[Oberon] Gadgets with long strings

[John Stout]

Background

I am working on a number of ODBC extensions which are modelled on the idea
of the Visual Basic DataEnvironment, which contains DataConnections (which
connect to a particular database) which in turn contain DataCommands which
link to a particular database table or query. Our sixth form students
currently use VB for their coursework and I think I can only get Oberon
accepted as an alternative if I can duplicate VB's ease of use with
databases.

I have the DataEnvironment, DataConnection and DataCommand working, and have
implemented DataTextField and DataCaption gadgets which are like a normal
TextField and Caption gadgets but have a string attribute expressed as
connectionName.commandName.fieldName, e.g.
PublicData.Attendance.Description. When the cursor held by a DataCommand
alters position it broadcasts an update message to all gadgets with the
value of connectionName.commandName, e.g. PublicData.Attendance, and the
Data* gadgets can then retrieve and display the current field value.

Question

I would like to implement a model gadget for the connection/command, which
could then be attached to a panel document and automatically connect to the
ODBC source and open a cursor on the specified command, but the Gadgets
system uses strings which are 64 (63 plus terminator) long, which is not
long enough for arbitrary SQL statements. Does anyone have any suggestions
as to how I can implement this? 

I wonder if I should be using proper OBJECTs instead (I'm intending this for
use with WinAos) but can't see how to integrate these with the Gadgets
system. I haven’t done any programming under Aos/WinAos but if this is a
solution then I'd consider it.

John Stout

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