How Vision Generates Code
Vision creates the source code, help files, and forms for the Append, Browse, Menu, and Update frames in your application.
Vision combines your visual queries and other frame definition specifications with a set of frame templates and standard help files.
Vision generates 4GL source code and forms when you create a frame, and regenerates the code and forms as necessary as you build your application. For details on when code is regenerated, see
Regeneration of Source Code and Forms.
The Vision code generator creates:
• A source code file for each frame
The code generator creates this file by combining a generic template for a frame type with information about a specific frame of that type. You provide this information through the visual query and other frame definition specifications.
• A copy of a standard user help file for each frame, based on the frame's type
• A form for each generated frame.
Vision determines the fields for the form based on the visual query and application flow diagram. Vision modifies the form when these specifications change.
The output from these components is processed through the 4GL compiler and interpreter, as with any 4GL application.
The generated 4GL code is contained in an ".osq" file that generally has the same name as the frame. This file is stored in the application source directory.
VMS: After the code has been generated successfully, Vision purges all but the three latest copies of the ".osq" file.
After the application is compiled, the frames and forms that you created through Vision are stored as database objects in the appropriate catalogs.
Ingres treats these objects the same as any other database objects, such as reports or join definitions, that you have used with frames for which Vision did not generate the 4GL code.