SOM:About This Book

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Note: This chapter is shared between two books "System Object Model Programming Guide" and "System Object Model Programming Reference".

About This Book
Before you begin to use this information, it would be helpful to understand how to navigate through it. You can use the Table of Contents and Index facility to locate topics and the Search facility to search the text of this document. You can use hypertext links to acquire related information on the current topic. Hypertext links appear in a different color. For example, here is a link to another panel: Communicating Your Comments to IBM. By double-clicking on the text of the link or by pressing Enter on a highlighted link, you will open a panel of related information. When you open a panel, the first link has the focus; to shift the focus to other links, use the Tab key.

You should also understand:
 * How to Use the Contents
 * How to Obtain Additional Information
 * How to Use Menu Bar Choices
 * How to Cut and Paste Examples

Notices
(C) Copyright International Business Machines Corporation, 1995, 1996. All rights reserved.

Note to U.S. Government Users - Documentation related to restricted rights - Use, duplication, or disclosure is subject to restrictions set forth in GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.

This edition applies to Version 3.5 of IBM VisualAge for C++ for Windows (33H4979, 33H4980) and to all subsequent releases and modifications until otherwise indicated in new editions. Make sure you are using the correct edition for the level of the product.

This publication could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Changes are periodically made to the information herein; any such changes will be reported in subsequent revisions.

Requests for publications and for technical information about IBM products should be made to your IBM Authorized Dealer or your IBM Marketing Representative.

When you send information to IBM, you grant IBM a nonexclusive right to use or distribute the information in any ways it believes appropriate without incurring any obligation to you.

Any reference to an IBM licensed program in this publication is not intended to state or imply that only IBM's licensed program may be used. Any functionally equivalent product, program, or service that does not infringe any of IBM's intellectual property rights may be used instead of the IBM product, program, or service. Evaluation and verification of operation in conjunction with other products, except those expressly designated by IBM, is the user's responsibility.

IBM may have patents or pending patent applications covering subject matter in this document. The furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents. You can send license inquiries, in writing, to the IBM Director of Licensing, IBM Corporation, 500 Columbus Avenue, Thornwood, NY, 10594, USA.

Licensees of this program who wish to have information about it for the purpose of enabling: (i) the exchange of information between independent created programs and other programs (including this one) and (ii) the mutual use of the information which has been exchanged, should contact IBM Canada Ltd., Department 071, 1150 Eglinton Avenue East, North York, Ontario M3C 1H7, Canada. Such information may be available, subject to appropriate terms and conditions, including in some cases payment of a fee.

This publication contains examples of data and reports used in daily business operations. To illustrate them as completely as possible, the examples include the names of individuals, companies, brands, and products. All of these names are fictitious and any similarity to the names and addresses used by an actual business enterprise is entirely coincidental.

Trademarks and Service Marks
The following terms used in this publication are trademarks or service marks of IBM Corporation in the United States or other countries:
 * AIX
 * IBM
 * IBMLink
 * OS/2
 * SOMobjects
 * System Object Model
 * VisualAge

Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

Other company, product, and service names, which may be denoted by a double asterisk(**), may be trademarks or service marks of others.

IBM's VisualAge products and services are not associated with or sponsored by Visual Edge Software, Ltd..

How to Use the Contents
When the Contents window first appears, some topics have a plus (+) sign beside them. The plus sign indicates that additional topics are available.

To expand the Contents if you are using a mouse, click on the plus sign. If you are using the keyboard, use the Up or Down Arrow key to highlight the topic, and press the Plus (+) key. For example, How to Use the Contents has a plus sign beside it. To see additional topics for that heading, click on the plus sign or highlight that topic and press the Plus (+) key.

To view a topic, double-click on the topic (or press the Up or Down Arrow key to highlight the topic, and then press the Enter key).

How to Obtain Additional Information
After you select a topic, the information for that topic appears in a window. Highlighted words or phrases indicate that additional information is available. Certain words and phrases are highlighted in a different color from the surrounding text. These are called hypertext terms.

If you are using a mouse, double-click on the highlighted word. If you are using a keyboard, press the Tab key to move to the highlighted word, and then press the Enter key. Additional information then appears in a window.

How to Use Menu Bar Choices
Several choices are available for managing the information presented in this document. There are three choices on the menu bar: the Services menu, the Options menu, and the Help menu.

Use the Services menu to operate the active window currently displayed on the screen. Available actions include the following:
 * Placing Bookmarks
 * You can set a placeholder so you can retrieve information of interest to you.
 * Searching for Information
 * You can find occurrences of a word or phrase in the current topic, selected topics, or all topics.
 * Printing Information
 * You can print one or more topics. You can also print a set of topics by first marking the topics in the Contents list.
 * Copying Information to a File
 * You can copy a topic that you are viewing to the System Clipboard or to a file that you can edit. This method is particularly useful for copying syntax definitions and program samples into the application that you are developing.

