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The legacy Pascal based DCAL was standalone but I believe the purpose for developing DCAL for Delphi and DCAL for C++ was to orphan the legacy pascal based DCAL. I don't anticipate them providing any further updates for the legacy compiler.

You are correct that the legacy DCAL is still provided and supported. I would expect that the macros and the old compiler will still be around for quite some time. If your interest is in documentation, there is a decent manual available from DataCAD. Not much has changed in the 13 +/- years since I got my copy.

Are you looking for the steps required to compile the "Hello World" macro?


I am assuming hello_world.dcs to be the name of your macro. Also note the ";" at the end of the dcl line.

As I recall if your macro is complex you may need to use the following instead:

This was related to memory limitation issues I think.

Pietro:

You may want to refer to the DCAL Tutorial here.

FWIW,

MFM

Hi Mark,

I've checked the tutorial and couldn't find a mention for the DCAL for Delphi, C++ and most recent improvements.

If someone is interested to learn DCAL to develop macros, what would be the direction of his first sight ?

A steps guide to oneself's introduction into an increasing learning on DCAL universe, and an explanatory approach for current limitations in the language (notedly single and double precision), would worth a lot as well.

Thanks,
Miguel

There are several items to note in order to get the macro to work.

First the macro itself:
The wrterr command is an external call from the wrtutl macro so you must add an include.


Second the external included macro:
The wrtutl.inc has an associated wrtutl.dcs required that does not come compiled with DataCAD. You must first compile this to get the required wrtutl.dco.

Third the compilation:
You must now compile and link the test.dcs with the wrtutl.dco


For simplicity sake I usually move all of the files to a single folder and eliminate pathing issues. If you want to have a permanent sub-folder structure you will need to mind the pathing closely.

StudioPM wrote: -- I'm simply trying to verify whether DCAL Standalone can work with DataCAD ver. 12, or if such an aim is a sheer waist of time.

All/most of the old macros still function with DC12 just as they did with V11. You can still write macros in the old format limited only by the current entity support. As I understand it, newer entity types are not supported.

In my opinion, if you don't already know the classic DCAL language, and without some commitment from DataCAD LLC to extend its functionality to support new entity types, I would say that learning it would be a questionable use of time. You would be better served learning the Delphi or C++ DCAL.

StudioPM wrote: -- I'd like to get some actual declaration such as:
“My name is Such and Such, and I'm positively using DCAL Standalone with current DataCAD ver. 12, operating this way:
- Step 1
- Step 2
- ...
- Step N”

My name is Jon, and I'm positively using DCAL Standalone with current DataCAD ver. 12, operating as indicated in my prior post. As I said before, I dump all of my files, macro, compiler, includes, etc. in a single folder for best results when compiling. I find that when I place the files in sub-categories that the DCC.exe fails and I must use DCC1, DCC2 as separate steps for the compilation to work.

StudioPM wrote: -- It's incredibly sad that, according to your opinion, this very first "Test.dcs" example offered by the “DCAL Tutorial” is such a mess. Instead of making it more complex, inserting the “#include” as you had suggested, I've simplified it, by erasing the offending “wrterr” statement. Well: nothing changed, the problem must lie somewhere else.

If you wish to continue to pursue this please post specifics on the error you are getting.

StudioPM wrote: -<!>- I repeat:
I'd like to simply get a working example of DCAL Standalone as simple as possible, the simplest one could imagine. But working with DataCAD ver. 12. An impossible task?

Not impossible but also not as easy as it could be. The compiler was written for DOS and has not been updated to address a windows environment. Your code with my correction does work with DC12 but you must get the compilation process to work which is likely a problem with pathing. Try using the single folder approach or compiling with DCC1, DCC2 and see if that works for you.

There is a manual for the old Dcal on the datacad website navigate to the ddn network and down load David Hendersons Word version.

The old legacy dcal has the advantage that settings for defined elements are remembered in the drawing (line color, variables etc). That is you do not need to write and read a file every tie the macro is loaded.

Rod Walker