News
ICOM Informatics Offers Terminal Emulation to HTML Conversion Software
- By Scott Bekker
- 01/04/2000
One of the most common complaints about host-based applications is the terminal emulation screen, known as the "green screen." With its new Winsurf Internet Development (WID) tool, integrated with its Winsurf Mainframe Access solution, ICOM Informatics (
www.icominfo.com) has addressed this issue with an application that converts terminal emulation screens to HTML screens operable on a Web browser.
WID enables access to host-based applications through Web browsers either as the server-based engine for automatic conversion of host data streams to HTML or as a set of tools for the development of custom front ends to traditional mainframe applications.
HTML conversion of terminal emulation screens provides a solution to central host access for external users. From an application server, WID automatically converts the host data screens into HTML pages, which are interpreted by the browser at the user's workstation. No modules are downloaded to the client workstation. Automatic HTML conversion enables Web-to-host connection to a browser-enabled device.
WID consists of several small ActiveX objects based on Microsoft's COM architecture. These components can be used in many languages to build graphical front ends from host-based, green screen data.
Because the HTML conversion application is already part of the WID environment, no work is required on the part of the administrator or user to convert the host data stream to HTML. The screen rejuvenation tools built into WID enable the administrator or developer to create custom screens providing access to multiple data sources concurrently. The WID tools used for application rejuvenation are ActiveX components that are customized by scripting languages and tools such as C++, Java, JavaScript, and others.
WID allows user access to data from several applications or different hosts. Such data can be accessed concurrently through screen rejuvenation, which is transparent to the user. -- Isaac Slepner
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.