RE: Special characters -- RPG400-L

I Like

-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Booth Martin
Sent: Monday, July 01, 2013 4:52 PM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries)
Subject: Re: Special characters

The newer GUI solutions certainly have a lot of curb appeal but not everyone is going there, at least not right now.

There seems to be a large gap between what we do for 5250 users and what we /can/ do for 5250 users.

So, I have been trying to make sure that I am aware of the 5250's enhanced features, and evaluate them to see if they are intuitive enough to be put in front of users. Check boxes, radio buttons, scroll bars, and drop down boxes seem, to me at least, to be a game worth the candle.
Menu bars and push buttons, not so much.

Which brought me to the question of special characters. I am using "(F4)" to mark a field as having a dropdown box available. I was thinking that a special character might be a better signal, and use less real estate. The edit --> preferences --> keyboard special characters shows a down arrow and I was trying to figure out how to use that.

On 7/1/2013 5:33 PM, Vern Hamberg wrote:

It can also be kind of fun to use a macro like I just wrote that can enter a 3A on a command line, then type some more stuff, then press Enter - you get everything in blue.

You probably don't want to use 27 or 37! The 7 nybble is what makes it non-display. Actually those aren't destructive, just can be a little surprising.

Vern

----- Original Message -----
Be aware that, as pointed out above, some of those codes < x'40' are
treated as 51250 data-stream control codes. Including them in your
screens can cause the application to crash.

If you want to try it out (of course you do!), try displaying x'1D' -
use a hex editor to add it to e.g. a record in a source file and then use SEU...
Don't say I didn't warn you...

For those interested, here is the 5250 data stream definition:
http://publibfp.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/CO2E2001/CCONTENTS#15.0.
x'1D' is a Start_Of_Field order in the Write To Display command, and
is pretty much guaranteed to cause problems if it's not where it's
supposed to be in the data-stream.

Rory

On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 3:08 PM, Vern Hamberg <vhamberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

I have a macro that lets me enter any value from x40 - xFE (64 - 254)
and it will put that character where the cursor is. I purposely
limited the range - did it with the VBA way of writing a macro, as I recall.

Another way to get a macro to do any byte is to use the APL macro
statement - there's also an ANSI macro for, you guessed it, ASCII - I
use it to enter display control bytes.

I just made a modification of my "hex" macro using the apl macro - it
seemed to render normal EBCDIC. Now I did see that there's an APL
keyboard mode.

----- Original Message -----
Which special character(s)? I just tried it in my session -- I
assigned the "copyright" symbol to Alt-P, and it worked like a charm.
You can also do it with macros -- I've done that with the "degrees" symbol.

"RPG programming on the IBM i \(AS/400 and iSeries\)" <
rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

If I look at an EBCDIC Character Set chart I see non-keyboard
characters. Is there a way to display those characters on a 5250 green
screen? I opened the 5250 Edit --> Preferences --> keyboard item and
it shows some of the characters, and allows them to be assigned to a
key stroke, but , at least for me, it does not appear on the screen
when typed. However something does happen because when I close the
member, it warns me that there is an invalid character.

--
Booth Martin
802-461-5349
http://www.martinvt.com

Mike Naughton
Senior Programmer/Analyst
Judd Wire, Inc.
124 Turnpike Road
Turners Falls, MA 01376
413-676-3144
Internal: x 444
mnaughton@xxxxxxxxxxxx
****************************************
NOTICE: This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are
confidential and solely for the use of the intended recipient. If you
are not the intended recipient or the person responsible for
delivering to the intended recipient, be advised that any use is
strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error,
please notify us immediately by replying to it and then delete it
from your computer.

--
This is the RPG programming on the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries)
(RPG400-L) mailing list To post a message email:
RPG400-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list
options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/rpg400-l
or email: RPG400-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx Before posting, please take a
moment to review the archives at
http://archive.midrange.com/rpg400-l.

--
This is the RPG programming on the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries)
(RPG400-L) mailing list To post a message email:
RPG400-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list
options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/rpg400-l
or email: RPG400-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx Before posting, please take a
moment to review the archives at
http://archive.midrange.com/rpg400-l.

--
Booth Martin
802-461-5349
http://www.martinvt.com
--
This is the RPG programming on the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries) (RPG400-L) mailing list To post a message email: RPG400-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/rpg400-l
or email: RPG400-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives at http://archive.midrange.com/rpg400-l.