporting tools for users of OpenInsight.

SLIST is a replacement for RLIST within OpenInsight. That isn’t to say that it is designed to do everything OpenInsight’s RLIST does. The existing RLIST is a strange creature compared to the RLIST of Advanced Revelation, OpenInsight’s predecessor. The SLIST tool you are now looking at compares much more closely to the Advanced Revelation version. That is to say, it concerns itself solely with the output of reports and does not deal with storing and saving select lists. This functionality is achieved by using the incorporated SLIST Assistant report generation tool.

Why do we feel that it is needed? Well, we’re developers first and foremost and we loved the simplicity of RLIST in Advanced Revelation. When we came to use it in OpenInsight we were in for a bit of a shock. Firstly, there was a new restriction - reports could only be 80 columns wide. We tried everything to get around this but we were ultimately defeated. RLIST in OpenInsight just doesn’t want to know about reports wider than 80 columns. Then there was the issue of appearance. Windows™ has made users more discerning and they want to be able to use proportional fonts when preparing reports. RLIST didn’t make this possible. SLIST does. Finally, there a number of niggling bugs and omissions dating back to the earliest days of RLIST; we’ve tried to address most of these with SLIST.

So what you now have is a piece of software that will do all that OPENLIST does and more. This document won’t teach you how to use RLIST, rather it’ll document the new commands and show the effects they have on existing RLIST statements. It has been our goal to ensure that SLIST is completely RLIST compatible. If you discover anywhere where this is not the case then please let us know and we’ll correct it as quickly as possible.

Finally, a quick word of thanks. SLIST would not have been possible without the OIPI DLL from Splaver Software. We include a shareware version of this with the product and strongly recommend that you register the full version.

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