Hi, Jerry,
You could write that "APIOPTIONS" program in ILE CL or ILE RPG IV, and create it with ACTGRP(*NEW), and that would permit it to be called "recursively." However, I would argue that this may not be the best approach for this problem.
Consider adding "F23=More keys" to all of those screens, to allow the users to rotate through all of the various F-keys available, similar to what you see in PDM, etc. This also affords you more "room" to use longer more descriptive names for each F-key. And, the users can just press F23 until they see the one they want, and then press that key to go directly where they need to go.
I hope that helps,
Mark S. Waterbury
On Friday, August 9, 2019, 11:50:38 AM EDT, Jerry Forss <JForss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Disclaimer... I inherited this mess.
There are bunch of screens in separate programs that are full of function keys.
The function keys are sometimes the same, some are the same but different function and yet others that the Fkey exists only on 1 screen. I am talking about maybe 20 screens in 15 pgms.
Because of the limited space on screens the descriptions of the Fkeys are very short. F5=Hst, F6=Cmt.
The users have to know that they need to get to screen 4 (pgm A) to use this FKey and screen 6 (pgm G) to use that FKey. They are CONSTANTLY screen hopping to get to where they want to be.
I am trying convince them I would like to make a standard Fkey (F10) that will call APIOPTIONS that brings up a list that calls the required pgms. That way I can also add security they selected users can only see selected options. I can also display long descriptions of what the options are.
I want to then remove all the fkeys from all the screens replacing with F10 that calls APIOPTIONS.
Now the problem is that by doing this recursive calls can happen when pgm A calls APIOPTIONS. They select opt to display comments. They press F10 that calls APIOPTIONS again because they want to display history.
Pgm will throw recursive call.
I think in Cobol it allows this.
Is there some secret voodoo that I can do that will allow me (in a controlled fashion) to do recursive calls.
Realistically they would only go maybe 5 deep. I could control by having 5 versions of the APIOPTIONS and know which to call but would rather not.
Jerry Forss
Information Technology Team
WalzCraft
608-781-6355 EXT 2530
jforss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
midrange.com
