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5250 Mouse Support 101There are 2 levels of 5250 mouse support: Simple Hotspots and Programmable Mouse Buttons.
Simple Hotspots is, as the name implies, SIMPLE. Clicking on an SAA-CUA-compliant (Systems Application Architecture; Common User Access) function key label (or, depending on the enhancement level, a "More" or "Bottom" message, the word "Enter,") will generate the appropriate AID ("Attention-ID") keystroke. Depending on the enhancement level, clicking on a CUA-compliant selection column value label may also enter the value at the current cursor position, and clicking on a CUA-compliant menu item may enter the menu item number at the current cursor position and generate an "Enter" AID.
Clicking anywhere else moves the cursor to the mouse pointer position; double clicking anywhere else moves the cursor and generates an "Enter."
All this happens, to the extent that it happens at all, without the need for any special coding on the host side. In the case of a real terminal, it must be an InfoWindow II (or clone thereof), plugged into an enhanced Twinax controller.
Programmable Mouse Buttons (PMB) is a 5250 "structured field" that is sent to the terminal to implement "MOUBTN" in a display file. Provided that the terminal/controller combination (or the TN5250 client or other emulator) can accept it. It reassigns the semantics of various mouse gestures, causing them to generate (in its simplest form) AID keystrokes.
I looked into including PMB support in the emulator we supply as part of our ThinView and Wintouch products (and may someday supply as a standalone product). But so far, there's been no demand; neither do I have the time, nor a sufficiently comprehensive PMB-enabled application to test it with, so (along with WP mode, which is virtually extinct), it ain't happening anytime soon. Since I believe MochaSoft may have some of the same roots as our emulator, I'd have been shocked if it did have PMB support.
Even without PMB support, you can do a lot with mouse buttons. For example, our QuestView product is set up so that if you place the cursor on a menu header in the action bar, and issue an "Enter" AID, the menu will open. Thus, double-clicking on a menu will also open it. And the menus themselves are set to fire from an "Enter" with the cursor on the item, so even if your terminal or emulator won't specifically recognize a single-click on a CUA-compliant menu item, QuestView will recognize a double-click on it.
Class dismissed. -- JHHL
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