Re: Making a New CMD using IBM cmds

Pat

Do you need this at a command line, for the user to enter? That's one
thing. If you can put it on a menu, that's another. For the latter, you
could use prompt control and have only the items you want be displayed.
Things like ?? and ?< and stuff can control this. Here is the help you
see when you press F13 after prompting a command (a ? before the command
name is the same as prompting with F4) -

Selective Prompting

When you use the Source Entry Utility (SEU) to enter source for a
CL program, you can control which commands in that program are prompted
when the CL program is run and how the parameters for those commands are
displayed. You do this by entering one of the following sets of
characters (followed by a blank) in the first positions of the entry
field for a parameter.

Characters Description

?? Display the parameter and allow entries.

?* Display the parameter, but do not allow entries.

?/ Display the parameter, but do not allow entries. Use
the default value.

?< Display the parameter and allow entries. Use the
default value unless a value is entered.

?- Do not display this parameter. This parameter will
not be shown when F9=All parameters is pressed.

?& Display the parameter only after F9 is pressed and
allow entries. Use the default value unless a value is entered.

?% Display the parameter only after F9 is pressed, but do
not allow entries. Use the default value.

In non-execute mode, when the prompt is displayed in keyword
format, the selective prompt characters for each parameter are shown
after the keyword. (Using SEU is an example of being in a non-execute
mode.) To remove selective prompt characters previously entered for a
parameter, enter -? .

If you need a command to be entered by a user, you have to create source
and compile it, naming a program that will execute the IBM command. You
will need to figure out what the size and data types are of the IBM
command - sometimes easy, sometimes not. There's an API for that, but
you might just be able to look at the prompt and figure it out.

The CL Programming guide at each release has all you need for creating
commands, among other things.