Select actions from the Options menu, to change the way your Contents list is displayed. To expand the Contents and show all levels for all topics, choose Expand all from the Options pull-down. You can also press the Ctrl, Shift, and * keys together.

You can select various types of help information from the Help menu.

For information about any of the menu choices, highlight the choice in the menu and press F1.

Placing Bookmarks
When you place a bookmark on a topic, it is added to a list of bookmarks you have previously set. You can view the list, and you can remove one or all bookmarks from the list. If you have not set any bookmarks, the list is empty.

To set a bookmark, do the following:
 * Select a topic from the Contents.
 * When that topic appears, select the Bookmark option from the Services menu.
 * If you want to change the name used for the bookmark, type the new name in the field.
 * Click on the Place radio button (or press the Up or Down Arrow key to select it).
 * Click on OK (or select it and press Enter). The bookmark is then added to the bookmark list.

Searching for Information
You can specify a word or phrase to be searched. You can also limit the search to a set of topics by first marking the topics in the Contents list.

To search for a word or phrase in all topics, do the following:
 * Select the Search option from the Services menu.
 * Type the word or words to be searched for.
 * Click on All sections (or press the Up or Down Arrow keys to select it).
 * Click on Search (or select it and press Enter) to begin the search.
 * The list of topics where the word or phrase appears is displayed.

Printing Information
You can print one or more topics, the index, or the table of contents. Make sure that your printer is connected to the serial port, configured correctly, and ready for input. To print:
 * Select Print from the Services pull-down menu.
 * Select what you want to print. Note that the This section and Marked sections choices are only available if you are viewing a topic or if you have marked topics, respectively. To mark topics in the table of contents, press the Ctrl key and click on the topics, or use the arrow keys.
 * Select Print to print what you've chosen.

Copying Information to a File
You can copy a topic that you are viewing in two ways:
 * Copy copies the topic that you are viewing into the System Clipboard.
 * Copy to file copies the topic that you are viewing into a temporary file named text.tmp. You can later edit that file by using any editor. The text.tmp file is placed in the directory where your viewable document resides. This copy function does not apply if you are viewing the document from the CD-ROM.

To copy a topic, do the following:
 * 1) Expand the Contents list and select a topic.
 * 2) When the topic appears, select Copy to file from the Services menu.
 * 3) The system puts the text pertaining to that topic into the temporary file text.tmp.

How to Cut and Paste Examples
You can copy examples (or information) from this reference/guide/book to compile, link, and run them, or to paste them into your own code.

To copy an example or information:
 * Make the topic you want to copy the active window.
 * From the Services menu, select Copy to file. The text in that topic is placed in the temporary file text.tmp, in the same directory as this reference. This copy function does not apply if you are viewing the document from the CD-ROM.
 * You can then modify or use text.tmp as you want.

Note: Because the system copies the entire contents of the topic to the file, you may need to edit it to remove additional text. Most examples in this reference are ready to compile, link, and run as they appear, and do not require any editing.

Other Information You Might Find Helpful
This product provides a number of online guides and references that we hope you'll find helpful as you develop applications. This information includes User's Guides, References, and How Do I help that gives you specific instructions for performing common tasks. You can get to this online information from the Information folder inside the main product folder. You can also get to it from the Help menu in any of the components of the product.

Communicating Your Comments to IBM
If there is something you like, or dislike, about this book, please let us know. You can use one of the methods listed below to send your comments to IBM. Please be sure to include the complete title of the publication that you are commenting on.

The comments you send should only pertain to the information in this document and its presentation. To request additional publications or to ask questions or make comments about the functions of IBM products or systems, you should talk to your IBM representative or your authorized IBM remarketer.

When you send comments to IBM, you grant IBM a nonexclusive right to use or distribute your comments in any way it believes appropriate without incurring any obligation to you.

You can send your comments to IBM in the following ways:

By mail to the following address:
 * IBM Canada Ltd. Laboratory
 * Information Development
 * 2G/345/1150/TOR
 * 1150 EGLINTON AVENUE EAST
 * NORTH YORK, ONTARIO
 * CANADA M3C 1H7

By FAX to the following number:
 * United States and Canada: (416) 448-6161
 * Other countries (+1) 416-448-6161

By electronic mail to one of the following IDs. Be sure to include your entire network address if you wish to get a reply.
 * Internet: torrcf@vnet.ibm.com
 * IBMLink: toribm(torrcf)
 * IBM/PROFS: torolab4(torrcf)
 * IBMMAIL: ibmmail(caibmwt9)