Compiling Strategies for Progress 4GL


The Jargon Software RDU (Remote Development Utility) gives you an easy way to compile individual Progress programs or groups of programs on your host system, without running a Progress editor session to do so. This is especially useful when working with remote Windows NT hosts (over the Internet, for example), where you do not have direct access to a Windows session and typically have no telnet capability.

Compiling One Program with RDU

The first tab in RDU ("Compile and Run Programs") allows you to compile individual programs for syntax only (the "Compile" button), or to compile and save (the "Compile&Save" button). You simply enter the program pathname in the "Program" combobox, or select it from the list if you have already entered it once during this session, and then click one of the compile buttons. The result of the compilation and any error or warning messages will be shown in the table at the bottom of this tab.

If the program pathname is not in your current working directory and is not under one of the entries in your current session's PROPATH, you can:

or


Compiling Multiple Programs with RDU

There is also a way to compile groups of programs in one step. This approach uses a textfile with a list of programs to be compiled, which is read by a compiling utility program that compiles each program and creates a log file that can be viewed in a browser when it is done. There are two compiling utility programs: one to compile for syntax and another to compile/save.

1. Setting up a Compile List

Create a text file with one program pathname per line. If you put each such file inside the subdirectory which contains the programs to be compiled, you could use a standard filename such as "complist.txt". (You are using subdirectories, we hope!)

The pathname of each program entry in the file must be relative to the current working directory, or relative to one of the directories in the session's PROPATH (note that you can change this on the first tab of RDU), or an absolute pathname (starting with /).

For example, let's say that your Jargon Writer working directory is /jargon (or C:\Jargon on NT), and you have a subdirectory named "myapp" which contains three application programs (aa.p, bb.p and cc.p).

Then, simply create a "complist.txt" text file in "myapp" which contains three lines:

myapp/aa.p
myapp/bb.p
myapp/cc.p
You can use forward slashes in these program pathnames, even on Windows systems, bccause Progress knows how to interpret them correctly for whichever operating system is being used.

On unix systems, a simple way to create this file would be to enter the following shell command while in the /jargon directory:

ls myapp/*.p >myapp/complist.txt
If the myapp directory also contains subdirectories (like "myapp/reports"), a different command can be used that will find programs in all nested subdirectories of myapp as well as in myapp itself:
find myapp -type f -name "*.p" -print | sort >myapp/complist.txt
On Windows NT, you may have to create the file by hand unless you have some other way to do so, possibly via a third-party tool like the MKS Toolkit that provides unix-like shell commands on NT. (Highly recommended, by the way).

2. Running a Compile Session

Start RDU and go to the third tab ("View Stuff in a Web Browser").
In the "Progress Statements" textarea, enter a statement like this to compile and save:

run util/compall.p ("myapp/complist.txt").
or like this to compile for syntax:
run util/compchk.p ("myapp/complist.txt").
Then, click the "View Output" button to start the compile session. If you get an error:
  1. check that the statement ends with a period
  2. make sure the "util/" directory is in your PROPATH
  3. make sure the pathname of the compile list file is correct, in quotes, inside parentheses
If the compile list file is not in a path relative to your current working directory, you will have to enter a full pathname, for example:
run util/compall.p ("/home/test/otherapp/complist.txt").
Assuming that the compall.p or compchk.p program is found, and that the compile list file is found, the programs in the compile list will be compiled, and a log file will be created.

When the compiles are completed, a message box will appear. Click OK to view the log file in your web browser. The log will show start and end times, the number of programs compiled, the name of each program, and any error or warning messages issued by the compiler.

Return to Help Index