Re: Field + and Field - keyboard mapping

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Hi Scott

Thanks for your quick and clear reply.

My question on the other hand obviously stunk :-)

To restate:
I'd like to get tn5250, running in a linux console (control-alt-F1 thru 6 typically),
to make the numeric keypad + and - keys to always act as field+ and field-
The normal top row +/= and _/- keys are fine as they are.

I'd also like Shift + Tab to work as backtab.

What I call xt5250 (which I guess is just a shell around tn5250) running on the same machine under X does this already.
In the console however they seem to be field+ and field- only on a numeric only field, and they revert to + and - when it's a text entry area.

I'm not familiar with the AS/400 or other term emulation packages, but the trainer that was here indicated that her Windows machine had the numeric pad + and - mapped to always be field+ and field-, and after using their software for a bit I can see where it would certainly save a lot of keystrokes in our case.

I'd prefer to keep using the linux console rather than force everyone to use X.
We are running older computers, with staff that like 80x25 FULL SCREEN
(or is that older staff, with computers that prefer 80x25? Never mind....)

So, can I make tn5250 mimic xt5250?

Brian


On 25-Feb-08, at 3:18 PM, Scott Klement wrote:

The + and - keys that are above the alphabetic keys on my keyboard will
only act as field+ and field- in a signed numeric field. If they didn't
do that, you wouldn't be able to ever type + or -.

However, the + and - keys that are on the numeric keypad on the
right-hand side of my keyboard always function as field- and field +, no
matter what sort of field I'm in.

For example, let's say you're an RPG programmer trying to key the
following in:

EVAL X = Y + 5

If the + key always acted as field+, when you hit the + (after the Y)
it'd clear the rest of the line and put the cursor on the next line.
That's not what you want!!

Note that most emulation software I've used (such as iSeries Access or
Rumba) never treats these keys as field+ or field- -- but we thought it
would be helpful, especially on a laptop where you might not have a
numeric keypad.

Having said all of this -- there are many, many ways to set up the
keyboard, so just because mine works this way doesn't mean that yours
will. Since I don't even know what platform you're running (Linux,
Unix, Mac, Windows?) or which of the terminals you're using (console,
xterm, gtk, x5250, win32) it's very hard to know how your environment is
set up relative to mine.


Brian McKee wrote:

man tn5250 says that
'+ and - only work as Field+ and Field- in signed numeric fields'

Is that a design choice or a bug? In other words - can I change it
so that they work as Field+ and Field- all the time?

And do you have any suggestions how to get back-tab to be shift+tab?

If I can get those two nailed I'll be able to roll this out to about
50 users....

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