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| Click the picture to see text and GUI versions of DP4. QAB is shown running on Linux and Windows. |
Applications using the text based version of DP4 (4.5xx) can make use of GUI elements such as window borders and title bars, buttons and checkboxes in the same way as GUI applications. If the system is subsequently converted to work with the GUI version of DP4 (4.6xx) the maps will automatically be converted to GUI format, and will look perfectly respectable.
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| Click the picture to see text and GUI versions of DP4. QAB is shown running on Linux and Windows. |
Unfortunately there is currently no facility for conversion in the opposite direction. However it is perfectly possible to create a set of 4.5xx maps if a GUI application is required to be ported back to a text based platform. Where it is known in advance that both will be required it may be best to rely on the automatic conversion forward, and to use the Map Editor to make any desired enhancements. This is the method adopted for maintaining the 4.5xx and 4.6xx DP4 system databases in parallel.
The text based version of DP4 is available on all supported platforms (it is sometimes useful on Windows platforms as it allows you to run DP4 programs using TelNet). The 4.6xx version is currently only available on Windows platforms. However some GUI features are available even in 4.5xx versions on some platforms, as detailed here.
