CONTENTS Title Page Copyright Page Preface Acknowledgment 1 Introducing DASL Applications Overview of DASL Applications Using the MUMPS Database Looking at Application Screens Using DASL Facilities 2 Getting Started Video Display Terminal Display Screen Terminal Keyboard Main Keypad Auxiliary Keypad Editing Keypad Top-Row Function Keypad Prestart Checklist Logging In to Your DASL Application Logging Out of Your DASL Application 3 Using Menus and Screens Selecting Options from Menus Using Help Completing Data Screens Entering Names Entering Dates Entering Times Using Lookup Screens Interpreting Error Messages Responding to Decision Prompts Calling Up Existing Records Editing Fields in Data Screens Entering Data into Scroll Regions Editing Data in Scroll Regions Moving the Cursor Deleting and Inserting Lines Using the Field Editor Exiting from Scroll Regions Moving from Screen to Screen Understanding Screen Timeouts Printing Reports 4 Creating User Commands Overview of Commands and Command Definition Creating User Commands 5 Using the Message Center Overview of the Message Center Reading System Messages Using the Message Center Using the Send Messages Option Using the Read Messages Option Reading User Messages Answering User Messages Forwarding User Messages Deleting User Messages Printing User Messages Listing User Messages Continuing to Read User Messages Quitting the Read Messages Screen 6 Using the Report Directory Overview of the Report Directory Sending a Report or Query to the Report Directory 7 Using the Query Database Menu What is a Relational Database? Database Model Types of Tables What is a Query? Selecting Columns for the Result Table Using Value Expressions in the SELECT Clause Selecting All Columns of a Table Selecting ALL or DISTINCT Rows Using Query Driver Functions with SELECT Specifying Tables and Columns from the Base Tables Retrieving Rows That Satisfy Conditions Using Predicates in the WHERE Clause Using the NOT Operator Establishing Relationships Between Tables Retrieving Rows in Grouped Order Using the GROUP BY Clause to Order Rows Using the GROUP BY Clause with Functions Using a HAVING Clause Overview of the Query Database Menu Viewing Database Tables Looking at the Schema Diagram Looking at Table Definitions Defining Queries Using the Define Query Screen Running Queries Printing Query Definitions Glossary EXAMPLES 7-1 Print Table Overview Report 7-2 Sample Query Definitions Report FIGURES 2-1 VT220 Keyboard 2-2 VT220 Terminal, Front View 2-3 VT220 Terminal, Rear View 2-4 Login Screen 3-1 Demonstration System Main Menu 3-2 Data Screen 3-3 DASL Lookup Screen 3-4 Device Selection Screen 4-1 DASL Command Definition Screen 5-1 Send Messages Screen 6-1 Report Directory Screen 7-1 Orders Table 7-2 Book Ordering Database 7-3 Base Tables for Book Ordering Database 7-4 Syntax of the SELECT Statement 7-5 Query Database Screen 7-6 Define Query Screen TABLES 2-1 Main Keypad Function Keys 2-2 Editing Keypad Keys 2-3 Special Function Keys 3-1 DASL Date Formats 3-2 DASL Time Formats 3-3 Field-Editing Function Keys 3-4 Scroll Region Editing Keys 6-1 Report Directory Information 7-1 Query Driver Functions 7-2 Types of Predicates 7-3 Query Driver Options and Functions 7-4 Information for Defining Queries