Introducing the Applications Development Environment

What Is SAS/AF Software?

SAS/AF software provides a set of application development tools to help you create customized applications. With an interactive development environment and a rich set of object-oriented classes, you can rapidly develop and deploy portable applications that take advantage of other SAS software products.

The SAS/AF development environment enables you to take advantage of features that are offered by graphics display devices and to develop graphical user interfaces with a visual, frame-based approach. See About the SAS/AF Development Environment for more information.

The built-in functionality of SAS/AF components is extended through SAS Component Language (SCL) programs. You can write object-oriented SCL programs for your applications, or use SCL to implement methods for your components.

Because SAS/AF applications are stored in SAS catalogs, they remain portable to all SAS software platforms. If your site primarily uses a mainframe, you can develop frame-based applications on a PC running in the Windows environment and then port the application to your mainframe. Users who run GUI applications on character-based display devices will see widgets represented as characters that are familiar to that particular host environment.

Product Requirements

This section describes the hardware and SAS software that are required for developing applications in the SAS/AF applications development environment.

The graphical nature of frame-based applications requires a vector graphics display device (one capable of displaying the Graphics Editor in SAS/GRAPH output) in order to use the SAS/AF development environment.

You can run frame-based applications on nongraphics devices. However, any graphics objects in the frame will not be displayed, except for control objects (which are displayed as question marks (?) by default). Text-based frames are those that do not use SAS/GRAPH output, SAS/GRAPH fonts, graphics control boxes, or special region outlining and titles.

Note: The information included here was accurate at the time this book was printed. For detailed requirements and the most current information, see the system requirements sheet that is shipped with SAS/AF software. [cautionend]

SAS Software Requirements for Building and Running FRAME Entries

In order to create and run applications in FRAME entries, you need the following SAS software products:

Base SAS software
SAS/AF software (required only for creating Frame applications; not required for running Frame applications)
SAS/GRAPH software (required for creating or displaying graphics objects or images, for using SAS/GRAPH fonts, and for printing some frame objects).

Mainframe Support Issues

SAS/AF software does not support a build-time environment for FRAME entries on a mainframe. Mainframe SAS/AF developers can create and modify SCL programs as well as build PROGRAM entries and full-screen applications.

However, frame-based applications developed in desktop environments such as Windows can be ported and run on any platform that SAS software supports. See Porting Your Application to Different Operating Environments for more information. In addition, you can refer to "SAS/AF Component Reference" in the online Help for more information about the behavior of classes in specific host environments.

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