What it does

FineLine Reface enables you to create true graphical Windows versions of your UNIX / Linux character application's screens so users can access your legacy application through familiar, user-friendly and mouse-driven Windows - while still processing and saving the data in the same centralized, reliable UNIX-based application - without re-programming!

How it works

Two programs are required to reface an application:

FineLine Reface is a graphical development tool that enables you to create custom MS Windows forms to replace each "screen" in your character-based legacy application running on UNIX / Linux.  At any point you can "compile" the screen information created with FineLine Reface into a single file used by FineLine Review to reface the application in real-time.

FineLine Review is a special terminal emulator / screen generator that is run by the end-user to access the refaced application using the information created with FineLine Reface.  This can be considered the "runtime" side of this software solution versus the FineLine Reface "development" side.

For application developers:

• Reface provides a modern user interface to your UNIX / Linux character-based software so you can display your application proudly at trade shows without having confused prospective customers think it is DOS.  Now you can focus on explaining the benefits of your application rather than having to convince them how your "old" system is better than your competitors' newer, prettier Windows systems that offer less functionality.  Simply put, in the mind of the consumer: 
  NEW=Up-to-date,  OLD=Out-of-date  
  Reface helps you to quickly become part of the "new" crowd.
  
  
• Reface enables you to avoid the enormous, time-consuming and extremely expensive task of trying to duplicate all of your software's functionality through re-coding your application in the single-user graphical environment of Windows.  Now you can just focus on improving the interface, not rewriting the entire application's logic.  Offer a Windows-style application in months, not years.
  
  

For end-users and developers:

• Reface enables you to provide a modern interface while continuing to use the same centralized application with all of its historical data instead of having to switch to a new Windows-based application which requires either massive data conversion or no / limited access to data history.
  
  
• Reface provides a faster learning curve for new employees since they can focus on the application functionality instead of learning how to work the old keyboard-based interface.
  
  
• Reface provides distributed computing because the interface is handled by each individual PC while the database stays centralized on a reliable UNIX / Linux server with no additional burden.
  
  
• Reface enables you to add features not available to standard legacy applications:  display dynamic images tied to changing data, access electronic documents with a click (ex: Word, CAD, PDF), open centralized files on the PC, and more.

Not a "screen-scraper"

Reface is not a screen-scraping tool like MultiView, AniTa, etc.  Simply take a moment to compare the resulting screens to see the world of difference. These "screen-scraper" emulator / conversion programs generate variations of a "graphical-looking" DOS-like interface with some color, basic buttons and maybe a few graphics.  With them, you're essentially going from a late-70s look to a late-80s (maybe early-90s) look. Today's savvy computer users are completely familiar with how modern software looks and works and a screen-scraped application is not a professional solution.

FineLine Reface takes a completely different approach from screen-scraping because it allows you to create real Windows screens that relate to the character screen but don't have to mimic its limited layout. In other words, since you control exactly how the screen looks, with FineLine Reface you can create a graphical interface that rivals the look and feel of current Windows software from huge development companies like Microsoft, Oracle, etc.  No conversion program will ever be able to accomplish this.

Also

FineLine Reface works with any standard UNIX application, unlike some products that support only a single specific database application.  

FineLine Reface is a feature-rich, professional-grade application that is completely self-contained and all-inclusive so it doesn't require products by other companies to create screens or a separate emulator package to access the native character database.

Since every keystroke is sent to the application in the same way as a traditional terminal emulator, the PC interface will not slow down keyboard users familiar with the application.  

Since its design is based on reacting to the character software interface rather than "pushing" control information from the application, no programming changes are required in the server application.

With each individual PC performing the refacing, no processing burden is placed on the server.  

Since it is a software-only solution, Reface doesn't require purchasing any specialized hardware in order to access the graphical screens - only your UNIX/Linux server and regular networked PCs or thin-clients.

Also related to this topic, FineLine Reface/Review accesses the UNIX application like a regular terminal emulator over a standard telnet / SSH connection and does not require programming Web technology (ASP/PHP/AJAX) to interpret screen data for "off-line" web browser forms. Screens created by FineLine Reface react in real-time so everything your program does to the data is seen by the user as it happens, with no extra work required on the server by you.